Garsons Expeditions

20/05/2021

The International Tourism Film Festival - Africa : Our company, Garsons Expeditions' recent film entry - a 14 minute video doccie on KwaZulu Natal and her people styled ''Zulu Heart'' - in the International Tourism Film Festival - Africa 2021 , has not made it through to the final round of the 2021 event. However we were truly 'chuffed' to receive good wishes from so many of our friends from as far afield as California, Dublin, Mumbai, and even Randburg and Eshowe !!! We would like to thank everyone who wished us well in this prestigious staging of the ITFFA. Whilst we might have been boxing above our weight division - there were 865 international entries from 93 countries with a strong corporate input (!) - we had lots of fun creating "Zulu Heart". The doccie and its three-minute follow-up can be viewed on You Tube as 'Garsons Expeditions Zulu Heart' with the second, non-entry , short clip ''Blue Skies- Open Borders''. Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and Quentin Tarantino....your jobs are safe....for now !

26/11/2020

Garsons Expeditions wish all our American friends a happy and safe Thanksgiving. Much love from South Africa.

14/11/2020

A continuation of the Zulu Heart Series of kaleidoscopic South Africa!

Please feel free to share your comments with Greg on Facebook or our YouTube Channel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67jCTkqGsB8

The video was styled Zulu Heart to portray much of the region’s quintessential ‘Zuluness’. The rich tapestry of the Zulu Nation’s past is also the road (ind...

13/11/2020

British & Irish Lions Rugby 2021 Tour To South Africa www.garsons.co.za

27/10/2020

Lets Return to the Age of Heroes

27/10/2020

A Tale of Two Cities

04/08/2020

Snappy summer season teaser


On the subject of guides, Umhlanga Tourism committee member, national tour operator and guide, Greg Garson, has been putting his lockdown downtime to good use.

Garson has compiled a compelling short video ahead of the African summer season – 2021.

It showcases “Zulu Heart”, his custom designed, fully escorted safari through KwaZulu-Natal.

After a lively rendition of the national anthem by a Zulu ensemble in traditional gear, the video cuts to the veteran guide standing on the banks of Mflozi River.

Garson is in the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi game reserve and it is 17 July this year.

“As you can see, the Mflozi River is pretty low. It’s mid-winter here in South Africa at the moment and we are waiting, we’re waiting for the summer winds to bring the summer rains. Those rains we hope are going to be followed by the demise of the dreadful Covid-19. And in turn we are waiting for the blue skies to open up and international visitors like yourself to come out and spend some wonderful time in our wonderful country, South Africa,” Garson tells the viewer.

A kaleidoscope of images and slices of footage follow, taking in mountains, coast, parks, fauna and places of cultural interest.

Apart from being a neat, calling card for Garson’s work, the video serves as a useful reminder to many of us in the tourism industry of the many fantastic attraction on our doorsteps and how we might better market our products and service to guests – all with an eye to life after after that dreadful virus.

The video can also be viewed via the Garsons Expeditions page.

29/07/2020

28/06/2020

LOGO JUNE 2020

08/06/2020

Naitonal tour guide and public speaker Greg Garosn says the industry needs to build on established relationshops with guests and encourage them to return.

10/10/2017

02/10/2017

Gandhi: Mohandas Karamchand – Mahatma

Born: 2 October 1869 in Porbandar, Gujarat, India
Assassinated: 30 January 1948 in New Delhi India

A BRIGHT AND SHINING LIGHT

THE SOUTH AFRICAN CONNECTION THROUGH THE HEART AND SOUL OF THE MAHATMA
The Mahatma Gandhi – 'Great Soul' – is an internationally celebrated statesman who walked this earth at a time of great adversity, warfare and dynamic change. He found the term 'passive resistance' too inadequate and thus 'Satyagraha' evolved.

'Satyagraha' was to become a powerful political tool, born in this country, South Africa, and which, with time, was to play its part in bringing the all-powerful British Empire to its senses and brought about Indian independence.

When the Mahatma Gandhi finally left South Africa in July 2014 (21 years after his arrival on these South African shores, he stated in one of his innumerable farewell speeches:

“This sub-continent has become to me a sacred and dear land, next only to my motherland. I leave these shores with a heavy heart, and the distance that will now separate me from South Africa will but draw me closer to it, and its welfare will always be a matter of great concern”.

In his final farewell speech at the Cape Town harbour he delivered a most heart rending message:
"May God grant that I should so behave in India as to retain this love of yours.
May God grant that this love, although distance may separate us, will extend as the ages go by… I say good-bye, farewell. I shall never forget you.
So much love, so much sympathy has overwhelmed me in spite of my trials and tribulations in South Africa,
and that love and that sympathy which I have received will never be forgotten, but will always remain a sacred memory.”

I do not believe it is remiss of me to claim Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi as a great South African.

We acknowledge his Motherland roots but his own words speak of the overriding love this 'Great Soul' had for South Africa. I was born 84 years after this Great Soul or 5 years after his assassination and I am so privileged to interact each year with the Mahatma’s bloodline – to sit at the knee of Dr Arun Gandhi as he pronounces the words “… Grandfather said….” This living history is literally priceless!

“The light has gone out of our lives…yet I was wrong. For the light that shone in this country was no ordinary light…and a thousand years later that light will be seen in this country and the world will see it. For that light represented the living truth…” Jawaharlal Nehru

04/07/2017

A very happy Fourth of July to all our American friends and family

15/06/2017

Visit Garsons Expeditions website http://www.garsons.co.za/ for more information on Tours & Safaris.

13/06/2017

Garsons Expeditions Day Trips is honoured to be selected as the Winner of the 2017 Cultural Tour Company of the year. Thank you for your support.

Visit our webpage http://www.garsons.co.za/ and click on the Luxury Travel & Hospitality Award Winner banner to view the official awarding letter.

17/06/2016

Please visit our website:

23/05/2016

Saving Greater St Lucia Wetlands Park

27/11/2015

Pray for Rain! KwaZulu Natal in dire straits.

Global Warming – Is the traditional Zulu Calendar now inaccurate?

Some time ago Stephen Coan of the Natal Witness raised this very interesting topic ... Climatic change could be making the Zulu names for the months of the year less accurate than they were many years ago. Zulu months are dated from the appearance of the new moon. Consequently, the Zulu months are 28 days long and there are 13 months in the Zulu year – these months names are usually derived from phenomena occurring in the natural world.
For example, the month of uZibandlela begins with the new moon on November 26.
The name is derived from the verb ziba, which means to pretend or mislead, and the noun indlela, referring to a path or pathway.

uZibandlela has been translated as ’...what pretends there is no road...’ and it is thought that the name of the month refers to the covering over of roads and paths at this time of year by grasses and weeds, stimulated by the summer rains.
But global warming and resultant climate change looks to be rendering such names inaccurate.
The month of uNhlaba occurs in April/May and takes its name from the noun the noun inhlaba, the Zulu name for the aloe that is in flower at that time...or was! These are now flowering much later often in June or July.
Adrian Koopman in his book Zulu Names comments, “It is possible that global warming or some kind of climatic change has affected the flowering period of aloe plants”.
Koopman also notes that the month known as uMbaso, occurring in early March and said to refer to the onset of the cold winter winds also suggests that winter now occurs a month or two later than it did in earlier years.
If one looks at the first month of the Zulu year, which begins with the new moon of July, uNcwaba, which means glossy green or attractive, probably because of the new grasses that appear.
An alternative name for the month is uNhloyile, the Zulu name for the Yellow-billed kite that returns from wintering up north during this month – or does it?