The Offbeat Collective
Born from the marriage of two collaborative humans, we offer offbeat journeys to a curious community of fellow Earth travellers and storytellers.
Joanna and Simric are two qualified cultural tour guides, fluent in English. French and Spanish, and this collective is more is more than just a duo, or a duet. We are connected to a collective of eco-spiritual, creative movers and shakers to co-create our journeys.
Our Offbeat Journeys will tell you a different story of the Cape & beyond.
Are you ready to step away from business as usual, and to explore the precious, the sacred and the meaningful with us?
Joanna Tomkins
Joanna has guided large and small groups throughout Southern Africa for the last 20 years. She has spent many months and years in Namibia and Botswana visiting natural parks but can also take you to the most secret beaches on the South Peninsula.
She is also wilderness/safari guide, a deep ecology facilitator, a ceramic artist and a songstress. Joanna encourages ecological awareness and positive action though community gatherings and nature immersions, and provokes personal reflection through art and writing.
In 2020 she founded Gaia Speaking, the regional hub for the Work that Reconnects in South Africa (see link below). With Gaia Speaking, and her bubbly, creative nature, she organises workshops and retreats where activists can find the inspiration to continue contributing to our future life-sustaining planet.
She also volunteers or co-produces events, festivals and community initiatives, joining the dots between people and what they do, and between people and places.
When living in Spain and during her first years in the Cape, having a background in art and film production, Joanna directed various documentaries based in South Africa, telling poignant stories of our cultural diversity.
She was born in the UK, grew up in France, worked in Spain and mothered 2 wonderful children in South Africa. She has taken herself, her clients and her children, Iris and Leon, on wild adventures around the world.
Simric Yarrow
Simric is a tour guide too, and primarily he is a teacher and a creator of many arts and humanities. He has journeyed from performance poet to jazz musician, from Waldorf teacher to theatre actor and director... On his blog "Ravings from the Lucid Fringe" (see link below) he also calls himself a spiritual refugee or a foolish shaman.
He seeks refuge in conscious dance and he facilitates 'playshops' with his brand Soul Theatre to help people find healing through movement and performance.
At the four Waldorf schools in Cape Town (Constantia, Michael Oak, Stellenbosch and Imhoff) he has directed many intensive drama performances. This has given him the opportunity to guide children, parents and other facilitators through the rehearsal and performance of a rich variety of plays and life changing experiences.
Through the coming of age rituals "Roots Hearts and Wings", he has supported and worked deeply with the masculine archetypes, contributing in his own way to bring maturity to our world, with sensitivity and insight.
With his daughters Kalila and Zorya in his heart always, and based at his beloved Samhitakasha cob house, he brings all these gifts to this collective and will continue to weave more as the journey unfolds.
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The Samhitakasha Cob House, Muizenberg, Cape Town
Samhitakasha was built in 2002-2003 by Simric and Carey Yarrow. It is still the only 2 storey cob house in the Muizenberg Village and home to public gatherings since 2025 . Please subscribe to the newsletter to be invited to the next one.
This is the Offbeat Collective HQ.
