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Nadine, Media Reporter for Touch Down Travel Tech sat down with the CEO, Deon Barnard of Go Touch Down Travel and Tours to speak about the future of travel, in particular to South Africa. Reporter: Personal question to kick off, how long have you been in the travel industry? CEO: I started in 1988 and I’m extremely passionate about the travel industry. I just love seeing how a trip on safari, in particular, affects people -it’s truly life-changing. Reporter: How many travellers pre Covid-19 were you taking to South Africa? [...]

  There’s so much to see in southern Africa! Choosing only a few places can be overwhelming. It’s a vast land, filled with landscapes, animals, and wonder. Hopefully, our bucket lists will help.   The Pilanesberg National Park – South Africa In 1977, within one of the largest circular volcanic complexes in the world, Operation Genesis began, and long-vanished wildlife was reintroduced. It was the largest game resettlement in the world. Now, ecologically rich and malaria-free, and only 3 hours from Johannesburg, the Pilanesberg is home to over 10 000 [...]

  Thanks to South Africa’s historical roots combining Dutch, French, African, Malay and English influences, the country’s food is varied, inspiring and often unexpected. Let’s start with the unexpected. Mopane worms, a delicacy across Southern Africa. Mopane worms These brightly coloured caterpillars of the large Emperor moth have little spikes on their backs, and they feed primarily mopane tree leaves. During the rainy season, and before the caterpillar pupates, they are harvested, just like they have been for thousands of years, by hand. The insides are squeezed out and the [...]

Deciding what to see and experience in Southern can be daunting. There’s just so much to choose from. Hopefully, our bucket lists will help. The Cradle of Humankind – South Africa Where on earth did the 7.674 billion people on earth come from? The Cradle of Humankind has some of the answers. The active archaeological digs and the important three million-year-old fossils found here, make the Cradle one of the richest hominid sites in the world. The heart of the site, the award-winning, world-class Maropeng Visitor Centre, has wonderful exhibits [...]

South Africa has some of the most beautiful and ancient mountains in the world, a number of which are either on the list of the New Seven Wonders of nature, like Table Mountain, or are World Heritage Sites. Deep in the Mpumalanga Province, which translates from the Zulu as ‘the land of the rising sun’, stretches the Barberton Makhonia Mountains, nicknamed ‘the Genesis of Life’ – not least because of the rocky hills, wide grassy plains, verdant valleys, and mysterious forests, as well as the rich diversity of birds and [...]

  Birding - for some people that means craning you head back trying to find some LBJ (little brown job) among the dense vegetation of a bush or a tree that everyone else is raving about and which you only see as it flies away. In South Africa there are at least 6 birds you may only see on safari.  None of them are under 14 cms. And none of them are brown. The tallest of the six, the ostrich, is over 2.75 m and weighs 137kgs! One kick from [...]

‘Safari’ is the Swahili word for ‘travel’. It has become synonymous with going on a game drive, or a guided walk, in the African bush. And Winter in South Africa is definitely the best time to go on safari. Winter and Spring in Africa is between May and September. In fact, while any month between May and September is great for a safari, May and September are the best, with September being optimal for wildlife viewing. Winter in Africa is the dry season. There’s no rain, or if there is, [...]

It’s almost impossible to create a limited bucket list for Southern Africa. With South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland – now known as the Kingdom of Eswatini, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Botswana, Zambia, and Namibia, Southern Africa covers a total area of 4 262 398 km2. Here are the oldest desert in the world, forests, grasslands, mountains older than Everest, and massive waterfalls, all encircled by an extensive coastline. Temperatures vary from 500C to -20oC. The incredible wildlife is unique, and the people, diverse and welcoming. 1. Cape Town – South Africa Africa’s most [...]