Harriet’s South African extravaganza!
This year I took my first trip to Africa, and what a trip it was too! In a marathon-like mission I visited a total of 8 projects in South Africa and met some of the most incredible people I’ve ever come across.
I stayed in the Real Gap volunteer house in Fish Hoek with the volunteers, which was lovely. It is a very clean spacious house, and it even has a swimming pool to laze by in your free time!
After a 10 hour flight I got thrown straight in, visiting the South Africa Surf and Community Volunteers project in Muizenburg and having a surf lesson with our coordinator out there. She showed me the Surf School where they help fit the kids with a wetsuit and suitable board and also where they prepare meals for them at the end of their lesson. I joined in on their warm up on the beach and just generally messed around with them until they went out for their lesson with our volunteers; they absolutely love the club that they run out there and their enthusiasm was infectious!
Over the following days I visited 2 of the schools that we send volunteers to for our Literacy Volunteers, Sports Volunteers and Schools and Development projects. Both schools are lovely and beautifully run, but with around 1,200 pupils to 30-40 permanent teachers they need all the help they can get from our volunteers. On each of the projects the volunteers give struggling children a chance to have one-on-one teaching, which is hugely beneficial for their development with reading and writing, which is so important for their futures.
I then took an internal flight for the day from Cape Town to Johannesburg to visit our Lion Cub Experience programme. I spent the day meeting all the volunteers, playing with the gorgeous cubs and being driven round in the safari trucks around the game reserve to spot the big cats and much more. The volunteers loved the opportunity of working with the cubs each day and also getting to help the rangers and have contact with the public visiting the sanctuary. The giraffe feeding station was a favourite as well!
Next on the itinerary was an express 1 day Garden Route tour to visit our South Africa Wildlife Volunteers and Adventure Tour project (people on the programme will take 3 days on this tour usually). We stayed in the volunteer house in Outdshoorn which was beautiful and visited the Zoological Park where the volunteers work for 10 days in a row. I got to have my picture taken with the leopard cubs, hold a python and do a cage dive with crocodiles, which was terrifying and brilliant at the same time! That night we went to an awesome restaurant by a hippo watering hole for cocktails and dinner as the sun went down, with an absolutely stunning view to look out on.
The Hospital Volunteers, Child Development and Childcare Volunteers projects were definitely the ones that made the biggest impact on me. They are all brilliantly run and are very professional in making sure the children at each project get as much one-on-one time and love that they need.
Overall a fantastic trip, meeting wonderful people in amazing country!
Check out more of our South Africa trips here
Projects at a glance:
