Activities

Other Outings:

 

Blyde Canyon
We visited one of the most spectacular sights in Mpumalanga on our last day.   Cliffs rise between 600-800m from the river bed below and the Three Rondavels viewpoint provides an unforgettable view of the river, the plains of the Lowveld and, on the far wall of the canyon, three rock spirals whose tops look like the rounded roofs of African huts. 

 

Camps Bay and Clifton
With their tidepools and steep cliffs, these exclusive suburbs of Cape Town are reminiscent of the most beautiful parts of Laguna Beach.  On one of our first days in Cape Town, we took the long way home from the townships to see the gorgeous views of the 12 Apostles mountain range, the beach, and to do our first South African grocery shopping in an upscale market in Clifton.  The contrast between the townships and Clifton was a good reminder of the economic disparities in South Africa.

 

Cape Peninsula Tour
One Saturday, we drove down the coast to the Cape of Good Hope, the southern end of the Cape Peninsula and near the place that the Indian and the Atlantic Oceans meet.  There we saw wild ostriches (up close!), some students were locked in the restaurant because baboons were stealing food outside, and we enjoyed the view.  On the way there, we went up Chapman’s Peak and to see the breathtaking view of Hout Bay and saw a troop of baboons engaged in all sorts of activities.  We ended our day at a penguin colony at Boulder’s Bay; there were penguins everywhere.

 

Cape Town (city)
Besides the course related fieldtrips, our walking tour went past Parliament buildings and through the Company Gardens in the center of the city.  We also went to hear the famous marimba band at Mama Africa’s and ate a communal meal of traditional Ndebele, Xhosa and Zulu dishes at the Africa Café.  Luke arranged optional trips to Green Market Square for outdoor shopping, the Pan African Marketplace and to Long Street.  In addition, one-half of the class went to a concert benefiting the victims of the xenophobic attacks that had taken place in the townships two weeks before our arrival; the concert was held in the former church of Archbishop Desmond Tutu. 

 

Church service
Half of our group arose early one Sunday to attend a Baptist church service in the townships outside of Cape Town.  The preacher was extremely energetic, effortlessly slipping back and forth between speaking in Xhosa and English.  Our only disappointment was that sometimes he would start a joke in English and give the punch line in Xhosa.  Much to our surprise, the church has a web page, on which the main points of sermons are posted.  However, the preacher laughed as he talked about it; many in his congregation don’t have electricity and most people there do not have computers or easy access to them. 

 

Kruger National Park
We ended our trip with a safari through Viva Safaris, staying at their Tremisana Game Lodge.  On our first evening, we took a sunset drive in the Balule Game Reserve; searching for rhinos in the dark, we came across a lion, about 20 feet away.  The next day we were on safari all day, seeing a cheetah, a leopard, lions, hippos, crocodiles, buffalo, herds of elephants, zebras, giraffe and many other animals.   

 

Nan Hua Buddhist Temple,  Cultura Park (a suburb of Bronkhorstpruit)
The largest Buddhist temple in Southern Africa is located fairly close to Dennilton, where we worked with Youth With A Vision.  We spent the night in apartments at the temple and ate dinner and breakfast with the monks.  Many got up very early to watch the sun rise over the temple, a spectacular sight in which the temple looks golden, and to visit the inside of the temple as well.

 

Soweto
On our second day in Johannesburg, we toured Soweto, the largest black township in South Africa.  Students were surprised by the economic diversity we encountered; Soweto has informal settlements, middle class housing and mansions of millionaires within its borders.  On our tour, we saw the famous Soweto cooling towers, drove past the home of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the former home of Nelson and Winnie Mandela and down Vilakazi Street, the only street in the world to have had two Nobel Peace Prize winners as residents.  We lunched at Wandie’s where, like countless others, we left our names on the wall.

 

Table Mountain
Table Mountain provides the backdrop for most pictures of Cape Town; we saw it every day.  On the first Sunday of our trip, Luke took the group on a hike up Table Mountain, to a reservoir at the top.   By all accounts, the view was spectacular, the reservoir peaceful and everyone was glad they went, but most were sore on Monday.

 

*Note: Above are listed mainly planned, group activities.  There were other spontaneous group activities and smaller groups went to other venues on their own.