Gap Year Experiences

Whitewater rafting and art gallerys

Wednesday 14 January 2009

Greetings from the beautiful little town of Clarens. Our January 2009 experience is now fully underway and after 3 days we already have a few nice sunburns to celebrate everyone leaving the English winter behind and arriving in the South African summer.

Everyone arrived safely on Sunday after a few short flight delays. After a quick powernap at our base in Johannesburg, we spent the evening at the beautiful Moyo restuarant overlooking Johannesburgs Zoo Lake. An amazing buffet consisting of a variety of African food mixed with a few cocktails and some good conversation was followed by an early night for everyone.

Monday morning we packed up Peter the Pepper bus and headed 3 hours south to where we are now in Clarens. We have come down here for a few days of orientation. Its a chance for everyone to get to know each other a bit better and for everyone to go through all the smaller details of the trip that need chatting about. Clarens is the perfect place for our orienation this year as it is a very beautiful little town, innhabited by a high number of artists and surrounded by stunning mountain scenery. The perfect place to relax and acclimatise to South Africa.

However, the main reason we are in Clarens is the exact opposit of relaxing. We came down to take advantage of one of the best whitewater rafting rivers in the country. Tuesday was spent on the river with local guides. They took us down the crystal clean water of the Ash river, featuring some very fun grade 3 and 4 rapids! It defintely got everyones adrenalin pumping. The day on the river set the scene for a few drinks last night and a sleep-in this morning.

Tommorrow its back to Johannesburg and we begin our Game Reserve programme on Friday, which everyone is seriosuly looking forward to.

Cheers for now

Vince