Come on Clarens, lets have GREAT representation at the Tourism Indaba this year. See www.indaba-southafrica.co.za INDABA is one of the largest tourism marketing event on the African calendar and one of the top three ‘must visit’ events of its kind on the global calendar. It showcases the widest variety of Southern Africa's best tourism products, and attracts international visitors and media from across the world. INDABA is owned by South African Tourism and organised by Kagiso Exhibitions and Events. INDABA 2007, which was held at the International Convention Centre and the Durban Exhibition Centre from the 13 - 15 May 2007, has been deemed a success in every sense of the word. The final statistics speak for themselves. Attendance has not only been impressive, it has exceeded all expectations with a record-breaking 12,523 participants having visited INDABA this year Hi all, first let me say thanks for the great response from you about assisting with monies for Paul and I to get to Indaba this year (The show is from the 9th -13th of May 2008). the following have been most generous (in no particular order) Ash brook Lodge Been 2 Clarens Bergwoning Brookside Guest house Caledon flies Clarens Brewery Eish Meadowlands Outrageous Adventures Patcham place River walk B and B Smokey Joes  Speckled Bean Villa Cerise Waterford House I will advise at a later stage the bank details for the deposit of monies. What monies are not used for Indaba will be put in to a "war chest" so that we can look at ways to promote business in the village that would include attending other shows perhaps more suitable to our target markets. there has been much interest in the talk of a Tourism Liaison Officer for Clarens with a number of people (myself included) interested in the position. we will arrange a meeting in the near future and will ask Erika Rautenbach of Mont d Or Hotel to chat to us what this position would entail ( so we are better informed) Erika was  CEO for Knysna tourism and has a mountain of knowledge that she is happy to share with us( thank you Erika). We will also discuss future strategies as well as your ideas and suggestions, i seem to have "by default" been chosen to get this group off the ground and look forward to working with like minded people who realise that while we are busy over weekends , most weekdays are not busy and this is where we need to come up with ideas how to attract more people to this great Village of ours. I am always looking to increase data base of those interested in this initiative, if you know of someone who would like to be on the data base let me know   Donations to send Steve and Paul to Indaba  mwdunks@mweb,co.za

Calendar of events so far 9-13thMay                                           Tourism Indaba 28th June – 6th July 2008     Clarens Visual Art Festival 9th August        Mountain Bike Challenge 7th-8th September    Bethlehem Air Show September/October                        Asparagus Festival November 2008 Steelwings Harley Davidsons 20th – 23rd November Cherry Festival 28th – 29th November  Clarens Country Faire 8-12th December 2008 National Horse Championships  http://www.speckledbean.com  Will Dihlabeng Municipality Respond to our concerns about the new hotel development in Main Street? Click here for more: Eradication of rubinia.  On one thing we all agree: the rubinia plant is a pest!! You may have seen how these terrible plants have re-grown along the road in the Noupoort area where they were cut and sprayed last year. Some of you may have been saying: just as we thought, these guys are wasting their (our?) time and money!  Not so: this is in the nature of these plants... they regrow, and have to be sprayed and cut a second, third, and maybe even a fourth time! The whole process is expected, so you will see the "orange army" busy with the next repetition. Hopefully many of them will die off this time around.  Dons Kritzinger, Conservancy Working Group.    That is correct, the area is to be visited by Working for Water shortly and budgets  set to continue the work. To read more about the work being done in our Conservancy go to: www.riverranger.com

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