Much valued and detailed response ... thank you. ^

My first [understandable] reaction was that I was being scammed, which led to the first flush of emails with <redacted> !! It's our first time ever in any part of Africa, so I'm hyper-nervous about anything! And I certainly don't launch scans of passports and Credit Cards by email!!

OK, I'm broadly content. So some places do this [for whatever reason] but 3/4 [of the ones we tried to book] didn't. And the difficult one lost 22k ZAR, and the 3 easy ones got our money. That's business life

I appreciate the idea of contacting Amex ... I'll see if the Manager at <redacted> bothers to get back to me: I've suggested, through Reservations, it could be costing them custom, but at least know I know it's not unusual. As to the 'package addition', it's just weird.

Anyway, we found a more interesting place in Stellenbosch for half the cost, and as we had already booked one wine estate the change of vibe will be good.

My thanks again.