PH & TH Travel

20/01/2024

The 2024 University of Delaware group have been having a busy and very varied programme with us. They are such a super group and are really appreciating all that South Africa has to offer. Our safari at Milima Lodge in the Greater Kruger Park was a real highlight! Lions, elephants, leopards with a baby, and the smaller, very pretty creatures such as Impala, and the fabulous sense of being in the middle of the African Bushveld. The photo is of a very large, male elephant who was very calm and came right near our safari vehicle, just to say hullo. Wonderful animal!

04/11/2023

We have been working hard to put together a really special tour for our January 2024 group from University of Delaware. Toni will be leading this group and we are looking forward to welcoming Prof Karen Parker as the lead professor with the group and to welcoming her group of students. So much planned: Placements with charities; a variety of excursions, including to Robben Island where Neson Mandela was imprisoned; and a stay at a truly spectacular Game Lodge in the Greater Kruger Park, where the Big Five and so many more species roam totally free and wild.
Photo taken in January 2023 with the previous group. A herd of totally wild elephants at the lodge waterhole.

08/08/2023

Our 2023 tour in January was greatly appreciated by Prof Goodwin’s group. Students had a really busy program with us and we are delighted to have hosted them, and given them memories to last a life time.

We are currently planning for a new group in January 2024. Watch this space for more information.

09/07/2023

After a long break during the awful pandemic, I am pleased that in January of this year, we had our first Delaware University group since the pandemic for a tour which was greatly enjoyed by the students and faculty member Steve Goodwin. We are offering another tour in January 2024 for University of Delaware students. We welcome any enquiries and are so excited again to be working with Delaware University.
Posted by Toni Hasler, Owner and Director, PH and TH Travel.

11/05/2020

Thank you, Michael Dallas, from the 1997 University of Delaware group, for the photos.

08/05/2020

Down memory lane. For students wishing to share photos of their tour year please email Toni at:
[email protected]
Patrick and I will go through them and will be happy to share them. Thank you all for the great memories!

08/05/2020

TH posted:
Photos from the very first tour in 1996, with Prof. James Davis (seen in all photos) from University of Delaware. University budgets were far smaller and students stayed in budget hotels. For their Safari they stayed in the cheaper,but very pretty, thatched huts in the Kruger National Park instead of the luxury lodges that today’s students stay in. Our rangers in those days carried guns, as you can see in the group photo. That was in case lions were lurking near by but the guns were never used, luckily! Rangers don’t often carry guns these days. Also helping out then were my two daughters, Nadia, aged 15 years old, next to the student in the black T-shirt, and Kelly, aged 10 years old and the group mascot. Patrick is wearing the white hat and I am on the right, kneeling next to a student. Patrick and I used to drive the “Biz Bus” ourselves - again because of low budgets. These days luxury coaches are used. The tour that year was a great adventure for all students and for my family! A student from this group, Amy Pastore Rademaker, sent her son in later years to Wilmington School, in Delaware, and the school came on a tour with us in 2019 as a result of Amy’s amazing memories of the very first tour. Fabulous memories for all of us!

08/05/2020

08/05/2020

During this Corona Virus lockdown, I have been looking back at photos and videos which I have taken of the many "Study Abroad " trips which Toni and I have arranged over the last 24 years. So many faces are familiar although sadly my memory for many of the names to accompany them has become a little sketchy. However with your help, I hope that I can rectify this. So I shall be putting a series of photos and/or videos on Facebook during the next few weeks, starting with the Delaware groups of 2002 and 2003. Sadly I don't have photos of the earlier groups although some of you may. Toni ,however, has photos from 1996 when the first tour took place and she will post those also in due course. Students who came on those early tours can let us know.
So I will start with a few from 2002/3. Let me know if you recognize yourself OR anyone else.

11/01/2020

TH posted:
University of Delaware, Gaines Hanks Students learned about the horrors of poaching over a dead rhino carcass which had been shot by poachers in the Rietvlei Game Reserve just outside Pretoria. With Honorary Ranger, William Dunn, who took the group hiking in the Reserve.

06/01/2020

TH posted:
University of Delaware, Gaines Hanks group, getting friendly with Nelson Mandela at the Union Buildings. Pretoria.

05/01/2020

TH posted:
Welcome to our two University of Delaware groups. Thank you Norma Gaines Hanks, Francis Kwansa and Steve Goodwin for touring with us again. We look forward to giving your groups a truly fabulous experience in South Africa. A warm welcome to all of you.

14/09/2019

TH posted:
Now at Philadelphia Airport waiting for my flight to Olympia, Washington State, to see my cousin, Shelagh, whom I haven’t seen for very many years. Thanks Lana Harrison and Betsy Renzo for an incredible time with you in Delta and Delaware respectively. So lucky to have had the chance to stay with such wonderful people. And more adventures ahead with my cousin.

