Lightleys Holiday Houseboats: September 2008

Happy Spring!

Celebrate the start of summer with your family on the – Vaal, the Kowie (at Port Alfred) or the Knysna Lagoon … you’re Captain of Your Own Holiday this spring with Lightleys Holiday Houseboats!

Lightleys and Skippers Licenses

There’s been a lot of talk in the media lately about whether or not you need a license to skipper one of our self-drive holiday houseboats: and the answer is “No! – You don’t need a special license to become Captain of Your Own Holiday.”

The South African Marine Safety Authority – SAMSA – has confirmed this and our own Owen Groenenstein has been invited by their CEO to join the committee that’s drafting a policy on the house-boating industry in South Africa.

So don’t worry – you’re safe and legal when you hire a Lightleys Holiday Houseboat!

Want the best deal on last-minute Houseboating Holidays?

Visit our web site – www.houseboats.co.za – on Thursdays afternoons and Friday mornings – for late bookings specials on weekend breakaways.

An Incredible 5-night Offer: Stay-and-Play in Knysna This Spring

From as little as R224.00 per person per night, you can enjoy:

2 nights aboard Lightleys Holiday Houseboats; PLUS
3 Nights at Phantom View River Resort; AND
A day’s canoe hire WITH a lunchtime picnic basket!
Low Season – To 19 September 2008

· 2 guests pay just R3,796.00 (R380.00 per person per night!)

· 4 guests pay just R5,126.00 (R256.00 per person per night!)

· 6 guests pay just R6,726.00 (R224.00 per person per night!)

Mid Season 20 September – 11 December 2008

· 2 guests pay just R4,808.00 (R481.00 per person per night!)

· 4 guests pay just R6,588.00 (R329.00 per person per night!)

· 6 guests pay just R8,368.00 (R279.00 per person per night!)

This offer is valid for self-catering visits to Knysna only and is valid until 11 Dec 2008. Prices exclude fuel and security deposit.

Want to make a reservation? Mail us – info@houseboats.co.za

Spring and the Maritime Tradition

Spring has always been celebrated as a time of renewal and rebirth – although most sailors and navigators seem to have given surprisingly little thought to the whole idea.

Not so the Vikings, though: it seems these famous explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates (who raided and colonised much of Europe between the late 8th and the early 11th centuries) were the creators of Walpurgisnacht, the Continent’s original celebration of spring.

In the Norse tradition, Walpurgisnacht was considered the ‘Enclosure of the Fallen’ – a time of weakness in the boundary between the living and the dead which commemorated Odin, who died trying to retrieve the knowledge of the runes.

Later, when Christianity came to Europe, St Walpurga’s Day – which also falls on May 1 – was celebrated with many of the same rituals – and hence the name Walpurgisnacht. St Walpurga, by the way, is the patron saint of Antwerp: she was born in England in 710 and, together with her brothers – St Willibald and St Winibald – went to Württemberg to assist St Boniface, her mother’s brother, in his missionary work. She was also a writer and is considered by both England and Germany as their first female author (four saints in one family! Can you imagine?).

Of course we in the Southern Hemisphere celebrate our spring day on September the 1st – and being good South Africans, the best way we know how to celebrate ANYTHING is with our own traditional version of a bonfire. So don’t panic if you’re on a Lightleys Holiday Houseboat – they’re fully equipped for self-drive floating holidays. And, because no holiday would be complete without a braai, you’ll find a Weber ready and waiting for you in one of the aft lockers, …

Midweek Spring Madness with Lightleys on the Vaal River

Escape the rat race this spring! Stay for 3 nights mid week and get the 4th night absolutely FREE! (that’s right – your 4th night mahala, vir niet, gratis and for nothing!)

This offer* is valid only for visits to the Vaal on any four nights Sunday to Thursday until 28 September 2008 and is not valid during long weekends or school holidays. Price excludes fuel and security deposit.

