Day Three: SOWETO, Pretoria, Lion Park Adventure and "The Carnivore"

As the African sun dawned, another heady day of excitement awaited RHS' merry band of cultural and musical travellers; first stop, SOWETO, to visit Nelson Mandela's former house, the famous Regina Mundi church and the Hector Pieterson museum. Through the whirlwind tour of this vibrant township, and the whole host of smiling faces that greeted our arrival, this was, without doubt, an extremely memorable and uplifting experience.

After the trip to SOWETO, we headed east, to Pretoria, visiting the Union Building and the Voortrekker Monument  The latter was a large memorial erected in 1938 to commemorate the trek made by many Boer Afrikaners from the Eastern Cape into the central area of South Africa during the mid 19th Century; their journey was an attempt to discover new land and to escape the harsh  laws passed by the then, ruling British colony.  With this impressive backdrop, the Band played another excellent concert, with many a passing tourist, overawed by their performance.



To finish the day, the group then returned to the Lion Park, to get in touch with their leonine side.  Admittedly, when the 'caged' safari truck broke down in the middle of the Lion enclosure, there were a few muffled cries of concern; one student even suggested feeding Mr Jones to the ravenous pride of lions, thereby using his ravaged body act as a decoy, while the rest of the group scarpered.  Disaster was soon averted by simpler means.

Three RHS girls take pity on a stray African 'moggy'

Somewhat paradoxically, we then  headed from a 'game conservation' site, to one of Africa's most famous 'game restaurants' which included crocodile, kudu and zebra on the menu. The phrase, 'this tastes a lot like chicken' was rather ubiquitous amongst the student body, but it was, without doubt, a truly extraordinary culinary experience. Thankfully, one student who was desperate to have his photo taken standing next to a zebra, had his dream come true, as shown by the last picture.

Well he didn't specify if the Zebra had to be dead or alive!  

Joel with his snapshot of the local wildlife