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DETAILED ITINERARY:
Day 1: JHB International Airport to The Cottages Guesthouse in Observatory.
‘The Cottages Guesthouse’ is a warm and welcoming home away from home for your first two nights in South Africa. Set in lush surroundings on Observatory Ridge, The Cottages exude all the charm of a peaceful country retreat. Each cottage is beautifully decorated with thoughtful touches for the visitor away from home. An English country estate in the heart of Johannesburg offers a gentle alternative for those who travel for business or pleasure to this hard-edged city. The setting of the country garden is situated on two and a half acres on Observatory Ridge and backs onto the Mervyn King Ridge Hiking Trail. It is within easy reach of the city centre and yet offers tranquil surroundings, abundant bird life beautiful views, and an amazing rock pool.
Enjoy a light lunch on arrival and a lazy sunny afternoon by the pool.
Sound Journey
On the first evening of your tour, you will be treated to a PRIVATE SOUND JOURNEY. Here you simply lie down and close your eyes and allow yourself to be massaged and mesmerized by a variety of soothing, harmonious sounds, produced completely live by experienced musicians. These powerful and evocative sounds are guaranteed to create ‘an energized calmness’. By using many of the world’s indigenous instruments, (didjeridoos, drums, shakers, claves, bullroarers, flutes, Tibetan bowls, gongs, bells, mbiras, marimbas and rainsticks) a range of birdcalls and an overtone of voices, a personal and totally rejuvenating journey is experienced. The sound journey is often a highlight for our guests on our Soul Safaris.
Dinner and overnight at The Cottages
Day 2: Tour of Soweto and visit to local Crèche
After a delicious English breakfast, we will take you into the heart of Soweto
where you will have the opportunity to see best of the sights, including Credo
Mutwa’s ‘kraal’ and Madiba’s house. After our sight-seeing excursion a guided
visit to the local crèche is an exceptional and truly humbling experience. The
residents greet guests with their embracing warmth and are extremely
grateful for the interest taken in their lives. The children of the crèche
eagerly share their inherit love of music and dance, and love to entertain
visitors with their ‘chaotic’ singing, so endearing of young people. We
spend the afternoon creating an indigenous garden with them and share a
wholesome, cultural lunch.
We return in the later afternoon to The Cottages guesthouse where dinner
will be enjoyed.
Day 3: Travel to Panzi Bush Camp (Mpumalanga)
Panzi Bush Camp
Situated the Guernsey Conservancy is part of the ever popular Pezulu Tree House Lodge. The camp is situated in the game rich area of Hoedspruit in the Limpopo Province and is only 30 minutes drive from the Orpen Gate of the Kruger National Park and the same distance from the pristine Blyde Dam in the bio-diverse and protected Canyon. Panzi Bush Camp has ten "A" frame reed huts, each with two three-quarter beds and en-suite shower and toilet. Each hut has its own private balcony and are connected to each other by raised timber walkways. The huts are set in a ravine and are built in such a way that they blend in with the environment.
The timber walkways, radiate away from the focal point, the "Chuck House", which is the communal eating, cooking, meeting area. In front of the "Chuck House" is a beautiful rock swimming pool, which can be enjoyed both day and night during those balmy summer months. At night the Bush Camp transforms into a fairyland with lights strategically placed in the trees. Here participants will spend much of their time communing with nature and meeting the famous Big Five and ‘small five’. The bush walks will be calm and quiet moments for the participants to enjoy simply being in the African Outdoors.
Drumming
Our facilitated evening drumming sessions will give all a truly enjoyable interactive experience. Interactive drumming breaks down barriers like race, language, gender and position. It builds personal and group confidence and releases stress. It is a wonderful tool to create spontaneity, fun and laughter and is also a powerful way to connect with our primal Human Rhythm.
Day 4 and 5: Panzi Bush Camp
We continue with our ‘Creativity thru Nature’ program. With the tools of singing, rhythm, dance, art and poetry, your facilitator will take you on a colorful journey to help ‘re-connect back to the African roots. Most of the day is spend in the bush observing nature in its purest form, while the evenings are enjoyed around the campfire using music and rhythm to guide us back to Soul.
Accommodation at Panzi Bush Camp is on a self-catering basis. All food and drinks will be supplied with a pre-set menu. Meals will be prepared in team-community style.
