Gap Year Experiences

Work your way around the world

Monday 29 September 2008

After a long week of talks, fairs and generally jet-setting around the UK, team Pepper is in full swing getting back to the office grind. With so much Gap year activity last week, I thought I would dedicate todays blog to all our Gap Year travellers, past, present and future. More specifically, why is South Africa such an amazing Gap Year destination and why should you head out there asap!

It's the huge range of cultures, landscapes and of course, travel opportunities and courses that should be attracting you. From unbelievably beautiful coastlines to spectacular mountain ranges and the ruggedly beautiful bush, home to sunsets and great African wildlife. The people are just as diverse and equally beautiful. From the cosmopolitan models and high rollers of Camps Bay to the nomadic san tribe (or bushmen) in the north, South Africa overflows in diversity.

For a worthwhile gap year, I would suggest joining us and completing your Yachtmaster sailing training in the crystal clear waters of the Atlantic, around Cape Town. This gives you incredible opportunities to travel and work on board yachts on some of the worlds most beautiful coastlines.

Or do your PADI Dive-master or Dive instructor at Aliwal Shoal, one of the top ten dive spots in the world. Then head off to Thailand or perhaps Mozambique to work in a dive shop. Not a bad life at all!

Why not become a surf instructor in the warm waters of Durban or complete a photography or journalism course in Cape Town, then pick up some work as a freelance writer or photographer. This is a job that can be done on the road and allows you to keep moving and making money at the same time.

Or if you are thinking of working your way around the world, being a barman/woman isn't a bad way to do it. Learn to be a professional barman with one of our cocktail courses and work your way around the night life capitals of the world.

The options of things to do are endless and there are courses for everyone. Spend some time on your Gap Year picking up a few valuable skills. All of these allow you to pick up jobs throughout your travels and work your way around the world. And what better way to learn a few money-making skills than while travelling around South Africa, a country as beautiful and diverse as all the courses and options on offer.

Call us for more details and all our options of courses and trips.

Cheers!

Vince

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Politics and travel

Tuesday 23 September 2008

A slightly different blog today, but pretty relevant I think. For anyone that follows any sort of news, you will probably have heard of the recent events in South Africa involving the current president of the country, Thabo Mbeki resigning under pressure from his own party, the ANC. Now this news has sparked some panick among a lot of people and specially among some of you who were considering travelling to the country in the near future. Claims that the country is heading downhill and going to go the way of Zimbabwe are fairly common and a genuine worry for a lot of people out there. Jacob Zuma who now looks set to take up the presidency is an unknown quantity in a lot of regards, however he has been in court on a few serious charges, all of which he has so far managed to avoid. He is also a man of the people enjoying a lot of support from trade unions and working class voters. What does this mean though, for South Africa as a country and more specifically for your plans to travel there?

South Africa has been through a lot in the last 14 or so years since our first democratic elections and the birth of what is now known as the rainbow nation. It certainly has had its problems and continues to do so, but what has remained strong, is its democracy and freedoms. Basic rights such as freedom of speech have not been in existence in Zimbabwe and many other African examples where things have gone horribly wrong. The truth in South Africa is that Mbeki has not been performing and he has not delivered what he promised. This has led to the democratic process of the people of the country showing their support to someone else and the result is a new leader. What we don't know is how this new leader is going to perform in the years to come and what affect he is going to have on the rainbow nation, but what you can be sure of is that we are a long long way from coming anywhere close to a situation such as the one in Zimbabwe, and if we do, we have our democracy and the will of the people to force change. Recent events show that democracy is alive and well in South Africa and it is still one of the most beautiful, interesting and diverse places you could visit. So don't waste anymore time..get there immediately and soak up the atmosphere of a healthy country!

Vince

Vince

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Part II

Tuesday 16 September 2008

So, following on from Cape Town, I thought I would move up the famous garden route and along one of the most spectacular pieces of coastline in the world.

