Bush Camp

As part of our orientation for the international students to get to know each other we went to a camp called Bush Camp. Essentially we went into the ‘Bush’ for the weekend away from electricity and the technological luxuries that we are used to. We left around 11 A.M. on Friday (February 4) morning and the drive was about an hour long to get to Umlambo (where Bush camp was located).

On the drive there though we stopped at a Reptile farm so we had knowledge of what snakes we may run into while at Bush camp. The reptile farm was very fun. We walked through a small zoo like exhibit which housed several incredibly poisonous snakes all of which are indigenous to South Africa. Soon after the exhibit was over the head of the reptile farm had us all sit down in a communal area so he could brings reptiles and snakes to show us.

Head of Reptile Farm

He brought out a few snakes and reptiles that were relatively harmless but then he brought out the two most dangerous snakes in South Africa! The two snakes he brought out were the Black Mamba and the Cape Cobra with both responsible for the highest number of deaths to humans. Probably the most incredible part of that experience is that he brought them out at the same time!! He would tease them and get them to settle down but it was still insane that he was simultaneously restraining the two most dangerous snakes in South Africa. Anyways after explaining some of the reasons what made these snakes so dangerous he brought out a Burmese python for us to hold. The one we held was about 40 pounds but we were told that they grow much larger.

Burmese Python - Luke's New Favorite Animal!

Finally to round out the reptile farm we were able to pet a crocodile. All in all it was a once in a lifetime experience that I now I will never forget

Soon after that we traveled the remaining miles to Bush camp. The camp consisted of a main shelter overlooking a river. Further back there were tents and wooden cabins where we stayed. In addition there was an obstacle in the woods and a climbing wall. Anyway soon after that we played some ‘get to know’ each other games for a while and then went to bed early. Initially the plan was for all of us to run the obstacle course all day and do some other activities outside. Unfortunately it rained literally all weekend! We were told that the area had been experiencing for two years so we just got dumped on. While we didn’t run the obstacle it was still an enjoyable weekend. As I mentioned earlier the camp overlooked a river. We spent much of our time when it wasn’t raining there. Hanging over the river though hung a zipline that you could ‘zip’ down and jump into the river with. That was a pretty exhilarating experience to be so far above the river and then just let go. Another highlight of the weekend was doing a portion of the obstacle when it was raining. We all were getting sick of being inside so we decided to all go to the obstacle course. We went through several obstacles of which the highlight was crawling through a mud pit.

For dinner that night we had what they called a 'Wild Beast Feast.' We didn't have any silverware so we ate everything with our hands. We tasted different kinds of South African food while being brought back to our childhood days of eating. After we had to put these skits on. The only rules we were given was that we came from a different universe, all of us had different languages (symbolizing South Africa the rainbow nation), and had to create a language, uniform, and origin story of our own. The stories were extremely imaginative and funny.  We then ended the night with a slide show our leaders put together from all the happened during the weekend.

Tim's Skit Group

Even though everything didn’t go as planned at Bush camp I still had a lot of fun. I got to know some people that are from elsewhere that are attending NMMU and I also got to know many of the members of our group much better so that was beneficial.

The Bush Camp Group

Pretoria

We then were on our way to Pretoria. Pretoria, if you aren’t familiar, is the capital city of South Africa. It is also a major tourist city and we took advantage of it. After going to bed and sleeping for 16 hours we made our way to downtown Pretoria. We ate at a local restaurant and went through a mall area to see what the shops were like. Stores have a much shorter schedule here as they are only open from 9-5:30. After realizing that stores weren’t open so late we headed to the last and most exciting part of the Pretoria tour: the capital building. Considering that we hadn’t seen any national capital building in our lives this was a pretty big deal. The courtyard in front of the capital was almost as magnificent as the building itself. We would stay there for about a half an hour taking it all in and then headed back to our hostel.




