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My Wild South Africa Adventure Tour

April 16, 2015 by Zachary Moses

barrels of wine in south africa

My Wild South Africa Adventure Tour

By Zachary Moses

The creation of my wild South Africa gay adventure tour started in 2012, when two HE Travel Alumni, Sam and Lou, joined me on one of HE Travel’s first high adrenaline gay tours in Israel. While on that tour, they both mentioned to me that they have always wanted to visit South Africa, but they would want to do it as a high adrenaline trip. I had never considered South Africa beyond the usual safari destinations. Naturally, being the adrenaline junkie that I am, I accepted the challenge to develop a trip with them in mind.

It took a good year and a half of research and phone calls, but after all my trials and setbacks, we now have the Wild South Africa Adventure. Everyone said I was crazy to shoot for such an action-packed two-week itinerary in South Africa. However, I was determined not to let Sam and Lou down, and I did everything I could to make sure that this tour launched, right down to personally guaranteeing the inaugural departure, even if I had to cover losses out of my own pocket. I was certain that this new tour could be a showcase to the world, showing that a gay adventure company can top even the biggest names in adventure tourism.

Day 1: The Inaugural Launch

When we met up in Cape Town, I felt like we were making history. At our orientation, there were the usual hellos with familiar faces, and the warm welcomes of new ones. However, breaking from the usual pattern of group orientations at a hotel, we held this orientation at a vineyard with a wine tasting.

HE Travel Gay Group Visits South African Winery

Nothing breaks the ice like tasting fine South African wines. Whenever we didn’t like a wine, we poured the leftover into a pitcher and rinsed the glasses and poured that in there, too. When we were getting ready to go, I dared one group member to taste the contents of the “spittoon”. To my surprise he actually did it, and we’ve never let him live it down.

Our evening was made up of leisurely strolls through the city, viewing its many sites and attractions. My favorite sighting was this albino squirrel that was really just…pure evil.

An evil white albino squirrel hordes his nuts in South Africa

Tonight we ended our evening with a gorgeous sunset view. Of course all of us tried to make the usual *inappropriate* pictures, as you can see here.

Zachary Moses makes a naughty pose with a water bottle in South Africa

However, then I sat on a rock wearing gray pants, and didn’t notice that I had just sat in bird poop. Everyone got a hilarious laugh at my expense for being the guy who literally had poop on his pants. I think Lou even got video! I have elected not to show that image, but I’m sure you can find it on Lou’s Facebook page!

 

Day 2: Penguins and the Cape of Good Hope! 

This morning we had to skip a planned kayaking activity due to extreme wind, so we altered our itinerary to see a penguin colony. There is no denying that penguins are one of the absolute most adorable creatures on earth.

Our next stop was Cape Point. We climbed to the top of the cliff, where the view was absolutely spectacular! Here I am looking toward my group of gay guests.

Zachary Moses posing on a cliff overlooking cape point in south Africa

These are the guys that I am looking at.

a gay group with HE Travel takes pictures of Cape Point in south Africa

This is Cape Point…Which is what THEY are looking at.

a view of Cape Point on HE Travel's Wild South Africa tour

Needless to say, the view was absolutely spectacular! From here we started a journey to the other side of the peninsula to the Cape of Good Hope. We custom made John a walking stick, which you can see him modeling on the runway.

John walks with a homemade walking stick on HE Travel's wild south Africa tour

It took a while of hiking, and some of the drops were treacherous, but eventually we made it. The wind was blowing so hard that, a few times, I felt like I needed to crawl on all fours in order to not get blown right off. It was an amazing hike, and it ended standing at the sign for the Cape of Good Hope.

HE Travel gay group enjoys posing at the Cape of Good Hope sign

Tonight, we did dinner and drumming at an African-themed restaurant. The guys thought the drumming was ridiculous, but I absolutely loved it! After the drumming, people came around to our tables and painted our faces.

our group gets their faces painted at a restaurant in south africa

Then a performance group joined us for an over-the-top show. At the climax of the performance, the lead dancer shot gold dust into the air.

an african performer shoots gold dust into the air at a themed restaurant in cape town south africa

I probably should have covered my glass of wine with my hand. I hope those gold flecks weren’t toxic…because I kept drinking it!

 

Day 3: On Top of the Table!

Today we took a spectacular gondola ride to the top of Table Mountain (1000 m). The vessel rotated around in a full circle to give everyone a full panoramic view. The plan for the day was to abseil (rappel) from the very top.

Once we reached the top, one of our group members looked over the edge and said “No! That…is…way…too…scary!” It cracked me up! The way he said it. I love gay tours, just full of comic relief. It was for the best anyway, he took lots of great pictures of us from the top.

Here I am looking off the side of the cliff…wondering why I do these things…

zachary moses looks off the cliff at the terrifying drop off table mountain before his abseil

The drop is a fantastic cliff-side decent, then suddenly halfway down, the cliff disappears  and you have to jump into the unknown. I’ll admit a little panic at this point, They had told me there was a “surprise,” part way down. I guess this was it. So I leapt! It was incredible! I swung down under the overhang into a huge open space. As I rotated on my rope, I saw the waves crashing on the coast below. The view was quite humbling.

When we reached the bottom, we began a beautiful hike back to the top. Several of us took our shirts off and enjoyed the sunshine. At one point, we met up with another group, where there was a twenty-something guy with his shirt off. He looked like a chiseled porn star. No one in our group could keep their eyes off him. It was so much fun, like being in junior high.

When we got off the mountain, I celebrated by buying everyone a pair of socks printed with little elephants. We all had ice cream while we waited for our minivan to pick us up.

Our next stop was the Robben Island where Nelson Mandela served 27 years in prison. The conditions that the prisoners were kept in were atrocious. This is the cell where Nelson spent a huge portion of his life.

nelson mandela's prison cell on robben island

What a horrible way to treat a human being. Those items in the picture, were the sum of his earthly belongings. That red can, was his toilet. It gives me goose bumps just thinking about the place. I wanted off that horrible island as quickly as possible.

CLICK HERE to read Part 2.

CLICK HERE to join one of our next African Adventures!

Filed Under: Africa, Africa Gay Tour, All Welcome Tour, Essays, Fam Trips, FIT, Group Tour, HE Travel, Israel Gay Tour, South Africa, The Gay Travel Blog, Travel, Uncategorized, Writings, Zachary Moses Tagged With: adventure, africa, Alyson Adventures, gay, gay adventure travel, gay africa, gay israel, gay men, gay south africa, gay tour, gay tour africa, gay tour operator, Gay Travel, gay travel tour, gay vacation, hanns ebensten travel, HE Travel, single gay men, single gay travel, tour operator, travel, Zach Moses, Zachary Moses

About Zachary Moses

Zachary has done every job at HeTravel.com. He started in the marketing mailroom in 2010, and eventually worked his way up to serving 2 years on the board of directors for the National Tour Association and an additional two years serving as the CEO of HeTravel.com.

He ran for Governor of Utah as a Democrat in 2020, garnering international attention while running in this historically RED state.

During a 14-month long Pandemic-related forced "sabbatical," he returned to his passion of carpentry, having now restored several historic buildings. He also gave a TEDx talk in 2020 pitching an idea to save/restore the Great Salt Lake and other western saline lakes.

Zachary has returned to HE Travel, however, he is no longer the CEO and has now taken on the role of CXO or Chief Experience Officer.

Zach has been working with the company for more than a decade, and still leads tours, writes blogs, and speaks at international conferences.

© 2025 Hanns Ebensten Travel

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