Trekking Adventures From South Africa

We Are Dedicated To Creating Unique and Interactive Trekking Experiences

Why go trekking?

So, you are born. You take pooh from everyone. You get out in the world, you take more pooh. You climb a little higher, you take less pooh. Till one day you’re up in the rarefied atmosphere and you’ve forgotten what pooh even looks like. Welcome to the layered cake of trekking.

Are You Wondering What The Best Trekking Adventures In The World Are?

Well don’t wander too much as you may stray. Just ask us!! Kilimanjaro, Everest Base camp, the Drakensberg and the Inca Trail are just waiting to lovingly embrace you with open arms. Well they aren’t really waiting for you, and they don’t care about giving you a hug as mountains don’t have arms. We just added that because it sounded dramatic and romantic to stir up your hiking spirit.

We are super proud of our summit record on Kilimanjaro. We have a 87.78% success rate. And yes that is lower than the figures you see on other website who boast a 95% success rate. All right ,keep your Allans on….We have a theory for that. That theory is called Stella Point which is about 100m lower than the true summit of Kilimanjaro. The authorities sort of recognise Stella Point as a summit for some weird reason, and as a result gets added to the ‘successful’ summit statistics.

And of course they say 45.77% of all statistics are made up on the spot. But my mom says its not all about the destination. We have some of the mountaineers and local guides in our team that make the journey itself as memorable as the summit. If you are not into climbing and suffering at altitude then fear not sunshine, we offer loads of lower-impact hikes and iconic treks you’ll love, too. Some of these include the Drakensberg, Machu Picchu, the Whale trail in Hermanus and the popular Gazoombaloomba Trail in a secret place only known by Soul Adventure guides. In fact if you try and search for it on the net you won’t find it: we have paid Google a lot of money to keep it a secret. My mom knows the location if you would like to give her a call. Her number is 7.

Active travel vacations are fast becoming the most popular touring option in the world. But few resonate in the way that trekking does. You escape the manmade world of concrete, traffic and pollution and get back to nature. You get to challenge yourself physically and mentally in some of the most beautiful scenery ever. Picture yourself enjoying a spontaneous moment as you learn about Kilimanjaro from a super intelligent and handsome mountain man like myself.

Enjoy deep conversation by a cool, clear Drakensberg stream. Follow winding paths that weave through the mountains, and scale rugged and rocky terrain in search of the perfect ping pong ball ( or sunrise if you prefer). In my left nutshell, trekking is all about embracing unique moments, concealing rocks in or clients backpacks when they aren’t looking, incredible landscapes and new cultures in some of the most isolated parts of the world.

Our Trekking Destinations

We have an absolute passion for trekking and travel. We have been doing it for over 25 years. And we won’t take clients to a destination that we ourselves do not enjoy. Our trekking adventures will take you to some the worlds most remote and beautiful location. Discover the majestic and incredibly beautiful trails of the Himalayas on our iconic Everest Base Camp trek in Nepal. The ancient ruins of Machu Picchu on the Inca Trail. The highest are standing mountain in the world: Kilimanjaro. The rugged wilderness and beauty of the Drakensberg mountains in South Africa. The Whale Trail in Hermanus. The high Atlas Mountains of Morocco. The Kalankalang Stroll in my back garden.

We have chosen some of the best off-the-beaten-track trekking opportunities in the world. And of course we understand that all hikers are not created equal. And being the kind hearted trekking company that we are, we allow travellers to choose from a range of easy to challenging treks. And even though we have the driest sense of humour out of any hiking company in the world, we still follow strict responsible travel guidelines that have been developed to ensure our trekkers travel with minimal impact on the culture, environment ,community and your dignity when you decide to go naked on the summit of Kilimanjaro. If we see another naked bum on that mountain we are going to go mad.

Best of all? We are not into hide n go seek. So guess what? Unlike many other trekking providers, our trip prices include the cost of accommodation, food, trekking permits and transport. So there won’t be any surprise hidden expenses while you’re on your trip! We may even throw in a free stone if you behave yourself.

EASY PEASY. NOT JAPANESY. BASICALLY IT MEANS THAT BECAUSE WE CATER FOR GROUPS WE CAN BE PRETTY COMPETITIVE WITH OUR PRICING. SO IF YOU ARE A SOLO TRAVELLER, YOU CAN GO TREKKING WITH US FOR WAY CHEAPER THAN IF YOU DID IT YOURSELF. OR DARE WE SAY…WITH ANOTHER TREKKING COMPANY.

• We are the Bruce Lee, I mean Own Lee trekking company that offers guided treks from Johannesburg to the Drakensberg mountains. If you get that stupid attempt at a play on words then you are definitely welcome on our tours. Just make sure you bring a small orange ping pong ball that answers to the name of Lee.
• We offer unique and interactive trekking experiences with a small environmental footprint. Unique because we are whacked out, fun, caring and professional all rolled into one. Interactive because we love to teach our clients about the mountains, culture and natural environment on our various trips. We left the corporate world to reap massive profit margins in the tourism business and not because we love the freedom and beauty of the mountains. We prefer watching smoke from a cement factory.
• We try and take the paths less travelled wherever we can. The Drakensberg is one example where we can trek for days without being another soul.
• We have over 20 years of experience in the mountains.
• My mom says we are the best trekking company in South Africa. Are you questioning my mom? That may earn you a Burmese roundhouse sphincter kick followed up by the two-fingered eye jab. Will it hurt? Hell yeah!!! And lets just say it will also be pretty hard to pick up your teeth with broken fingers. And that was not a threat. It was an exaggerated response to an uncompromising stance.
• We have learnt to avoid the abyss. Once, on a Thursday at 12:34am I looked deep into the abyss. But the abyss retaliated by looking deep into me. This caused me to quickly think of a ping ping ball I met on our Everest Base Camp trek which allowed me to escape the creation of a neural pathway in the third quadrant of my cerebral cortex that is responsible for me doing stupid things in the mountains. So in a nutshell-We have experience and knowledge on our side. We have been on the learning curve of leading successful trekking adventures to Kilimanjaro, Everest Base Camp, Machu Picchu, the Drakensberg and the backstreets of Syria.
• While safety is core to how we operate, we’re also focused on the fun factor and suitably challenging you to reach that great sensation of personal achievement while enjoying the camaraderie of like-minded travellers.