The Capital Building



That night we acquainted ourselves with the other guests at the hostel. There were maybe three of them—the three who ran the hostel—who were from South Africa. Other than that they were from all different parts of the world; some were from Norway, Ireland, Australia, Slovakia, the U.S., Turkey, England, and many more. We drank African beer and wine while chatting with all the guests. It was great.  Pretoria was quite the experience and the one place in the Gauteng province that we would go back to.

Kloofing

We went kloofing the second day we got to South Africa. Kloofing (also known as canyoneering) is extreme hiking which involves abseiling, bouldering, mountain climbing, wading through rivers, etc. We left Johannesburg around 7:15 to our rendezvous point in hopes of getting there around 8:15. 2 hours after getting lost we arrived at our destination. We were joined with two couple and our guide. We took another 40 minute drive to our final destination and began our climb up the mountain. From 10 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. we kloofed away! We started out hiking up a mountain towards this gorge that we would be heading back down in.

The Gorge Right in the Middle of the Picture

 Then at the top of that mountain we took a break and a few pictures. The view was breathtaking!

The View

 Our guide cautioned us to be careful; some of the trees had been hallowed out by the river flowing through the gorge and if you moved to fast you could step through it while moving forward and break your leg. If you did you’d be staying in the gorge for the night… very motivational words for us to take our time. We got into the gorge and immediately used ropes and our harness as an aid to make our way up steep, rocky paths and through pools or water. It was just a warm up for what would happen next. After getting past the large pool of water, we were at our second resting place. We hung around there while our guide got our abseil ready.

Great Pose Tim

We then abseiled down (repel by roping down a cliff/boulder/waterfall/etc) a waterfall crevasse. We then continued our way down the gorge on our way back. It was a great experience and all for $50.

The Abseil

Flight to Johannesburg

Flight/Jo-burg

The day had finally arrived!! We were finally on our way to South Africa. Our flight was scheduled for 10:40 A.M. so our entire family arrived at about 8 A.M. or so at the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport. After we had said our good byes Luke, Anders and I made our way to customs and then to our gate. Everything went as planned and we took off on time. Our first flight took us from Minneapolis to Washington D.C. and from there we were supposed to fly to Johannesburg. Unfortunately due to weather our flight from D.C. to Jo-Burg was cancelled so we had to stay in Washington D.C. for the night. We were set up in a Best Western about five to ten minutes away from the airport, as we could not fly to Johannesburg until the next day. The night was relatively uneventful except for our odd waitress at the restaurant we went to near our hotel. She was a very nice woman but just very quarky. Many times I think she would be trying to relate to our college type of mind set but it would come off as odd or forced. As we were finishing our meal she all gave us high fives because we told her we were from Minnesota. (?) To top it off after our meal instead of asking if we wanted any dessert she instead asked if we would like an after meal shot (??). While she was odd I must say she lightened the mood a little bit for us and it took our minds off our flight cancellation. Soon after we got back to our hotel we called it an early night and went to bed.

We woke up the next morning and arrived at the airport at about 1 P.M. We made our way through customs, had some lunch, and lounged near our gate until our flight left at 5:30 P.M. This was my first time flying overseas so going into it I was a little nervous but the flight went without a hitch. We travelled from D.C. to Dakar, Senegal for refueling and then flew the remainder of the trip to Johannesburg, South Africa. We got to Johannesburg at 5:40 P.M. so it was about a 17 hour flight. After we got our luggage we made our way to the car rentals so we could rent our car. We got all of our paper work done we were led to our car and soon after left to go to our backpacker hostel for the night. In South Africa cars travel on the left side of the road so that was something we immediately had to get used to. The hostel was only a few minutes away so we were looking forward to getting there. Unfortunately my poor navigation skills prevented this for nearly an hour. We took several wrong turns but finally we made it to our hostel. As we were driving around though we immediately noticed how much different things were from the United States. Every single house that we came across had a gate surrounding the property with an electric fence at the top and many of the houses had security that had armed responses. Finally we made it to our hostel met the owners, soon after that we went to bed.