Jaunted

Volunteer Travel / Cape Town / South Africa / i-to-i Volunteer Vacations / → All Tags

Calling All Dog Lovers: Win A Volunteer Vacation In South Africa

Listen up, animal lovers in need of a vacation! Keen Footwear is giving away a volunteer vacation in which one lucky winner will travel to South Africa to help out at a local animal shelter. The trip is valued at $4000, which includes airfare on South African Airways to Cape Town, accommodations (most likely a shared dorm room in a volunteer house) and the experience of working with neglected animals for up to two weeks. The winner will also have plenty of down time to explore Cape Town on their own.

Once in Cape Town, Keen will put the winner in touch with i-to-i volunteer vacations who will introduce them to TEARS, a local animal shelter that provides pet food, veterinary treatments and pet education to Capetonians. The organization also rescues dogs and cats from neglect or abuse and offers shelter to abandoned animals. Volunteers at TEARS not only help care for the animals, but they also work with local children to help them understand how to look after their own pets.

To enter Keen's contest, go to their website before August 21st and enter for a chance to win. Even if you don't win, you can still contact i-to-i travel about volunteering at TEARS or a number of other nonprofit organizations they work with around the world. Most of their excursions last between 2 to 4 weeks and cost between $2000 and $2500.

Related Stories:
· Win a Volunteer Vacation to Help Rescue Animals in South Africa [About.com]
· Animal Welfare [Charity Guide]
· Volunteer Travel [Jaunted]

[Photo: Social Investment Exchange]

Movie Set Travel / Matt Damon / Clint Eastwood / George Clooney / Brad Pitt / Morgan Freeman / Celeb Travel / South Africa / → All Tags

Matt Damon 'Goodwill' Hunting in South Africa

For the past two weeks, Matt Damon has been multitasking in South Africa. First, he visited Musina, a border town where Zimbabwe refugees have fled to escape violence. Matt was there as a representative of Not on Our watch, an organization he created with Brad Pitt and George Clooney to “focus global attention and resources towards putting an end to mass atrocities around the world.”

Last weekend, Matt took part in the difficult 110km Cape Argus Cycle Tour to raise money for Make A Difference. Sixty mile per hour winds made the ride difficult for cyclists, some of whom were unable to finish the race.

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Drug Smuggling / Drug Travel / Heathrow / SAA / South Africa / → All Tags

Second SAA Flight Crew Accused of Drug Smuggling

We know it's a tough time for everyone working in the travel industry, but have things really sunk this low for South African Airways employees?

For the second time in a month, the entire crew of an SAA flight from Johannesburg to London Heathrow was arrested on suspicion of drug smuggling. The first incident took place January 21, when 15 crew members were arrested at customs and £310,000 pounds of cocaine and cannabis were seized. Apparently Heathrow cops were not all that concerned, because the crew was released on bail, with a hearing set for March 23.

Then this weekend, the entire 15-person crew of another SAA flight was arrested at Heathrow, this time with £250,000 of the white stuff. Makes us wonder how many flight crews have gotten away with this sort of thing!

· Airline crew held over 'cocaine haul' [Telegraph]
· Drug smuggling coverage [Jaunted]
· Drug travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: worlddiscoverer]

Prince Harry / Enduro Africa 2008 / Motocross / South Africa / Port Elizabeth / Enduro / → All Tags

Motorcycle Travel: Prince Harry's A Bad, Bad Biker

Biker face? Prince Harry poses for a silly picture at the starting line for Enduro Africa 2008 in Port Elizabeth, South Africa on Friday.

The third-in-line to the throne and her older brother Prince William rode in the charity motorcycle rally earlier this month. Riders commit to an 8-day trek in southeastern South Africa to raise money for UNICEF as well as Harry's Lesotho-based nonprofit Sentebale. Eat your heart out, McGregor!

The British press delayed their reports of the princes' race until this week, probably over security concerns (the same ones that kept Harry's deployment to Afghanistan unreported for nearly 3 months). "Enduro" is the generic term for any kind of off-road motorcycle rally in which racers are scheduled to arrive at checkpoints at a certain time instead of trying to beat others there.

