South Africa 2017
- Colin Gipson-Tansil
- Apr 17, 2017
- 3 min read
South Africa. What can I say? It was the experience of a lifetime. I traveled with a group called Young Blacks Who Travel. The group mainly resides in the DMV (District of Columbia, Maryland & Virginia). Altogether there was a little more than 30 of us. We spent about a week and a half traveling throughout the country. The first tour we went on was of Robben Island. This is an island about 4 miles of the coast of Cape Town where Nelson Mandela and many others were imprisoned. Our tour guide was a former prisoner. He spent 7 years imprisoned on the island and has since come back to work. We had a chance to visit Mandela's cell and some of the living quarters of the general population.
The next sunrise brought us to the Bo-Kaap, a neighborhood at the bottom of Signal Hill filled with pastel colored houses. A tour guide took us through the neighborhood in which his best friend grew up in. You could feel the connection of the community while walking through. Everyone greeted you will a smile even though we were just tourists from another land.
After the Bo-Kaap right before dinner on the V&A Waterfront we ventured on to the opening day of a Jazz Fest off of Long Street. It was really entertaining and my girlfriend even opted for some face glitter which she later regretted when we got to the restaurant. The music gave me a comfort and a vibe that reminded me of the States. Music truly has no boarders and I was a witness of that.
Next up was a trip to the top of Table Mountain. The mountain has a flat top and closely resembles a . . . . . table. A cable-way car takes you to the top of the mountain where we were met by gorgeous panoramic views. Mountain ranges met the sky on the horizon and the view was truly breath-taking.
One of the most emotional tours was the Cape Town City Tour. This was emotional because we had the chance to see first hand the effects of apartheid in South Africa. The highlight was visiting Langa, a township right out side the Cape Town city center. Langa was designated for many Black Africans before the apartheid era. The main language spoken there was Xhosa which is tonal language that makes use of click consonants.
The second to last tour was the Cape Peninsula Tour. This involved touring the Cape of Good Hope, The Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens and Boulder Beach where we saw penguins. On this tour we had a chance to see the most southern tip of Africa where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet. Even though a good portion of the tour was spent we still got a chance to hop out at every destination and explore.
For the last leg of the tour we boarded a plane to Johannesburg and from there we drove out to Mabula Game Lodge. This was a 3 hour drive out to the the savannas of South Africa. I had absolutely no idea what to expect before we got there. Once we arrived I was pleasantly surprised with the grounds. The room was better than the Marriott we stayed at in Cape Town. Also, the food was even better. I tried many different types of antelope to kind of get away from the Zebra and Ostrich I had earlier in the trip. Impala was probably my favorite dish of the trip easily out doing the 500g rib-eye I had earlier in the week. At the lodge we traveled on safaris twice a day, they were easily the most memorable part of the trip.
I had a wonderful time traveling with group. From meeting new people, shark diving, safari riding and township visiting, it was something I will never EVER forget. I WILL BE BACK.