The Garden Route is a very well marketed part of the country, for very good reason though. The beauty of this part of the country lies not only in the coastline itself but also the great towns that are dotted along the route. The first tip of the day is rather than taking the standard route of the N2 national highway out of Cape Town, rather head into the Roberson valley that I mentioned last week and take the R62 route to Oudtshoorn. There are some very small but amazing little towns dotted along this route and the pace of life in this part of the world is significantly slower than speeding up the N2.
Inside Tip: Stop at Ronnies Sex Shop for a meal and a drink. (This is a small and very cool little bar along the R62. It used to be just Ronnies Shop until some of his friends painted sex next to it as a joke. This started bringing in more and more curious visitors and the name stayed)

From Ronnies, just outside of Barrydale, head into Outdshoorn for some ostrich and crocodile farming and a visit to the famous Cango Caves. The caves are absolutely incredible and the adventure tour takes you through some pretty tight sections including the Devils chimney and the mailbox. Not for the claustrophobic.
Inside Tip: Visit Oudtshoorn around the beginning of April for the Klein Karoo National Arts Festival to get a real inside look at Afrikaans music and culture.

From Oudtshoorn, take a really beautiful drive over the Outeniqua Pass to the coast and head through to Knynsa, voted one of South Africa's favourite towns ( a few days strolling around the town and you will soon see why)
Inside Tip: Visit around the beginning of July and catch the Knysna Oyster Festival, one of the biggest festivals in the country, featuring a lot of Oysters and some great cycling, running and adventure races. Make sure you book accommodation well in advance.

Moving further along the coast, just inland from East London, lies the spectacular Amathole mountain range and the tiny town of Hogsback. Famed as the area that inspired J.R.R Tolkiens Lord of the Rings. This is not very likely to be an accurate story as Tolkien left here at a very early age, but irrelevant of that fact, it is a truly incredible place. The sort of place in which time completely stands still and you will never have felt so relaxed. There are some great walks and waterfalls for any level of fitness.
Inside Tip: Make sure you have a meal at the Hogsback Inn and make some time for lying on your back watching the stars, there aren't many places where you will see such a beautiful night-time sky.

Till next time..

Vince

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Ethical. Ecological. Excellent

Friday 12 September 2008

For those of you that read The Sunday Times this past weekend, you might have noticed the Cover story of their Travel section, titled: Ethical. Ecological. Excellent, an article about eco-destinations that combine all three qualities. Amongst the hotlist of destinations, was South Africa, which: "receives high marks for supporting eco-friendly, community-based tourism ventures, as well as for species protection and vigilance against poaching."

On that note, I thought I would include some insider tips on how to take advantage of some of South Africa's lesser known natural beauty, starting today with Cape Town:

First up, Table Mountain, now I know that this one is by no means an insiders tip but what not many people get to experience is hiking up this spectacular mountain from one of its back routes. (The vast majority will hike up the well worn path on the face of the mountain, or catch the cable car up). To really appreciate what a large and special part of Cape Town this mountain is, I highly recommend buying yourself a map at any local camping/hiking/outdoor store and pick one of the many routes that bring you up the back side of the mountain, These routes are not incredibly strenuous, but do require a relative fitness level (after all, you are going up a mountain). The views on either side of the mountain are incredible and well worth any blisters.
Inside tip: treat yourself to a swim in one of the reservoirs on top, this isn't strictly street legal, so you didn't hear it from me, before walking the last stretch to the cable station, catching a much deserved ride down and finishing with a sun-downer at Caprice in Camps Bay.

Next up on the list also involves mountain walking in Cape Town and is incredibly popular with the locals. Take a few drinks and walk up to the top of Lions Head to watch the sun go down over the Atlantic Ocean. Amazing! A particularly interesting way to do Lions Head is at full moon, when some of the local hippies and other assorted interesting characters climb up and celebrate full moon.
Inside tip: take your own home-made brownies.

When the crowds get too heavy and the world famous Beaches of Clifton and Camps Bay get too packed to handle, make your way out of Cape Town through to Gordons Bay on the False Bay side of the coast. Just beyond Gordons Bay on the coastal road is the hidden gem of Koel Bay. You'll see cars parked on the right hand side of the road. Join them and hike down the short path to the small, protected beach below. Avoid the main beach and campsite.
Inside tip: Take your surfboard as the waves here can be very good in the right conditions
Inside tip #2: Just before you get to Koel Bay, there is a small river that you will cross, park here and follow the river upstream for some beautiful rockpools and crazy cliff jumps.

