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Keith Pickersgill of Xplorer UltraFlight is planning a Paramotor Tour
of the Cape Garden Route in South Africa for early 2011, for experienced
paramotor pilots only. It will most likely be in May/June and will
likely be around two weeks in duration with the possibility of some
add-ons for those who wish to stay longer.
The tour will start in Cape Town at the tip of the African continent,
follow the East Coast northwards along the Indian Ocean shoreline as far
as Knysna or Plettenberg Bay, and back again - either along the coast,
or an inland return via a different route. See the attached Google Earth
file with the places and possible routes marked.
The idea is to use rented mini-vans with trailers, stay over in
self-catering establishments most of the time, with communal breakfast
and dinners provided.
Each person can take care of their own lunch, either packing a
lunch-box, buying take-aways, or sitting down in a coffee shop, pub or
restaurant when and where available. From my experience, pilots usually
prefer to snack inbetween (or during) flights and not waste time sitting
down for social lunches.
Each van and trailer will operate independently, in case some people
wish to visit various tourist locations or partake in other adventures
along the route (skydiving, bungie-jumping, shark-cage diving, etc).
The only fixed agenda will be where we are are having dinner and
sleeping each night as a group. Breakfasts will usually be a mixture of
cereals, bread, fruit, coffee, etc, while dinners will be either a Braai
(outdoors open-fire Barbeque), Pizza's delivered where available, a
sit-down at a local restaurant, or a catered meal in the more remote
locations.
We will start with a day or two in Cape Town, fly Table Bay and/or False
bay depending on the weather, then drive through to the first overnight
in Hermanus. Pilots may fly the last stretch into each town if the
weather permits, and fly the first stretch out from each town. Some
places we will overnight for two nights in a row, to explore the local
area by air and/or in the van. Other areas will be purely a stopover
where we might be able to fly through en-route to the next town.
I am still a long way from having completed costs at hand, however
the plan is for the fee to include accommodation, vehicle rental,
trailer rental, breakfasts & dinners, local guides, a 20 liter Jerrycan
for each pilot, and airport transfers from/to Cape Town International
Airport.
Fuel and oil for paramotors will be for the pilot's own pockets. Each
group (per vehicle) will purchase their own fuel requirements along the
route for their van, as they might take different routes or breakaway to
do other tourist activities if desired.
Pilots may airfreight their flying gear ahead of them, or bring
everything along as luggage (with the usual restrictions on engines and
the like, which will have to be sterilised and completely free of oil
and fuel and volatiles, and wrapped in clean shrink-wrap). I can advise
on this (for example, bring the wing and frame/cage as luggage, but
airfreight the engine and fuel-tank).
Another option is to order new paramotors at a special price (which I
can arrange from PAP and Miniplane) that will be waiting here for the
pilots to arrive and use on the tour (its always nice to have brand new,
reliable gear on such a tour), then to take them back home with the
pilots or sell them here to local pilots at the end of the tour.
Pilots can bring their own wings, or we can do a similar deal on new
wings for the tour, as per their individual preference. We might be able
to offer rental paramotors for the duration of the tour, but if they
want reliable motors in good condition, that would require a fairly
hefty refundable breakage-deposit.
Special offer for bona-fide paramotor instructors: If you pre-arrange
with us to bring a group of your local pilots along with you
and you are willing to act as coordinator for your group, then 10% of
the fee from each pilot you bring along will be used to offset your own
cost. So bring 10 pilots along and your tour cost is covered. Bring a
few more to cover your local fuel & oil and drinking expenses...
bring even more to subsidize your travel costs to get to South Africa.
For more information, please contact Keith at:
PO Box 36784, Chempet, 7442
South Africa
Mobile: 082-414-8448
Fax: 086 651-7564 (from South Africa only)
Email: keith@xplorer.co.za
Web: http://www.xplorer.co.za
Skype: Pickersgill
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This is the route support vehicles will take while
the pilots fly along the beach and other scenic places.
Here is
the KMZ file for download. If you have Google Earth installed it
should open and display the vehicle routes.
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