About Back Road Safaris

The Garden Route whl.travel operators are in tourism with heart and soul, enjoying every minute of it. Directors Richard and Jauckie as well as the rest of the team - Thandokazi and Christof - with interests as diverse as their personalities, all love the great outdoors.

They love taking you on excursions to places not frequently visited, not encroached on much by development and that will leave a lasting impression of having been at one with nature.

The Garden Route, famous for its biodiversity - Fynbos is the most diverse plant biome on the planet - offers so much and the whl.travel team makes it their business to get you the experience you are looking for.

From walks along the beautiful coastal and mountainous areas to sitting back on a comfy seat while enjoying a four-wheel-drive day safari to playing golf on exclusive estate courses or the stunning public courses, they can arrange it all for you.

As pioneers in community development tourism, they will let you experience this area's rich culture, history and scenic beauty while you get to meet and engage with the local people in safety, another feature the Garden Route is famous for.

They believe in a tourism model that does not cause damage to the area's natural beauty or heritage area, well-known for developing fresh products that focus on sustainability, caring for the destination and helping people develop sustainable livelihoods through Back Road Safaris, a tour operation owned and operated by the same team.

Back Road Safaris sponsors the transport for an NGO called Meet The People Cares - a charity that focuses on enabling the communities within the Mossel Bay, George and Oudtshoorn triangle to benefit through tourism related activities. We generate sponsorships through one of the tours called "Meet The People" for the construction of community buildings. Three have been completed and a playground at a support group for children with disabilities is near completion.

The latest was a place of refuge for children without a home or a family subjected to domestic violence.

A personal history of the two owners:

• Richard is an English national who has worked in Africa for more than 12 years, including Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Sudan.

He liked the idea of tourism that assists in sustainable development while caring for the destination and came across Back Road Safaris after completing one of their tour. The rest is history.

• Jauckie is a Namibian by birth and came to South Africa to study as a heart technician. This soon got him into private practice at a small private hospital in Mossel Bay.

Looking out of the hospital window one day he thought he'd love to be out there, and so he started Back Road Safaris, and Meet The People.