ALICIA MARISKA CHANTELLE CHANELL LAURIZEL CATY NANDI

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "ALICIA MARISKA CHANTELLE CHANELL LAURIZEL CATY NANDI"

Dustin Skinner
5 years ago
Views:

2 CHANELL ALICIA NANDI LAURIZEL CHANTELLE CATY MARISKA Dr. Henri Bezuidenhout, our fearless, fun, funny, patient, friend and leader on this much anticipated International Trade Honours Tour 2012

Day 1: Tuesday 4 September ON THE WAY TO KZN So it begins the long trip to education that just happens to rime with vacation.

So we were off at 4 am, very excited, but tired driving through interesting places, not specifically having any roads (thank you GPS).

With the beautiful view of the beach Francois and Johan developed the urge to swim in the rain, convincing George to join them later.

3 Day 1: Tuesday 4 September ON THE WAY TO KZN So it begins the long trip to education that just happens to rime with vacation. Waking up at 02:30 is not the easiest thing to do as proven by Caty and a certain lecturer (cough, Dr Henri Bezuidenhout) who accompanied us on the trip. So we were off at 4 am, very excited, but tired driving through interesting places, not specifically having any roads (thank you GPS). After 7 hours of driving we arrived at Amanzimtoti, realising we have to move our luggage to the 20 th floor of the building. With the beautiful view of the beach Francois and Johan developed the urge to swim in the rain, convincing George to join them later. At night time the group enjoyed the buy one get one free special at Panarottis, while filling our tummies again an urge develops to play glow in the dark put-put, o yes it does exist. And the catch phrase of the tour was established- WAAR BLY JY? JY BLY STIL!

Day 2: Wednesday 5 September- TEAMBUILDING Early morning wakeup, Chris, Nandi and Mariska were making French toast for breakfast to gain enough energy to take on Africa s longest zip line, if that

Luckily for us we had Chanell s double cab Toyota bakkie and a tour guide with a sense of humour mentioning facts like the cable can only hold 30kg and that rats have eaten away parts of the gear.

The longest zip line was 630m long and hung 330m from the ground. We reached speeds of between 70-100km going down the zip line.

4 Day 2: Wednesday 5 September- TEAMBUILDING Early morning wakeup, Chris, Nandi and Mariska were making French toast for breakfast to gain enough energy to take on Africa s longest zip line, if that wasn t enough it was raining as well. We arrived at Oribi Gorge that morning, ready to gear up and go. Luckily for us we had Chanell s double cab Toyota bakkie and a tour guide with a sense of humour mentioning facts like the cable can only hold 30kg and that rats have eaten away parts of the gear. He was joking of course otherwise we would not be alive today. Off we were sliding, going crazy and having a great time in the cold and wet weather. The longest zip line was 630m long and hung 330m from the ground. We reached speeds of between km going down the zip line. Think that is crazy-think again- the worst was the 4x4 trip on the back of a Land Cruiser with 14 people on in. Going up to the top of the mountain again on the steepest roads filled with huge rocks was probably the worst and most scary thing many of us had ever experienced! When we got back we enjoyed a nice and hot cup of Hot Chocolate and laughed at what we as a group just accomplished together. It was really a bonding experience. That evening we filled our tummies up with all you can eat ribs at RJ s in Amanzimtoti, and spent the rest of the evening talking and laughing about our university years, which have gone by so fast!

Day 3: Thursday 6 September- EDUCATIONAL + a dash of FUN By now the rain was accepted as part of the trip and it

RORO vessels containing thousands of cars and container terminals in their multitude amazed us all.

international rules are for ships going out and coming into the harbour, from the skipper.

