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MTN Cell/mobile phone reception is now available in certain parts of the Baviaanskloof, close to Studtis, Zaaymanshoek and the police station.
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Uniondale Tourism announced that you can now do the Toorwaterpoort hike which is now officially open to the public. Bookings at the Tourism Office, Uniondale.
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Lowlands Country House, Fish River (near Cradock) is hosting a Karoo birding course at from 4th to 6th May with highly competent and experienced guides Lynette Rudman and Jo Balmer.
This is an ideal weekend getaway with a spouse or friends learning more about our abundant bird life, enjoying the company of others with similar interests and savouring mouth watering Karoo farm food.
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SANBI’s BID has initiated a project to assess the invasiveness of these species and a management plan is in progress. Initial surveys conducted by the team have revealed new populations in the Eastern Cape.
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If you see these plant species, please report them to the SANBI’S BID. Please if possible provide us with a locality, pictures, and your contact details.
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Fly Karoo Air Services is Graaff Reinet’s first-ever helicopter charter service that focus mainly on scenic flights over popular sites. Charter flights to destinations like Port Elizabeth and game lodges are also an integral part of the vision for this service to Graaff Reinet and area.
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A new booklet ensures the sustainability of Cradock’s popular township tour. The full-colour publication with more than 50 photographs, ensures that accurate information about the route is permanently on-call 24/7 for visitors and amateur tour guides. (Specialist tour guides are thin on the ground in our country areas.) In addition to the route commentary, there are biographies of major figures and hitherto unpublished recollections of life in the township during the Apartheid era.
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Camdeboo National Park, bordering the town of Graaff-Reinet in the Eastern Cape, celebrated ten years under the management of SANParks on Friday 30 October.
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Did you know? Koukamma Tourism is the municipal tourism association that serves the Tsitsikamma and Langkloof regions. Recently, there has been quite a bit of conversation online about both the Tsitsikamma and Langkloof regions and this is due to a new social media and digital marketing campaign that Koukamma Tourism has embarked on in recent months.
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Join us on a journey through the Karoo Heartland with our Karoo Heartland Challenge, learn some new secrets of the Karoo, be inspired by the vast beauty of the area and win some super travel prizes. Week one of the Karoo Heartland Challenge.
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Is the Karoo in your heart? How well do you know the Karoo Heartland? We're into the 3rd week of the Karoo Heartland Challenge - join us as we journey through the charming towns, road trip across vast plains and paddle the meandering rivers of the Karoo Heartland – and stand a chance to win incredible prizes each week!
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Join us on a journey through the Karoo Heartland with our Karoo Heartland Challenge, learn some new secrets of the Karoo, be inspired by the vast beauty of the area and win some super travel prizes. Week Two of the #KarooHeartlandChallenge
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Join us on a journey through the Karoo Heartland with our Karoo Heartland Challenge, learn some new secrets of the Karoo, be inspired by the vast beauty of the area and win some super travel prizes. Week one of the Karoo Heartland Challenge
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Is the Karoo in your heart? How well do you know the Karoo Heartland? Take the Karoo Heartland challenge with us as we journey through the charming towns, road trip across vast plains and paddle the meandering rivers of the Karoo Heartland – and stand a chance to win incredible prizes each week!
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Addo Elephant National Park’s three lion cubs which rose to fame towards the end of last year,orphaned when their mother, Gina, died, have started the next step towards their rehabilitation back into the wild. Now nine months old, the male and two females were moved from a holding boma in the park’s main game viewing area to a much larger, 200 hectare camp within the Kuzuko contractual area in the north of the park.
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You may have read about the blue crane massacre in the Karoo earlier this year, which saw the poisoning of what is estimated to be in excess of 200 blue cranes near Richmond in the Northern Cape. Following this terrible tragedy, a post-massacre census of blue cranes in the Karoo is desperately needed.
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A friend who roams far and wide every day of the week, mentioned he’d met an interesting woman in Somerset East. “She fixes up tortoises that have been hit by vehicles,” he explained.
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Chris Marais, co-founder of www.karoospace.co.za , is a seasoned travel writer-photographer who has spent more than 30 years wandering the world. He believes the Karoo Heartland offers the finest road-trip route in South Africa. “Road-trippers, in vehicles and on bikes, love the Karoo Heartland for its quaint towns, good accommodations, farm stays and general friendliness. But what they really like about travelling between the dozen-odd towns of the Karoo Heartland are the wide open spaces and that feeling of freedom that comes with drifting through such clear, scenic landscapes.” Chris and his wife Julienne publish print- and e-books on the Karoo, which are used as traveller’s companions for armchair travellers and real-time adventurers. See www.karoospace.co.za for details.
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Herewith our latest quarterly newsletter, for SUMMER 2014/15.
We will soon start with the Autumn 2015 issue. Your contributions will be appreciated - We need your stories and photographs!
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Raggy Charters of Port Elizabeth which conducts whale, dolphin, penguin and sea bird watching cruises in Algoa Bay has been awarded the national Lilizela award for being the best marine experience in South Africa".
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Win a BIG 5 experience at Aquila Private Game Reserve with SA.MAST. Aquila Private Game Reserve supports SA.MAST, the South African Mass Animal Sterilisation Trust.
SA.MAST boasts impeccable credentials. Having provided sterilisation and primary treatments to over 8000 cats and dogs in Khayelitsha, SA.MAST is a small army with BIG boots.