Day 6 & 7: Transfer Panzi Bush Camp – Swaziland
An early start to the day as we make our way to Swaziland and the House on Fire Cultural Village situated on the outskirts of Mbabane.
Swaziland is tiny - 193km by 145km, one million souls - and is tucked in between the mega-nodes of South Africa's Mpumalanga Province, KwaZulu Natal and Mozambique. But it's a stand-out state, packed full of stunning mountain scenery, winding rivers, friendly smiles, fascinating culture, excellent wildlife and a promising future.
Accommodation will be arranged at Mlilwane Beehive Village. Mlilwane means Little Fire, being derived from the numerous fires stared by lightning strikes on the Mlilwane hill. The village has been built in the traditional Swazi style for a truly cultural experience. Ablution blocks are communal and each Beehive hut sleeps two people. Whilst visiting this beautiful and exciting country we will spend much time at the House on Fire.
House on Fire
House on Fire is the local theatre and creative centre. It started about three years ago when artists needed a venue to showcase their sculptures. It turned into more than a gallery and is today used for all kinds of functions. Everything in the venue is unique with a focus on recycling. The House on Fire is a community craft and entertainment centre of huge interest. Brothers Jiggs and Sholto Thorne birthed the House On Fire and it has become the most imaginative, eclectic, bohemian setup in Swaziland. They sell great local crafts - doubly-appealing because they're so unusual - and promote local music in their amphitheatre out back. Jiggs emerged from somewhere and says:
"It started as a multi-functional performance space, but we don't know where it will end - we allow it to set its own pace. We're both addicted to creativity…"
Accommodation at Mlilwane Beehive Villaage will be arranged on a dinner, bed & breakfast basis.
Day 8/9 & 10: Transfer to Mozambique and begin the Dolphin Tour
Early breakfast, after which we continue Ponta d’Ouro, Point of Gold. At Ponta d'Ouro resident pods of over a hundred dolphins can be seen frolicking in the surf. This is where you will get several opportunities to encounter these playful, curious and highly intelligent mammals on their own terms - in the Big Blue.
During the 3-day dolphin experience, one of our professional facilitators will run an informal workshop ranging from Yoga, to art, music, Biodanze.
About the dolphins:
There are more than 100 Bottlenose dolphins resident in the bay of Ponta d’Ouro. The encounters with the dolphins are on their own terms; NO pools, NO trainers and NO feeding. The encounters are orchestrated in a non-invasive manner, which have developed into a trusting and therefore extremely close and intimate relationship with the dolphins. We have a success rate of 95 – 98% of finding and swimming with them.
Just being in their presence seems to evoke a feeling of profound inner peace and joy. Often a fresh sense of direction emerges within our participants and transformation on some level mysteriously begins to take place.
Day 11 & 12: Travel to Nkonkoni Campsite and begin the Elephant Wisdom part of the tour
Nkonkoni Campsite
Nkonkoni offers all comforts one would ever need wrapped in the ruggedness of the unspoiled Maputaland bushveld, situated on the shores of Jozini Lake Uniquely nestled in the Pongola Biosphere, the camp forms part of a bird sanctuary and is in close proximity of the White Elephant Bush Lodge from where we will be participating in the ‘Wisdom with Elephants’ program.
With no fences around the camp, wild animals, including the occasional elephant, roam freely amongst the tents!
Nkonkoni Camp has 3 large tents, sleeping 6 people per tent, with its own ablution facility, boma and lapa. There is spacious layout and common dining facilities in each boma where meals will be served daily.
Accommodation at the Nkonkoni Campsite will be on a dinner, bed and brunch basis. Early morning rusks and coffee will be served prior to the first game drive.
BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO THE ELEPHANT PROGRAM:
On all the game drives we scout for and observe the elephants. Each game drive is facilitated by Mandy Young, offering participants an introspective experience while observing the elephants. They are wild elephants and therefore their whereabouts are not always predictable. We value them and they are always treated with care and consideration whilst being observed, i.e. we take note of their moods, level of discomfort at any particular time, and their 'comfort zone' especially when calves in the 'orphan' or 'breeding' herd are still very young.
