Adventure, Lifestyle, Environment and Development.

• Individuals, when they first come in contact invaribly join as ordinary members. No entry fees are involved; you simply regster on line, via email or at participating outlets, events or club activities.
• Having experienced some of the benefits first hand as an 'ordinary' member, individuals join as full members. The annual membership as a member is R300 (Excl. VAT)
• Numerous companies and organisations have also joined as as corporate members of On Tack Club.Their outlets offer exclusive benefits to our members at a local level.
• Associate members are companies and organisations that offer our members benefits on a national  level.

Simply put, the On Track Club provides an active networking platform between non-conflicting adventure retailers, service providers and enthusiasts. Each participating company or organisation is included in the decision-making process that plots the direction of the On Track Club into the future.

Membership is by invitation only!! Applications via the website are subject to confirmation

The On Track Club started in August 1992, when Julie du Toit and Mike Baker published the first On Track environmental news supplement that was distributed in the Star, Sowetan, Daily News and Argus newspapers. Our first edition boasted a circulation of more than 600 000 copies. To put this in perspective, at the time the Sunday Times, at the time, had a circulation of about 515 000 copies.

Our objective was simply to get environmental news into the newspapers. At the time South Africa was going through its metamorphosis from Apartheid to Democracy something which Julie understood a whole lot better than I did. It was a time where political news took precedence over everything else; a time when environmental news got shunted into obscure sections of newspapers. We thought things  through and decided that corporations would commit their advertising to a separate environmental section of "their" newspapers. After all, they would still be benefiting from the circulation of the carrier newspaper. At the same time their coporate image would benefit from a positive association with environmental issues. It worked and the environmental news we published in our On Track supplement reached one in twelve people in South Africa.

Our readers wanted to get involved with the 'stuff' we were writing about and the the On Track Club was born.

• We wrote about conservation issues, like the removal of fences between the Kruger National Park and private game reserves and people wanted to help out.

• We wrote about permaculture in the Eastern Transvaal (now Mpumalanga) and people wanted to apply these simple principals when they tended their gardens.

• We wrote about how eco-tourism was more than a few rondawels with thatched roofs or the sale of animal curios in Kruger National Park  - some of which, as it turns out, had that  made-in-Taiwan stamp on them. Again our readers wanted to experience the real thing. Before we knew it the On Track Club was taking small groups into nature reserves and parks around the country.

Man, this feels like it all happened just the other day! This all started in 1992, more than twelve years ago.

Over a period of time our readers started becoming On Track Club members, and the club started defining key objectives.

• People joined simply to support our efforts in publishing environmental news. The truth be told, there were times when if it wasn't for the income from membership fees we wouldn't have survived.
• People joined so that we would be in a position to take more children out on environmental adventure excursions. Over the years we have taken thousands of young children and high school students on adventures that will stay with them for the rest of their lives
• People joined because it was a way to meet other like-minded people. It was a way for them to personally get involved in helping out with environmental projects initiated by the club in support of existing environmental organisations, such as National Penguin Day. This was a project that was dreamt up, put together and delivered by the On Track Club in an effort to draw attention to the environmental impact of oil spills and to raise the money needed to save the penguins.

In March 1994, the On Track newspaper supplement became the On Track magazine. Julie won awards for her contribution to environmental news and the club started to get a life of its own.

This job was getting too big for two people to manage on their own so we joined up with Penta Publications. Julie and I thought we had finally made it and that our efforts, trials and tribulations had been worth it. As it turns out nothing could have been further from the truth Penta Publications went into provisional liquidation and our dreams were sucked down the drain. I watched our magazine slowly die and with it everything Julie and I had faded into an empty nothingness.

That was in 1996, and I landed up in Cape Town to try and salvage what I could.

Somehow the club refused to die maybe it was just stubbornness on my side something like where Peter Sellers refused to die in the opening scene of The Party. The fact is that when I look back now I see the battlefield and battles lost. At the time I thought it was the end of the war.

Today's On Track Club, its adventure events and its development programs are testimony to how most things happen for the best. The On Track Club has become more than a glorified environmental readership base.

In 2003 our actvities grew exponentially.

• Through our youth programme we were involved with adventure excursions and events for thousands of high school students.
• On the environmental front our club members assisted with environmental projects like clearing alien vegetation from wilderness areas, beach clean ups and National Penguin Day.
• On the social side we had expeditions to Botswana and weekend excursions along the West Coast. We established the Game Adventure Sprint Series as the biggest most successful, televised adventure sprint series in South Africa. Our Ride For Wildlife mountain bike series kicked back into action. We also presented Morgan's Run which doubled up as the SA Adventure Racing Opens.

The flickering flame became a fire. Our events calendar for 2003 was an indication that the On Track Club was about to come out of its infancy. Over the previous eight years On Track had about forty minutes of television coverage of its events and activities. In 2003 we had over TWENTY HOURS of television coverage, some on SABC and some on M-Net.

We took a knock in 2004! Broken promises resulted in the loss of a major sponsorship two weeks ahead of the season

We consolidated in 2005 and opened our new Indoor Adventure Arena, formalised our Adventure Tourism Development Programme and got things started at Madiba Bay in Port Elizabeth.

Anyway, enough rambling and reminiscing.

All said and done, the On Track Club is about real people who are adventurous at heart

This website is about the 'stuff' our club members do it's about the stuff you can do, its about adventure, lifestyle, development and the environment.

Regards

Mike Baker and the team at the On Track Club