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Guests from five provinces and many local Karoo residents attended the National Heritage Symposium held in Richmond the weekend of October 16-18th. All presentations received rave reviews and they included Dr Judy McGuire of Prince Albert who has surveyed 120 Upper Karoo farmsteads, Prof Bruce Rubidge who had the audience in peals of laughter, and Graham Viney (who set the record straight about verandahs added on to Karoo houses and managed to make it just in time after being flown in on the plane that brought the Muratie Wine Estate wines for the Saturday night wine pairing with Annatjie Reynolds of Karoo Venison at the MAP Gallery).
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Before we move on to some more literary highlights of the festival, we are proud to announce that renowned Elvis Presley artist James Marais will be joining us in Richmond. He will officially shake, rattle and roll BookBedonnerd VII to a close.
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Chris Marais and Julienne du Toit of Karoo Space in Cradock have been hard at work all winter, compiling and publishing their brand-new series of e-books, Karoo Life I to III.
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Aquila Private Game Reserve near Touws River has been awarded second place for Service Excellence in the Accommodation category of the Lilizela Awards. The judging was largely based on guest feedback, measurements having been put in place to allow the public to cast their vote.
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Aquila Private Game Reserve has been honoured to be awarded the prestigious Imvelo Economic Large Impact award
The Lilizela Imvelo Awards recognise and celebrate tourism and hospitality businesses that practice exemplary responsible, sustainable and fair business practices.
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The exhibitions which have been in the House since it was opened in 1986 have been totally scrapped and an exciting new set was erected in time for last month's 'Schreiner: Karoo Writers Festival'.
And then in the Ikhamanga Hall, which forms part of the Schreiner House property, there is yet another new exhibition titled '200 000 Years of History; 200 Years of Cradock; and 20 Years of Democracy'.
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One way of gauging the nature of a small town is to see how the poorest of the poor are treated.
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To celebrate the opening of our Karoo Space e-Bookstore, we are offering you all three books (normally priced at $15 each) for the price of two: $30.
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Cape Town - South Africa's immigration laws have recently undergone an intense revision with newly appointed Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba saying the amendments are "in the best interest of South Africa's security and allows for efficient management of migration".
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The Karoo Space e-Bookstore launched - get these beautiful Karoo collections on-line.
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Direct-response advertising is the option of choice for many American companies in the tourism industry, mainly because it has offered them such success when it comes to the key areas of business like online booking, and it seems that this preference is set to continue in 2014 and beyond with the vast majority of these online travel agencies putting a substantial amount of their online advertising budget into the venture.
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The list of farm gardens open to visitors during the Bedford Garden Festival (14 to 26 October 2014) are sure to delight everyone.
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You are invited to a Lilizela Tourism Award Road Show to be held on the 20 of May, 2014 at the Graham Hotel, at 10h00.
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This year the Grahamstown Flower Festival will be held at the 1820 Settlers' Monument.
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The Restoration of Grahamstown's Old Gaol in 1984.
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Online and mobile travel booking is often perceived as being a young man's game, with some companies understandably targeting the more youthful demographic that seems to be constantly attached to their smartphones; however, research shows that 23% of the total internet population is over 55, a sizeable portion of users that shows that senior travellers are heading online more readily than the tourism industry may have suspected.
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A group of Baviaanskloof farmers introduced a 6 Day hiking experience in the Baviaanskloof Hartland. This unique 6 day hiking trail traversing 12km per day takes you on the main road over private land and into Parks Board property.
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Standard Bank's Grahamstown branch was an award winning building when it was built in 1933.
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Increased biodiversity leads to healthier ecology but the social structure of Kudu in many parts of the Karoo is out of balance.
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You probably believe that your research is worth shouting about, but is anyone out there listening?
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The Karoo landscapes of blistering horizons, blue mountains, bright blue skies and charcoal singed plains does not exactly conjure up pictures of fly fishing, never mind water or trophy Trout.
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The well known Karoo author and photographer couple Chris Marais and Julienne du Toit launched their latest book on the Karoo last night at the Ron Belling Art Gallery in Port Elizabeth.
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For more information on the latest flower displays and flower hotspots you can now download the latest West Coast Flower Report.
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To JP Steynberg of Ganora Guest Farm's surprise he noticed Flamingos this morning as he approached the one farm dam. "We have never noticed them before in this area and are so pleased that they joined our other birdlife on Ganora." On the above photo they seem to be welcomed by the Shelducks (Bergeende).
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Two Karoo Heartland Towns namely Somerset East and Steytlerville have been nominated as Eastern Cape finalists in the Kwela "Dorp van die Jaar" competition. Please vote for your favorite Town(s) and make sure that the Eastern Cape win the 2013 competition.
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HE AIN’T heavy, he’s my bubba. A recent incident in the Addo Elephant National Park has highlighted the extraordinary intelligence and caring nature of elephants.
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In this coffee table book compiled by Meinrad Heck and Peter Maurer Nie Bethesda and Ganora Guest Farm is mentioned. Please read the relevant section about JP and Jacob of Nieu Bethesda..
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On Saturday 23rd February, the Bruintjieshoogte Marathon was run, for the 36th time, in perfect conditions, and was very well supported. Visitors were full of praise for the beautiful route, and the great organisation. Well done to the local Athletics Club, and the sponsors.
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In December 2012 a Booted Eagle was photographed in the High Karoo Park, making seven Eagle species now identified in the park.
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