Want to book? Mail us – info@oldwillow.co.za

Go here to watch a video about Lightleys on the Vaal River

The Chinese Festival of Spring

The celebration of spring is vitally important for the Chinese. It’s a time when all the family gets together, when everyone living far away comes back home (and, for two weeks in the year, when airports, railway stations and long-distance bus stations go crazy).

The Spring Festival originated in the Shang Dynasty (about 1600 to 1100 BC) and, like similar festivals in the West, was originally celebrated with sacrifices to the gods and ancestors to mark the end of an old year and the beginning of a new one. It now falls on the 1st day of the 1st lunar month of the Chinese year – which often begins as much as a month later than ours.

Spring Festival Eve and the first three days of the celebration are the most important – although the Chinese government gives everybody a full seven days of holiday over the New Year period.

… Unfortunately, though, there’s no truth in the rumour that they’re required to spend those seven days aboard a Lightleys Holiday Houseboat!

Stay-and-Play in Port Alfred – and celebrate Spring with this 5 night special offer!

With rates as low as R286.00 per person per night, you really can be Captain of your Own Holiday in the Eastern Cape this spring – and enjoy

2 nights (self-catering) aboard a Lightleys Holiday Houseboat; PLUS
3 nights (bed & breakfast) at The Halyards Hotel, Port Alfred!
· 2 guests pay R3,488.00 – that’s just R349.00 per person per night!

· 4 guests pay R5,726.00 – only R286.00 per person per night!

This offer is valid for visits to Port Alfred only and is valid until 19 September 2008 (excluding long weekends and school holidays). Additional catering is available as an optional extra. Price excludes fuel and security deposit.

Want to book? Mail us – info@houseboats.co.za

Burning Of The Socks?

What must rate as one of the wackiest of the world’s many wacky spring festivals takes place at the Annapolis Maritime Museum every year.

According to the Eastport Yacht Club, the Eastport waterfront used to comprise working boat yards and large petrol storage farms – with only two decent pubs and no fancy, touristy restaurants. This was in the days before global warming, and the local rivers – and even the bay itself – would often freeze over in winter, which seemed to linger forever.

As you can imagine, there wasn’t much to do – except wait for the first breath of spring and do your part to ensure sure that those pubs didn’t go out of business.

According the Club, it was during one particularly harsh winter that a small group of workers – led by one Bob Turner of the Annapolis Harbour Boatyard – decided to do something about the cold. So they filled a paint tray with wood and fuel, took off their socks (because who wears socks in summer?) threw them into the fire and sat back to enjoy an ice cold beer. Then they decreed that winter was over – and Mother Nature, recognising that she’d been outdone, acquiesced and banished the cold for at least another season.

And that’s why the people of Eastport celebrate the Burning of the Socks on the Spring Equinox. Because, as they say, “if you want to take part in controlling Mother Nature and help to show the world who’s really in charge of the seasons – burn your socks, drink a beer, eat an oyster and send Old Man Winter packing on a south wind – driven by the heat and pungency of our fire!”

At Lightleys Holiday Houseboats, we don’t need to burn anything – because we know that any self-drive houseboat holiday will blow your socks off …

Ahoy Captain!
With Best Springtime Regards
From the Lightleys Holiday Houseboats Crew

www.houseboats.co.za

Telephone – Knysna & Port Alfred +27 (0)44 386 0007 • Fax +27 (0)44 386 0018
Telephone – Vaal River +27 (0)16 973 1729 • Fax +27 (0)86 509 4680

e-mail – Knysna & Port Alfred info@houseboats.co.za

e-mail – Vaal River info@oldwillow.co.za

PO Box 863, Knysna, Western Cape, 6570
Lightleys Holiday Houseboats, Phantom Pass Road, Knysna

* PACKAGES & SPECIAL OFFERS: except where otherwise stated, packages and special offers are not available during school holidays and long weekends. Prices exclude fuel, refundable security deposit and, where applicable, car hire contract fee of R23.00; car hire rate includes 200 kilometres per day; additional kilometres are charged at R1,21 each.

You’re Captain Of Your Own Holiday with Lightleys Holiday Houseboats!