It sounded like an April Fool’s Day story, but it appears to be true. Just as I was departing on holiday, the news broke that a Portuguese slave ship has been found off the coast of Camp Bay, which sank more than 200 years ago. The New York Times was the first to break the story!
In 1794 the São José-Paquete de Africa ship left Mocambique for Brazil Continue reading →
Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines
* All Johannesburg – New York SAA flights in both directions will now be non-stop, the America-bound flight becoming non-stop too. The route popularity and the reduction of 90 minutes flight time have motivated the change.
* Due to the devastating fires last week, Table Mountain National Park has requested locals and visitors to stay away from Tokai forest and Silvermine, deeming them to be unsafe, with continued flare-ups, and trees Continue reading →
Yesterday we went Italian at worldly Mondiall, enjoying nine very fine and fantastic Fantinel wines, with a broad spectrum of Prosecco, light white wines, and rich earthy red wines, introduced by Dr Marco Fantinel, President of Gruppo Vinicolo Fantinel. The company is adding South Africa to its list of elite distribution points.
We were served a glass of Fantinel Prosecco Extra Dry as the welcome drink, and served canapés of ceviche on sesame crisps, as well as pork belly. The pork belly canapés appeared just as we were going upstairs for the tasting, and were finished before I could photograph them!
Dr Fantinel traced the development of the company back to his grandfather Mario Fantinel, a hotelier and retaurateur in Fruili, in Continue reading →
Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines
* British Airways has launched a You Tube video ‘On Top of the World’, which probably is a TV commercial for its A380 flights to South Africa (it does not say if they are flying to Cape Town too), and was filmed exclusively in Cape Town, including on top of Table Mountain, on Camps Bay beach, with Lion’s Head as a backdrop, at Boulders Beach, and showing a Cape Town flower seller, a rugby player, and a cyclist.
* SATSA (Southern African Tourism Services Association) CEO David Frost says that tourists should be encouraged to see more of South Africa than the Big Five, Cape Town, the Kruger National Park, Johannesburg, and the Garden Route. Attractions in other provinces are not known to travelers. Repeat visits to our country should be increased, and the deceased time spent should be reversed, he added. He encouraged SA Tourism to develop trade deals that draw visitors to lesser known attractions. Travelers are not only visiting South Africa, but are also incorporating Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique into their itineraries.
* Wellington Wines is planning to treble its sales of bulk wine to the UK to 6 million litres by next year, and projects Continue reading →