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| Lisa Steinborn admired the button-cuteness of the Suzuki Jimny with a roof-rack. |
ALL the action at this year’s Tourism Indaba in Durban happened
outside the Albert Luthuli hall, where a bewildering array of tourist-transport
options were on display — all of them with special discounts and rates.
One Western Cape tour operator was looking for suitable wheels to
transport adrenaline junkies to a tube adventure and otter hikers to their
drop-off point.
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| This Landy can legally ride on South Africa's tar roads too. |
The Witness advised him to kick the wheels of Land
Rover’s upgraded Defender Game Viewer.
While not necessarily as pioneering as
the electric Defender 110, which was launched at last year’s 2011 Indaba, the proven
diesel guzzler has been homologated for SA roads.
This means the operator can take his tourists off the game farm
onto a district or tar road without worries of being sued for driving
illegally.
Apart from this important legality, the Defender in Game Viewer
guise has many features designed by and for active game rangers. These include a
bull bar that doubles as a refreshments table, auxiliary power points that allow
passengers to charge their phones and cameras on board, and a seat configuration
that allows up to three couples to sit next to their respective partners.
Although not listed on their website, the Defender Game Viewer can
be ordered from any Land Rover dealership. They don’t come cheap, which is why a
lone ranger may need to discuss some of the group’s finance options.
Another group that provides a slew of finance options designed to
keep tourism transporters in business is Mercedes-Benz.
Its tourism-targeted products include the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter,
Vito and Viano, all available on a guaranteed buy-back option, and with a
R40 000 discount and at interest rates that range from eight percent to
11%.
The group also announced its CharterWay BestBasic five-year
90 000km service plan, which can be upgraded to a CharterWay ServiceComplete
maintenance plan at a nominal fee.
“Our plans can be structured for the operator who needs the latest
model, or the operator who needs the lowest instalment,” said Gugu Zulu, the
group’s van specialist.
He added that responsible driving can postpone the adaptive
servicing on all Merc’s vans “with thousands of kilometres”, even on the
Sprinter midibus, which is most often used to taxi up to 22 passengers.
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| Rudi Furhman, head honcho at KEA, with their 'luxury flat on wheels'. |
On the same Sprinter chassis but light years away in terms of
comfort is the KEA camper wagon, which Rudi Fuhrmann, executive director of the
New Zealand-based company, described as “a luxury flat on wheels.”
Fuhrmann told The Witness that New Zealand has more
camper vans per capita than any other nation, including the Dutch, and points
out that the solar-powered, water-purifying, luxury van is likely to be the most
environmentally responsible conversion on the market today.
“And you can rent all that for some R800 a day — which is less than
what a similarly appointed hotel room would cost,” Fuhrmann said.
