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 has guided many kinds of journeys over the years. These include:
Bespoke tours of the Cape, focusing on sustainable projects and uplifting cultural experiences.
Wilderness intensives (particularly leading teams of facilitators working with young men, alongside processes for young women, under the banner of Hearts of Men and the Roots Hearts and Wings Adventure).
Facilitating 'Soul Theatre' embodied explorations for adults, using techniques from theatre and other performing arts.
Intensive drama experiences with children in Waldorf schools (with over two decades experience as a Steiner-trained teacher)
Work with groups using multiple conscious dance modalities as well as working with music, often in explorations of the archetypes such as through Soul Expression Dance.
Like Joanna he is also a registered facilitator of the Work That Reconnects.
Simric is a published writer, actor and musician who has done work as varied as performing jazz with the late great Winston Mankunku; acting in social theatre with Jungle Theatre company; or performing specially commissioned poetry for clients as varied as Treasure the Karoo Action Group or Nedbank. You can find some of his work at his Substack, 'Ravings from the Lucid Fringe.'
.jpeg/:/cr=t:16.78%25,l:0%25,w:100%25,h:66.45%25/rs=w:1209,h:605,cg:true)
The Samhitakasha Cob House, Muizenberg, Cape Town
Samhitakasha was built two decades ago by Simric and Carey Yarrow. It is still one of the only 2 storey cob houses in a South African suburb, and home to public gatherings since 2024. Please subscribe to the newsletter to be invited to the next one.
This is the Offbeat Collective HQ.