Moving out of Cape Town, if you are looking for some very chilled wine farms, head for the small town of Robertson and the wine farms along the beautiful Breede River. Not only is this area incredible beautiful but the farms are a lots less commercial than the more popular Stellenbosch wine route.
Inside tip: The Roberston wine-farms provide free wine tastings, with some simply bringing out glasses and a selection of wines and leaving you to it. Try to avoid being the designated driver.

That's all for now...

Check back next week for more...

Cheers

Vince

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Step out of the comfort zone and come to Cape Town

Tuesday 9 September 2008

What is it that makes some people fearless and others nervous of leaving the house? Is it something you're born with maybe, or is it how you grow up.

I like to think that it has a lot to do with starting small and and working your way up the list of fears. I like this theory because it implies that becoming fearless to a degree is something that anyone can become given enough willpower. Some people will however get round to starting at a much younger age, thereby laying the foundation for a life of constantly upping the ante and pushing themselves to find the next biggest rush. For others however, its a process that is never started and just gets harder and harder the longer its put off, thereby condemning themselves to a life in the dreaded comfort-zone. For some of us, pushing our boundaries and facing up to our fears is the most difficult thing we can think of, for others, its the constant rush of conquering those imaginary demons that gets us going. The one thing that we can be certain of is that it is always a mental battle. I don't believe that the battle ever gets easier, you just become tougher and develop better weapons. The first time you win that battle however and stand up to a fear is an unbelievably exhilarating experience and often one which makes you realise how unfounded your fear was in the first place. You feel like you're on top of the world and its this that will keep you coming back over and over again. Its the healthiest addiction you can have!

Travel is something that can bring about a whole range of fears (mostly irrational) and thereby reasons not to, that can be a huge beast to overcome. While I have never met a person who says that seeing new places and experiencing new things is anything but the most amazing experience you can have, a huge number of people will never step out of their comfort zone and see whats beyond. I believe that travel, and here I mean real travel, not a last minute deal to a resort in Spain with 37 of your neighbours from back home as company, should challenge you constantly.

It should make you feel alive and using this weeks quote from our website: “To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world.”- Freya Stark, I would like to add that awakening alone in a strange town is also one of the scariest sensations in the world and along with this fear and the fact that you have overcome it by simply being there in the first place, comes incredible freedom. The type of freedom that you feel when you first get your driving license or walk out of your last A-level exam. The feeling that you are on top of the world and nothing can touch you. That is the sort of feeling that real travel should bring with it. And the reason you feel free has more than a little to do with the fact that you have overcome your fears of stepping out and doing things, of meeting people and dealing with ideas and cultures completely foreign to you. As the famous quote goes: “Whatever you think you can do or believe you can do, begin it. Action has magic, grace and power in it.”
If you have never been travelling before there is no time like the present. Get up and brush past fear like it isn't even there and let the butterflies in your stomach fly free! Plan a great trip and go. One thing I can guarantee is that you will not regret it.

Why all this talk of overcoming fear today? Well it started from reading a recent article on a few of the most amazing travel experiences you can have and in that list was visit Cape Town for the Red Bull Big Wave Africa competition, held in none other than my home neighbourhood of Hout Bay in Cape Town. Now these guys are overcoming some serious fears, but you only have to look at the stoke on their faces to realise why they do it. While there aren't many of us who can comprehend dropping down the face of a 20 foot wave, most of us can comprehend the feeling of facing up to something that scares you and overcoming it. If you have ever heard Baz Luhrmans sunscreen song, there's a line in there that says: do one thing each day that scares you. In my opinion this is one of the greatest pieces of advice anyone could take to heart. Start small and work your way up. Who knows, maybe sometime in the not too distant future you will be sitting in the freezing cold, shark infested water of Dungeons about to take off on a 20 foot wave.

The Red Bull Big Wave Africa is held in July every year in Cape Town. The event goes ahead once organisers decide that the swell is big enough. Give us a call on 0800 030 4207 if you're interested in organising a trip to see this incredible competition.

Vince

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