Related Stories:
· Celeb TV Travel: Bike With Ewan McGregor This Summer [Jaunted]
· February: UK's Prince Harry Sees Combat In Afghanistan [CNN]
· Celeb Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Faded Youth Blog]

South Africa / Airlines / Nationwide Airlines / → All Tags

Another One Bites the Dust: Nationwide Airlines

Who would've thought that having an engine fall off the plane as you're taking off would be bad for business? That's what happened to South African carrier Nationwide Airlines late last year, and although they hit the skies again for a while, losing the engine was the beginning of the end.

As of yesterday, Nationwide Airlines has ceased to operate, another in the long line of airline victims of late. They also blame a 30 percent increase in fuel prices, coupled with the loss of business as a result of their "incident" last year. Nationwide was operating both domestic flights all over South Africa and international flights, including a regular route to London.

At this stage, passengers with Nationwide tickets are still stranded and in the dark as to whether they're going to get any compensation or assistance. But we're getting used to that this spring, aren't we?

Related Stories:
· SA Airline Crashes [The Times]
· South Africa Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: mutzair]

Celeb Travel / Paris Hilton / South Africa / Knowledgeable Travel / → All Tags

Don't Be Afraid To Look Dumb On The Road -- Just Like Paris

For someone who can afford to travel around the world, Paris Hilton remains relatively... unchanged by the trips she has taken. She's on tour with Good Charlotte (and current boyfriend Benji Madden) and got the chance to visit South Africa where they were performing. Later, someone asked Paris what her impressions were of the country, and she said, "South Africa and West Africa, they are both great countries."

On your next trip, don't wait to look dumb until you get home. Ask the stupid question right away so you can look enlightened when you come home, even though you're not. It's a lesson lost on Ms. Hilton, but not on us.

Related Stories:
· Jaunted at Sundance: Virgin America Flirts With Paris Hilton [Jaunted]
· Airport Photo Shoot: Paris (And Her Luggage) In Paris [Jaunted]
· Celeb Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: IDLYITW]

Sharks / South Africa / Adventure Travel / Mancations / Joshua Hammer / → All Tags

Sharks Smell The Blood Of A New York Times Scribe

Now that it's full-on summer beach fun time the New York Times figures an article about shark tourism is in order. And though these sharks don't swim near the beach, the piece still gives us chills.

Writer Joshua Hammer has the scoop on what it's really like to stare down a great white off the coast of South Africa:

Just beneath the surface a massive gray missile was hurtling toward us. The crew member pulled the bait line toward the boat; the creature kept coming. Then, amazingly, the great white lurched out of the ocean, eyes bulging, jaws snapping, teeth flashing. A 10-foot-long gray mass of muscle and cartilage, he twisted left, then right, in furious pursuit of the bloody chunk of yellowfin. The water frothed around him as he lunged for the bait, and as he slammed his massive body back down into the ocean, cold spray washed over all of us.

If that's your idea of fun, we've already covered some top shark scoping spots.

You might remember, our sister in sharks told you about this South African vacation option almost a year ago. Of course, we are too scared to actually do this ourselves, so thankfully Joshua Hammer did that for us.

Related Stories:
· Shark Hotels [HotelChatter]
· Shark Tourism [Jaunted]

[Photo: Benedicte Kurzen]

Airport Hell / South Africa / Travel Blogs / → All Tags

Johannesburg Airport is a 'Den of Thieves'

Richard Chanters runs a small 10-bedroom B&B in the Livingstone part of Zambia called Chanters Lodge. As HotelChatter reported earlier today, Richard writes about life at the lodge on his Chanters Lodge blog, but he also does a lot of blogging on things to do in the area as well as about his personal travels.

Recently he took a trip to the UK and on his return to the Johannesburg International Airport, (soon to be OR Tambo) he experienced a bit of airport hell.

The place is a den of thieves as far as one can tell. When my luggage arrived at Livingstone, everything looked quite normal. The lock was undamaged. Then, on opening it, a cell phone and a dvd were missing, and inexplicably, a watch that I had taken to UK to have a new strap put on, had had the strap ripped off....The watch and the damaged strap were still there. How odd. Almost as if saying, we'll show you!

Richard then puts up a little poll asking if you have had thing stolen at Johannesburg Airport. Answers range from Yes to No to At Another Airport, so help the man out and vote. Although, we doubt it will bring his new watch strap back.

[Photo: Rusnova]