We offer FREE Training sessions!!!!!

Yip. We did say free sunshine. Unlike other tour companies we are going to be walking the path with you. And that includes hauling your sorry ass into a few training sessions with our trekking and mountaineering expert to get you physically and mentally ready for your adventure. And no…you cannot just climb Kilimanjaro or Everest Base Camp without training despite what you have heard. Rather bleed on the training field than the battle field.

Value for money

We have traded in the need for greed for the need for speed. No…wait!!! I am getting old so speed is also out of the equation. And talking of equations..this is how we have decided to add value to an average tour. Lets take the Drakensberg for example:  Future value of a tour₁ = (Present value of a tour valued at say R2,900) + INT (12%)ⁿ .This means we can make a massive profit from our clients of say R320.13 if we invest it over 4 years in the Bank Of Syria. We reckon that is good value for money. We have also just discovered this incredible economical theory called ‘economies of scale’. Quite a simple theory really.

Do you think our trekking tours are expensive?

Well this seems to be waste of our time. Our tours are cheaper than any other tour company in South Africa. And you are thinking of haggling over a few hundred Rand? What school of finance did you come from sunshine? Its a deal, its a steal, its the sale of the frikken century. In fact, I think we’ll keep them. What do you do when you don’t pay for trekking adventures? Finance revolutions? Our costs are what they are. Especially when you have Liberias deficit in your skyrocket. Tighter than a ducks butt you are. Now..let us feel the fibre of your fabric and join us on an Everest Base camp trek, Drakensberg or Kilimanjaro adventure.

Expert trekking guides

All of our guides have an absolute passion for what they do. They have been climbing and trekking all over the world for over 20 years. And hopefully they will truly enhance your experience with unparalleled enthusiasm and local knowledge. And we will definitely be increasing your lame joke vocabulary. And believe it or not, we are also pretty philosophical. Mountains and life have taught us lot about not only ourselves but how to motivate our clients, especially through the adverse times. So yip, we are ‘mountain men, physchologists and motivational gurus’

Small is good

So we were talking to one of our trekking guides Dixie Norms about this and he seemed to agree for once. We have decided to keep our groups small. No more than 12. This allows us to provide a more intimate travel experience. We may outsource some of our intimate experiences to the Russian brides when climbing Elbrus though. And it also means our guides can fully immerse themselves onto the adventure too. We have made many friends on our trekking adventures. We walk the path with our clients from training, climbing and crying at the destination.

Solo Trekking

Is your name ‘Norman No Friends’?  Shame poor you. But we can help with that. If you are joining one of our adventures as a single person, we’ll match you with another traveller of the same gender. We would set you up with another gender but we  have a strict ‘no hanky panky in our blankies’ policy. We are Soul Adventures, not Tinder Adventures. Although we have had many blooming romances on our trips. So The advantage of joining one out our groups as a solo traveller? It means…..tah dah…..no single supplement costs. So you can take the money you save and put it towards the ‘Protect the Carbon Emissions’ fund.

OUR STORY

The History of Soul Adventures and our trekking business

Our heritage dates back to 2009 when we launched our inaugural Trekking and climbing tours. We started off with the Drakensberg and Kilimanjaro hikes.  In the years that followed, we expanded our operations into the Himalaya, Russia and the Andes to include a broader range of holidays on offer. We have always had an insatiable passion for mountaineering  and have been climbing all over the world since we were 20 years old. In fact, the first time we went hiking in the Drakensberg was at the tender age of 10.

Then we had a 10 year stint in the corporate world where we would take our leave to climb mountains. But of course working in a corporate world was not conducive to trekking and climbing.We would take our leave to climb and be miserable for the next 11 months while w wait for our our next leave to be approved. The passion to travel, trek and climb mountains was strong enough for us to leave the corporate world and start Soul Adventures. And then the baptism of mountaineering fire began.

Our trade is forged in the the harsh environment of the mountains. We have been through the learning curve of how to run successful trekking tours to Everest Base Camp, Kilimanjaro, the Drakensberg and other adventures.  Since our inception, we have practiced a simple philosophy; to provide high quality adventure holidays for small groups of like-minded travellers with a strong alignment to responsible tourism practices.

Complete flexibility and custom made trekking experiences

So although we offer a diverse selection of trekking adventures in South Africa and the world, we also understand that you may have your own tour preferences and dates. You’re in luck sunshine. We also specialise in creating tailor made trekking itineraries. So if Everest Base camp is your desired adventure but don’t want to fly into Kathmandu we can arrange for you to leopard crawl from Syria if you like. What ales does it come with? It comes with a gold plated Rolls Royce…as long as you pay for it.