Specialists 

Our Portfolio of Specialists consists of a wide range of high calibre, local experts from a variety of disciplines. Their 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 ...
Read More

Adam Harrower

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

Prof Michael Godby

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

Rob Caskie

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

Anthony Shapiro

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

David Walters

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

Ian Garrett

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

Andile Dyalvane

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

Magdalene Odundo

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

Phillippa Cheifitz

Highly respected author, expert food editor and for Femina magazine and consultant editor for Taste Magazine. She has published numerous ...
Read More

Dr Elbé Coetsee

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

Dr John Compton

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

John Ford

Former cellar master of the International Wine and Food Society and chairman of the Oenophiles wine club. Purveyor of fine ...
Read More

Dr Hans Fransen

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

Margie Garratt

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

Porky Hefer

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

Prof Brian Huntley

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

Dr Antonia Malan

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

Fiona McDonald

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

Allan Mullins

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

Dr Nigel Penn

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

Dr Terence Rapke

For the past decade he has been leading tours with a special emphasis on Cape history and wine. A classicist ...
Read More

Dr André van Graan

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