Ecotherapy group sessions offer clients a chance to rest their fragile psyches from the exhaustion of trying to stay intact within the stresses of the civilized world, and creates an opportunity for re-membering human ways of behaving and more instinctual ways of being.
All ecotherapy group sessions offer clients an opportunity to engage in a process of healing, restoration and a return to ancient human wisdom by offering people an opportunity to find themselves through rediscovering aspects of their created being as they re-experience their interconnectedness with other species and with the earth we all share.
MEET THE PROGRAM FACILITATOR:
Mandy Young is a Psychotherapist in Private Practice in Cape Town, and a Theta accredited Field Guide. Mandy has been active in her profession since 1979 as a psychotherapist, researcher and tutor / lecturer at the University of Cape Town. She has worked with children, adults, teenagers and students who have been dealing with depression, drug addiction, sexual abuse, parenting issues, academic underachievement, relationship difficulties, post-divorce/separation adjustment, eating disorders and loss due to death or trauma. She has also spent many years working with children in residential care, and is well-known for her group work in the following areas: children adjusting to their parents' separation / divorce, adults wanting to improve their own parenting skills, and teenagers engaged in ecotherapy programs who are trying to replace drugs, drinking and sexual experimentation in their lives with more life-giving activities.
In the last 7 years she has studied the African Wild Dogs at many wildlife reserves in South Africa and Zimbabwe, and more recently she has specifically focused on mothering behavior in elephants. Mandy has found her wilderness experiences and research to have provided important understandings for her work with the people whose lives she has been privileged to influence as they have courageously tried to overcome personal difficulties and challenges.
Day 13: Return journey to Johannesburg and The Cottages
Guesthouse
After breakfast, we travel back to Johannesburg where your overnight will be arranged at The Cottages guesthouse in Observatory.
Our Heart of Africa Tour ends on a high note with the spectacular performance of AFRICAN FOOTPRINTS. The journey of "African Footprint" began as Richard Loring's dream to empower South African youth, especially talented young black dancers, through theatre. His vision evolved into a determination to create a unique song and dance experience as a platform to showcase emerging talents. This resolve, strengthened by his introduction to fiery words of passion and love of acclaimed poet, Don Mattera, and by exposure to the dramatic fusion of award-winning choreographers, Debbie Rakusin and David Matamela, materialized into the "Explosive Stampede of Song and Dance" that is "AFRICAN FOOTPRINTS".
Dinner prior to the show will be enjoyed at one of the Gold Reef City restaurants – at own account.
Day 14: The Cottages Guesthouse to JHB International Airport
In the morning you will have a hearty breakfast and then we will all gather to say our goodbyes in a closing ceremony. Your luxury bus will be waiting to transfer you to JHB International Airport to catch your flight home.
End of ‘Heart of Africa Tour’
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INVESTMENT: (Subject to change depending on the size of group)
$2,631.00 Per person sharing – Based on 10 paying clients
If the group is larger the rate goes down
INCLUDED:
Three nights at The Cottages Guesthouse on a dinner, bed & breakfast basis
Private sound journey performed by professional musicians on first night
Soweto day tour and visit to the crèche including plants and lunch for the children at the crèche
Three nights at the Panzi Bush Camp on a full board basis
Game activities while staying at Panzi Bush Camp (4 game activities)
Two nights at Mlilwane Beehive Cultural Village on a dinner, bed and breakfast basis.
Three nights at Dolphin Encountours on a Dinner, Bed & Breakfast basis
Full comprehensive snorkeling course & educational code of conduct slide show regarding the dolphin encounters
Three launches to swim with the dolphins
“Celebrating the goddess within’ program facilitated by Itta Rousos
Two nights at Inkozi Campsite in Pongola on dinner, bed & brunch basis, including early morning rusks / tea / coffee
Wisdom of Elephant program facilitated by Mandy Young, including 3 game drives to observe the elephants
African Footprint Dance & Music performance
All transfers and transport from and to the JHB International Airport as per itinerary in luxury 20-seater, air-conditioned sprinter bus.
EXCLUDED:
Items of personal nature
Drinks
Lunches as per itinerary
Dinner at Gold Reef City prior to the African Footprints performance
Visa to enter Mozambique (R180.00 per person) & Swaziland
Travel insurance & medical insurance
Return flight to and from Johannesburg International Airport
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