Tag Archives: Argus Cycle Tour

Mother Nature hits Mother City and Winelands, floods affect Tourism!

Chapman's PeakMother Nature hit the Mother City and Winelands with a vengeance on Friday evening, with torrents of rain causing flooding and massive damage to tourist areas, which are closed for repair. More than 100 mm of rain was measured in most affected towns.

Accompanied by thunderstorms, the heavy downpours went on for hours, and the accumulated waters caused flood damage to many homes and businesses. Somerset West was worst hit, as the Lourens River burst its banks, flooding nearby houses, and the town received 200 mm of rain.  The 125 patients in the Vergelegen Mediclinic had to be evacuated when water reached knee-height, the patients being sent to its Stellenbosch and Panorama branches.  The N2 highway in the Somerset West area was closed on Friday evening, but has since been re-opened.  In Strand Beach Road was closed due to flooding, and many home and apartment owners were stuck in Medi Clinic Somerset Westgarages during power outages.  The X-ray unit of Strand Hospital caught fire due to an electrical short.  The scenic coastal road between Gordon’s Bay and Betty’s Bay has been closed due to rockfalls.  In Hermanus the local supermarkets were all flooded due to the volumes of rain.  Whale Cottage Hermanus had water come in under the door, the volume of water not able to run off quickly enough.   The road between Hermanus and Stanford is closed, as is the road to Creation wine estate*.  Our Whale Cottage Franschhoek has a river running through it, and thankfully it did not break its banks Continue reading →

Cycle tourists to come rolling into the Cape!

Cycle tourismWhile Cape Town benefits from the annual Argus Cycle Tour held in March, it will soon see even more international cyclists on our roads, the Western Cape aiming to attract 100000 cycle tourists by 2023.  This is the bold plan of  Alan Winde, provincial Minister of Tourism, Economic Development, and Finance, reports the Cape Argus.

Minister Winde recently visited the Netherlands, and its Dutch Cycling Embassy, a network of cycling experts.  The country has a very low cyclist fatality rate, and the cycling embassy is willing to come to the party, the Minister announced.  ‘To assist, the Dutch Embassy has offered to host a workshop here. Talking points will include the social and economic impact of cycling. It will also help with an economic impact study on the benefits of cycling for the Western Cape‘.

Dave Bellairs, Director of the Argus Cycle Tour, supports the Minister’s Continue reading →

City of Cape Town’s T.E.A.M. is ‘keyholder that can unlock tourism to Cape Town’!

Yesterday afternoon Anton Groenewald, Executive Director of the City of Cape Town’s new TEAM (Tourism, Events, Arts, Marketing) Directorate, addressed the French networking group CAP40 at the Alliance Française on the topic ‘Perspective on strategic and policy intiatives to grow the Tourism business in Cape Town‘.  He was described as the ‘keyholder that can unlock tourism to the Cape’. Groenewald has become the most powerful person in Tourism in Cape Town, and has a considerable budget.

Groenewald is an interesting man, very honest (often at his own expense) and direct, very goal-orientated, non-political in his actions, and charming even though he may be ruthlessly honest.  He is not always ‘media-correct’ in his honesty, yet he does not seem to mind being quoted, no matter how sensitive his response may be to the parties he may be commenting about, as we discovered last year when Cape Town Tourism was blowing its own horn about the number of Twitter impressions it had created by inviting four international bloggers to the city. For Groenewald it is all about the bottom line, his mantra being ‘commercialisation’ to achieve revenue targets. His department has promised Cape Town Tourism R117 million for the three year period from 1 July 2013 onwards, but with demanding revenue and commercialisation targets to be achieved. He certainly means business, and was honest in admitting that a head of Cape Town Tourism who has been in the position for nine years no longer is fresh enough to be on top of her game.  He confirmed that its outgoing-CEO Mariette du Toit-Helmbold did not need any encouragement to not renew her contract.  They will shortly start recruiting a replacement CEO nationally as well as internationally.  His no-nonsense attitude shows when he stopped Cape Town Tourism PR Continue reading →

‘Cyclists stay alive at 1,5m’ campaign focuses on Cape cycle safety!

The high number of cycle fatalities every year, especially in the months leading up to the Cape Argus Pick ‘n Pay Cycle Tour, led to the launch of a ‘Safe Cycling’ campaign in 2011 by the Pedal Power Association, and a demand of the Western Cape government to pass a law to separate cyclists and motorists by 1,5 meters.  The law has not yet been passed, but the Pedal Power Association hosted a reminder “Ride for Your Life” awareness ride from Camps Bay to Hout Bay and back yesterday, three weeks from the start of the Cycle Tour.

The Pedal Power Association communication to its 20000 members clearly places the blame of any cycle accident on motorists, and yesterday’s ride was geared to ‘get the message out there that we will not stand for any more cyclists being hit by vehicles’. The day before a cyclist was knocked over and died in Johannesburg. T-shirts, licence disk holders, and bumper stickers have been designed and the participating cyclists were incentivised to wear the T-shirt.   Western Cape Minister of Tourism Alan Winde, himself a keen cyclist, participated in yesterday’s cycle safety awareness ride, Tweeted about it prior to the race, and posted a photograph on Twitter.

While cyclists project that motorists are at fault when there are cycling incidents, it is clear to see on Twitter that many motorists are annoyed at the disrespect shown by cyclists for the rules of the road, for riding two or more abreast, for riding in the middle of the lane without making space for motorists, for swearing at motorists daring to hoot at them, and for breaking many rules of the road.  While motorists may try to keep the distance of 1,5 meters, they are dependent on cyclists keeping to the left of the lane, so that they do not have to drive into oncoming traffic.  The bumper stickers are designed for cycle-friendly motorists, who want to help by becoming safe cycling ambassadors.

The safe cycling awareness ride message probably hit home to cyclists yesterday, which is an excellent start, but little has been done to build a better relationship between cyclists and motorists.  The Argus Cycle Tour is an important tourism contributor, and generator of economic income for the Cape, so it is important that both parties tolerate and respect each other in the run up to the cycle race of the year, to prevent cycling and the Argus Cycle Tour from being synonymous with accidents and negative publicity!

Pedal Power Association. www.peddlepower.org.za

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter:@WhaleCottage