Cheetah's

I On our first full day in South Africa we went to the cheetah enclosure after a quick trip to pick and pay as Rob forgot the essential need of “undercrackers”.  We then started on our travels on the bus that could be mistaken for an illegal rave as dj Adams put his classic tunage on. We made our way to the cheetah enclosure, the mood in the group was very mixed some anxious about the cheetahs and some happy to see them!

 As the briefing happened and our excitement was contained it finally got to our group which was last (obviously) as the routine of the stroking of the cheetahs it came to the last person in our group OT and the cheetah didn’t want to sit for him and kept rolling over and moving away so we had to call it a day and that as Owen came out on top in this battle!

A big thanks to Mr McGuckin and the parents that have worked so hard to make this trip possible and all the hard work he puts in to make sure we’re all having fun and having a good time.

Rob and Reilly 

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The journey was long but a lot of fun. We enjoyed each other’s company…

The journey was long but a lot of fun. We enjoyed each other’s company and got to know each other very well. 

At the change over in Dubai we got a Mcdonalds breakfast before heading on our 9 hour flight! There has been two very obvious bromances so far, Blair and Sam, Reilly and Rob.

Once we arrived in Cape Town we met Mario and Robbie who helped us with our luggage and we got to know them.
Our first night at the back pack was enjoyable! We found our rooms and started to unpack and got to know our surroundings. We spent the night as a big group eating dominoes and bonding all together before heading off to sleep for the busy days ahead.

Ellie Neilson

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Table Mountain

On Sunday we visited the stunning Table Mountain!! The cable cart took us up to over 1000 metres above sea level! We were so high up you could feel your ears pop. When we first got there we stopped for a bite to eat at the top, most went for the healthy option of pizza.

        

We then ventured on across to Maclear's Beacon; the highest point. We had 360 panoramic views over the beautiful city of Capetown. We took loads of photos.

        

After the millions of photo's we enjoyed a much needed break. Amy did some yoga, others took in the view and some played games.

We then took a leisurely stroll back down to get the cable cart. Surprisingly after our long and tiring walk, we all had plenty of energy to sing Wrecking Ball at the top of our lungs on the drive back to the backpack. We even attracted some fans with our fantastic singing

Siobhan

Beach

After the 3 hours of retail shopping, we went back to the hostel to change and headed to Camps Bay beach. Almost everyone of us sunbathed for half an hour until Mr McGuckin and Mr Robertson came back from the shops with ice cream for all of us to enjoy in the sun.

        

Although we couldn't swim in the sea, most of us went down the edge of the water to pose for photos. But as we all were waiting on the photo, a wave came up behind us and soaked us up to our shorts!

       

As we waited on the sun to dry us, a few of us decided to bury James in the sand, some sat in the shade and the others attempted to play volleyball with an empty water bottle.

        

After two hours of trying to tan and relax in the sand, we decided to head back to the hostel to get ready for dinner.


By Beth

Woodlands Primary and GCU

Just After we went to Welcome Primary, we went to Woodland Primary, the first primary Mr McGuckin had a link with in Cape Town. We didn't stay for long but we were with the kids during there break and we met loads of new, nice children.

After lunch, we went to the GCU, run by Mario, for the last time. It was another sunny day for playing basketball and skipping. Since it was our last day there was plenty on tears. 

At the GCU, we met many children who we connected with and had fun playing games such as rope skipping, basketball and chess - which Mr Robertson reduced a 5 year old to tears. We all had the greatest time at the GCU and it was an experience none of us will ever forget.

Last day teaching

Our last teaching day at Welcome Primary was today and after finishing off the prepared lessons, we took letters written by the first year Balwearie pupils to grades 5 and 6.

 The letters from the Scottish pupils contained information about their home and school lives as well as questions for the South African students to answer. The pupils from Welcome answered these questions and provided details about their lives here in Cape Town. While they wrote the letters we walked around and got to know the children on a more personal level. 

The lesson went well, however, the pupils from Heideveld are keen to keep the pen pal link going throughout the rest of the school year, instead of just when we visit.

 This would benefit the pupils as they would get a better idea of what life in Scotland is really like.
By Ellie and Calum. 

Safari

The over night safari started with the classic tunes blaring full blast in the vans with Mr Mcguckin or Mr Robertson dancing away, breaking fast and constantly to cause the van to bounce or hitting the roof to the beat of the song. 

After a two hour car journey we arrived at Aquela Safari Park, which was beautiful, the views every and any where were gorgeous. 

We headed straight to lunch, which all though we had eaten so much junk on the journey there, was well needed. The lunch was a buffet, we all had mountains on our plates. The food was amazing! After lunch we headed to the rooms, we unpacked and headed to enjoy some pool time .

After some relaxation we went to the safari trucks to go on the long awaited safari. We had a bus to ourselves which was great! As we entered the safari we were greeted by some hippos in the water, who were huge! 

we carried on our travels around the safari and we met many more animals such as elephants which were lovely but very static and seemed very lazy. 

Rhinos, which were also big, but less lazy and moved about. Which was exciting to watch. 

Giraffes, who i underestimated the size of their neck, the giraffe was galloping around the park with its legs hilariously kicking around in all directions. 

We seen hundreds of springbok, everywhere we went they were there. They were so small and cute. 

We had a dramatic encounter with some
Lions, which included our bus having some flat tire issues with the wheels, which Mr Mcguckin grabbed as his chance to tease us all, which was not appreciated. We stopped to get a new bus and had some sparkling grape juice with nuts and other little snacks which were delicious. We took great advantage off with views and  roamed around with Dylan popping out off bushes thinking he was funny. 

When we got on the new bus we carried on, we spotted some antelopes, Buffaloes and zebras.

After the safari we went to the rooms to get dolled up for our nighttime meal. Everyone looked lovely! And the meal was fantastic, again we all took advantage of the eat as much as you want styled buffet. 

We then all gathered in one off the rooms, which were a lot bigger, for a while until a few of us went to roast marshmallows. We were given a lesson on stars by a nice man, who showed us where Saturn, Venus and Mars was.

After a long but exciting day we headed to bed early as we were getting up at 5am for the morning safari. It was freezing and we were shattered, but Mr McGuckin still Thought it was acceptable to sing the Jurassic park theme tune at different points off the safari, which would be okay if it wasn't 6am in the morning! We seem similar animals as the night before which was so good, but then we went to ARC (Animal Rescue Centre) where we seen animals which were rescued but could not yet survive in the safari as they couldn't catch prey or defend themselves from predators. They had a crocodile, a leopard, which we got to clap, a lion and chickens or as Mr McGuckin likes to call them 'Nandos'. 

After we headed back to the hotel to get some well needed hot breakfast which went down an absolute treat to everyone!! We then packed and went home which we were all very sad about but we had an amazing time!