19 December 2007 - La Femme / Supplement to The Herald

Female only adventure trip

Gillian McAinsh LA FEMME EDITOR

A PLETTENBERG Bay tourism firm is looking for 10 intrepid women to take part in an all-female adventure traversing 40 000km across 31 countries and two continents.

German-born Enya Fehler, the managing director of destination marketing organisation Africa Adventure, is organising a five vehicle expedition from Cape Town to Nordcap, the northern-most part of Norway. The expedition party will consist of 10 women and the trip will kick off in the Cape on International Women‘s day on March 8, 2009, from Cape Agulhas, the southern-most tip of Africa.

“We want to experience Africa and then tell Europe what we experience, and hope we will make an impact on women‘s rights,” Enya said from her Garden Route offices last week.

She said that the objective of the Cape to Cape trip is to encourage sustainable tourism development in Africa, thereby bringing much needed revenue to the continent and uplifting the lives of its people. It has the full endorsement of environmental affairs and tourism minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk and the vehicles are sponsored by Mitsubishi.

Africa Adventure is now calling for applications from women 21 years and older of all social and ethnic backgrounds.

“Although we are starting at Cape Agulhas, and going up the west coast towards Namibia, we will still promote the whole of South Africa. Our primary concert is to recommend Africa – and South Africa in particular – as a travel destination.”

Hence, the trip will focus on gathering information as it heads up through African countries and then, when it reaches Europe, will change focus.

“In Europe we will be a road show promoting the countries in Africa that we have visited. We will gather information about them along the way and then we will take this to the media and the public in the countries in Europe that we visit.

“We‘ll say, ‘we drove all the way to Europe to tell you how wonderful Africa is‘.” Although Africa Adventure is asking R25 000 from each participant, this money is not part of their travelling expenses.

“We are asking for R25 000 to be deposited in case of emergencies. Then, if it is not used by the end of the trip then it will be donated to Child Welfare in Africa.”

Which means, if all goes smoothly, that African children could benefit to the tune of R250 000.

One problem that Enya has found in planning the adventure is the similarity so far of those who applied for the adventure: mostly middle-aged white women.

“We want to spread it around a little bit; the demographic must not be the same for all 10 of us.”

With this in mind, she is calling on souls filled with time, wanderlust and R25 000 to spare to get in touch.