Specialists 

Our Portfolio of Specialists consists of a wide range of high calibre, local experts from a variety of disciplines whose depth of knowledge really brings your trip to life.
This is our distinguishing difference.

We connect you to a cross section of specialists, hand picked for their ability to engage, who mix on-site explanations with off-site conversations, and mingle informally, especially over meals.
These guest lecturers escort you around interesting places, sharing nuggets of their knowledge, while tour leaders look after the practicalities.

What makes our tours enriching is that you get to meet a number of these master story-tellers on each tour, hear multiple perspectives and see with ”new eyes”… because we believe that …

A real voyage of discovery consists not only in
seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes
– Marcel Proust

Brief Biographies

Tony Manhire

With wide experience in Stone Age archaeology and hunter-gatherer studies, his first love is rock art. As a founder member ...
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Adam Harrower

Trained as a botanist at the University of Cape Town and a horticulturist at Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, he has ...
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Prof Michael Godby

Michael's currently preparing a collection of papers for a book on the History of Photography in South Africa as well ...
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Rob Caskie

Being Natal Midlands born and educated, serving with Zulu troops during his SA national service, and voyaging around the globe ...
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Anthony Shapiro

Anthony started making pots at 13 years old and after apprenticing under Kim Sack’s studio in Johannesburg, got a pottery ...
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David Walters

David Walters is a Franschhoek based studio potter whose wheel throwing skills are as legendary as his exquisitely crafted porcelain ...
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Ian Garrett

Ian Garrett has always been fascinated by ancient ceramics, which he merges with his own creativity. Etruscans, Minoans, native Americans, ...
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Andile Dyalvane

Andile Dyalvane creates signature classics by bringing the traditional and modern together. Staying true to his roots by creatively re-interpreting ...
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Magdalene Odundo

Magdalene Odundo is a Kenyan-born, studio potter who is Professor of Ceramics at the University for the Creative Arts, Farnham, Surrey ...
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Phillippa Cheifitz

Highly respected author, expert food editor and for Femina magazine and consultant editor for Taste Magazine. She has published numerous ...
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Dr Elbé Coetsee

Craft art specialist, who established the Mogalakwena Craft Art Development Foundation and initiated a craft centre to support the economic ...
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Dr John Compton

Earth scientist with a doctorate from Harvard University, who taught marine geology at the University of South Florida before moving ...
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John Ford

Former cellar master of the International Wine and Food Society and chairman of the Oenophiles wine club. Purveyor of fine ...
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Dr Hans Fransen

Art and architecture historian and author of seminal books on South African architecture such as the definitive The Old Buildings ...
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Margie Garratt

Professional textile artist whose name is synonymous with quilting and whose work crosses the boundaries between art and craft. She was ...
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Porky Hefer

Currently helming Animal Farm, his design philosophy is that a pure design idea should be followed by a chorus of ...
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Prof Brian Huntley

Former chief executive of the National Botanical Institute and then the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) based at Kirstenbosch, ...
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Dr Antonia Malan

Independent historical archaeologist and member of the Historical Archaeology Research Group, she has directed a significant transcription project capturing archival ...
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Fiona McDonald

Trained as a hard news journalist, she covered stories as diverse as shipwrecks, murder trials, before being seduced into wine ...
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Allan Mullins

Cape Wine Master – and wine selection manager for the country’s leading retailer, he sits on numerous wine tasting panels ...
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Dr Nigel Penn

Highly recognised authority on Cape history, who has published The Forgotten Frontier – Colonists and Khoisan on the Cape’s Northern ...
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Dr Terence Rapke

For the past decade he has been leading tours with a special emphasis on Cape history and wine. A classicist ...
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Dr André van Graan

Restoration architect who worked on Hampton Court Palace & Windsor Castle, and specialised in Edwardian and Art Deco architecture, focusing ...
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