5 Day 3: Thursday 6 September- EDUCATIONAL + a dash of FUN By now the rain was accepted as part of the trip and it hasn t stopped us from having fun so fun will remain on the program with a trip to the Durban harbour and Ushaka for the day. The trip on the boat (a yacht, actually) through the harbour started wet and ended wet, but the amazing sights of RORO vessels containing thousands of cars and container terminals in their multitude amazed us all. Chantelle got a once in a lifetime experience to actually drive the yacht through the harbour and learn what the international rules are for ships going out and coming into the harbour, from the skipper. The value of first-hand knowledge of ports will be with us forever. At Ushaka Marine World we got to watch a dolphin show and ended the day with bags filled with most yummy fudge ever made. Alicia experienced a 2 nd birthday the evening in spur and we scored a free desert.

Firstly we saw the storage of the bulk items (coal and pig iron), and the loading of the bulk into the vessels by cranes from the side of the vessels.

7 Day 4: Friday 7 September- FIRST HAND EXPERIENCE= PRICELESS Its early morning and off to Richards Bay for the tour of the bulk handling terminal. The weather remained cold and wet; we arrived at Seagull Lodge where we would stay for the night. Xstrata came to the lodge to get us started on our tour of the bulk terminal of Richards Bay. Firstly we saw the storage of the bulk items (coal and pig iron), and the loading of the bulk into the vessels by cranes from the side of the vessels. After a long wait we could finally board a Chinese vessel where we could meet crew members and the loading and navigation process could be explained to us first-hand. The crew was firstly very excited to see the girls and after a while we realised being at sea for several months, they did not mind seeing the guys as well. We also learned that the Chinese love saying the words yah yah yah (YES) and no poplem. You would think after experiencing all this the day would be over, not yet, Xstrata organised a braai and open bar for us to meet some of the port staff. After hours of conversation and laughter the staff decided it was bed time we were off to the lodge. It was only 20:00 and there was no way we were staying at the lodge on the last night of our tour, so we decided to find a beach, with 9 people in one standard Toyota Corola. Finally after driving like a taxi, through very scary places with the lights off at times, we found a beach, even though it was a beach linked to a park with gangsters, we decided to go anyway. Seeing the waves it instantly made Johan and Laurizel jump into the water making Nandi, Francois, Chris, Chantelle, Caty and Mariska follow shortly after. Dr. Henri decided to rather just catch this on camera and be the RichardsBAYWATCH lifeguard.

Day 5: Saturday 8 September- ON THE ROAD HOME 04:30 and we are off back home on the back roads of natal to shorten the drive home, but a surprise awaited us around a bend about 50km outside Empangeni.

After removing the tyres we realised that the rims needed to be replaced and after spending the whole day in Empangeni we could finally head back to Potch.

Last words from us After many months of planning and hard work everything paid off and in spite of the wet weather the whole week, we did everything we planned, and we got so much more out of this

9 Day 5: Saturday 8 September- ON THE ROAD HOME 04:30 and we are off back home on the back roads of natal to shorten the drive home, but a surprise awaited us around a bend about 50km outside Empangeni. Alicia hit a pot hole blowing out both her left side tyres. After removing the tyres we realised that the rims needed to be replaced and after spending the whole day in Empangeni we could finally head back to Potch. If the rims weren t enough a bribe had to get us past a traffic officer. Finally we reached home at 22:00 happy to finally go to bed. Last words from us After many months of planning and hard work everything paid off and in spite of the wet weather the whole week, we did everything we planned, and we got so much more out of this experience than any one of us could ever had imagined. We are now friends where we were just classmates, and to have been able to see where the ships load and offload the cargo, and just how big the cranes, and ships are, to have seen RoRo ships, Panamax ships and actually see where the bulk cargo is stored on-board the ship was amazing. We met the people who are role models for us in the shipping industry and they shared their years of experience with us, the good and the bad. Our minds have been enriched with so much knowledge about the whole import and export industry, and this would not have been possible without the people who helped us financially to get there. So to everyone who had any contribution to our tour-thank you so much!

1 The village party. Read and listen.

1 The village party. Read and listen. Read and listen. 1 The village party Sophia Walter and her brother, William, lived in a small village. On the last day of May, Sophia said to William, It s June next month and 21st June is the longest