Hi Carol,
Ohh yes, I would love to tell you about Africa. The problem is, where do I start.... <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Doh.gif" alt="" />

I used to take, mostly British travellers all over Namibia when I was living there. It all started out when my kids left home and one of my friends in Cape Town, South Africa which is where I come from, asked me to show a friend of hers' 18 yr old daughter the sights while she did a stop-over in Windhoek, Namibia's capital, on her way to Cape Town. I told her I would take her anywhere she wanted to go. So, for the next week, we went all over the place. I used my private car and she paid the petrol and the accomodation wherever we stayed and I showed her everything I could. It actually started a kind of business for me and over the years, I became a personal guide to many British tourists. It was nice, because they didn't have to go through a travel agent and I got known by word of mouth. People just phoned me at my home and told me what they wanted. I told them what it would cost - basically all they had to do was pay the petrol, my accomodation and they had to feed me... The joy in it was that I got to get out and about and I got to go to all my favourite places quite often at their expense, without it costing them a fortune or me a penny. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Joy.gif" alt="" /> If anything happened to my car on the road, they paid for the repairs, but I only ever had that happen once when I got a flat tyre and they covered the cost. I didn't charge them for using the car, just the petrol. But man, I got treated like a queen and I found out that if you don't charge people for your services, you actually make more money, as they are so grateful for the personal touch that they lavish you with all kinds of things. One couple gave me 5,000.00 GBP and told me to go and have fun. That was A LOT of money for me to play with with the ridiculous exchange rate at the time.

Is that a good story for a start?
It's late and I have to go to bed.
Good night.
Liz <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/thanks.gif" alt="" />