13/09/2019

TH posted:
On the Susquehanna River with Lana Harrison and friends from Delta. Have loved staying in Lana’s picturesque cabin, with Hector and Cole, the gorgeous Cocker Spaniel. Thank you Lana 'Deb' Harrison for a fabulous time with you.

11/09/2019

TH posted:
Am now with Lana Harrison, one of our University of Delaware group leaders, and seeing the sights of rural, beautiful Delta, PA. The cute dog is Lana’s grand-dog who she is looking after.

10/09/2019

Thank you Wilmington Friends School for allowing me to spend a day at your wonderful school. It was good to meet so many of the teachers and to see students who were on our recent tour with us. Thanks Betsy Renzo for organising this.

10/09/2019

TH posted:
Wonderful to be in the USA and catching up with Betsy Renzo. At New Hope and exploring this pretty town. Thanks Betsy for hosting me. So great to see you again.

30/07/2019

Toni Hasler posted:

Toni Hasler and Patrick Hamilton, Co Owners and Co-Directors of Patrick Hamilton Travel, are pleased to make an exciting announcement. With immediate effect, we are changing our business name to PH & TH Travel, to reflect the origins and history of our work, and to ensure that the name recognises both partners for their share and involvement in the work that we have done over the past 23 years and continues to do today. As from today’s announcement we are proud that PH & TH Travel will continue the same work as we have done previously, providing outstanding study abroad and tour experiences for all our groups.

30/06/2019

Toni Hasler posted:
The Wilmington Friends School, with me, just before leaving the stunning Thakadu Lodge in Madikwe Game Reserve. Now all safe home back in the USA. Thank you Betsy Renzo and Sara Cook Gaines for a successful and busy time with you and your group.

30/06/2019

Toni Hasler posted:
My group, the Wilmington Friends School, had a final, special time at Thakadu Lodge in South Africa’s Madikwe Game Reserve. We had a great time there and the group made many special memories in the African bushveld, near the border of Botswana. It was very, very cold in the early mornings and evenings and warming up by midday. Thank you to lead teacher, Betsy Renzo, for a great time. Safe travels back to Wilmington and see you in South Africa again.

26/06/2019

Toni Hasler posted:
Today was the last day the Wilmington Friends School group were at their placements. Lots of sad faces as they said goodbye to the orphans. This afternoon we were at the Anne van Dyk Cheetah and Wild Dog Breeding Centre. Students loved it. Tomorrow we leave for their safari in Madikwe, in the African bush veld. Photo shows some of the Wild Dogs that have been bred in the Centre and which will eventually be relocated into the wilds where they belong.

23/06/2019

Toni Hasler posted:
I took these photos at the Apartheid Museum. The first one is appropriately shadows on the wall of a tree, and the second one just one of the hugely inspiring words that the great Nelson Mandela spoke during his life.

23/06/2019

Toni Hasler posted:
Wilmington Friends School today visited Kliptown in Soweto, one of the most poverty stricken informal settlements. Despite their poverty Senzeni and his mother, Happiness, warmly invited us into their tiny tin shack. Senzeni is a worker at a wonderful non profit, Kliptown Youth Program, helping youngsters in his community to find ways out of poverty. Students also visited Freedom Square and the Apartheid Museum, where they learned about the evil horrors of Apartheid. A very thought provoking day.

23/06/2019

Toni Hasler posted:
Airports are very tiring! Evan catching another nap. The group visited the Union Buildings, where Nelson Mandela was inaugurated. Wonderful views of Pretoria from there.

23/06/2019

Posted by Toni Hasler.
Today our group is spending the morning in Soweto, visiting Kliptown Youth Project, Freedom Square, Vilakazi Street where Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Tutu lived, and then eating lunch at Sakhumzies restaurant in the heart of Soweto. This afternoon the group will learn more about South Africa’s past at the Apartheid Museum.

21/06/2019

Toni Hasler posted:
A ride in the cable car for the Wilmington Friends School group, and a special day for birthday girl, Cassie, on top of the world from the top of Table Mountain. Also a visit to historical Bo Kaap and it’s very prettily decorated homes.

20/06/2019

Toni Hasler posted:
On Robben Island. We were so fortunate today that we had two former political prisoners telling us their stories. Poignant and so touching. Photos show Betsy, lead teacher from Wilmington Friends School, shown with Dr Sbongiseni Dhlomo who was imprisoned there and has written his autobiography; another political prisoner who was also wrongly imprisoned, and Nelson Mandela’s very tiny cell, where he spent 18 years of his life under very extreme conditions.

20/06/2019

A meal out last night and a boat ride to Robben Island, with stunning views back to Table Mountain. Evan catching a nap on our journey over the sea.

20/06/2019

Toni Hasler posted:
Wilmington Friends School at Kwathu in Western Cape. Learning about the San people and their little known history.

18/06/2019

Toni Hasler posted:
Welcome to the Wilmington Friends School, the first High School we have hosted. Looking forward to getting to know you all. Toni will be with you throughout your adventure with us.