August-September 2018
Wouldn’t you go to South Africa if you had the opportunity? You definitely should! Both of us have always really wanted to go because of the beautiful country and the culture which is way different from the Danish. We were so happy and excited when we found out that luckily we could both go on this trip. It was an amazing life experience. The group consisted of 17 youth from 8 different countries. We met as total strangers but ended up as good friends, in only two weeks – Isn’t it amazing? Our great tour guide Nico Mcnamara and the bus driver Kenny Kynoch led us safely through the following 8 different cities in South Africa: Johannesburg, Middleburg, Pretoria, Kroonstad, Harrismith, Hilton/Howick, Durban, and Richards Bay.
In every city, the 41’ers were very hospitable and did an incredible job by hosting us and letting us into their homes. They arranged a lot of gatherings just in honor of us, which we really appreciate. The South Africans we met were very much into parties and we were taught following sentence: “You shouldn’t eat on an empty stomach”, so we didn’t. We were served a lot of African specialties through the trip, which was also a nice part of the whole experience. For example, we were in a township where we had roasted chicken feet, pork feet and the stomach of a cow. It was definitely different but fun trying though. A thing we really enjoyed and found tasty was the crocodile.
On the bus, we had something called the nations day, which means that all of the 8 different nations had a day to serve specialties from their country. I was a great idea not only to experience South Africa but also to have a taste of the other countries. From Denmark, we brought “Gammeldansk” and “Vaniljekranse”.
Some of the best things we did in South Africa was first of all to experience the culture. We went to a place called “Children’s home”, which is a place where people help African children with schoolwork and where they are serving meals for them. Another place we went to was “Cradle of Mankind” where we walked around in caves, which was pretty cool. Furthermore, we drove with the bus to a lions park and of course, we were on a safari as well. Seeing animals was one of the best experiences. The landscape and the nature in South Africa are amazing and changes a lot, which also was part of the experience. We drove by a lot of beautiful view spots. Another cool and fun thing we tried was cable cars, which we really liked – The view in the mountains was amazing as well.
We also went to “Shaka Marine World”, where we had a tour guide who showed us around and afterwards we had time to see their dolphin show and to look at all the fish and penguins. Furthermore, we went on a lake cruise where we saw plenty of crocodiles and hippos, which was a huge experience as well.
We are so thankful for all the work Round Table are doing to make this possible. On a trip like this, you get to experience things which you wouldn’t see as just a “normal tourist”, which makes it very unique. We have definitely grown with this trip and do now have relationships across country borders.
We can only recommend others to go on a trip like this – You won’t regret it!
Best regards,
Emilie Ørskov and Christine Ravn, Denmark
Download the complete Tour Report: Report from Denmark about Sydafrika-YAP-tur-2018