Rachel goes to Soweto: 4 out of 5

So I am nearing the end of my third week out here in South Africa, and I am finding it very difficult to accept that tomorrow I will be over halfway through my stay at Phefeni School. I have had the busiest week ever, which is why I have left it so late to write about last weekend. I have barely had any time to myself (I will explain why in a later post), and I really wanted to make sure I did the weekend justice.

Last weekend was one of the best weekends of my life – and this is no exaggeration! After 5.30 starts every weekday, we had a lovely lie in until 7, at which time we got up, had breakfast and packed for our weekend away with Lewis (our weekend driver). We were ready and waiting to meet Lewis at 10, buzzing for the road trip ahead, and following South African time we set off for Pilanesberg just before midday.

About an hour and a half into our journey we reached Lesedi Cultural Village, which we visited as it was en route. We were taken on a tour around various huts and were treated to a very impressive show where we were shown various different tribal dances along with different tribal costumes. One particular tribal outfit took me by surprise. There were men wearing kilts (just as you would see in Scotland). I found the story behind this particularly entertaining. Several hundred years ago, this particular tribe were attacked by the Scots. Unfortunately the tribe didn't prepare themselves for battle because from the distance the Scottish army, with their long hair and skirts, looked like women, and the tribe didn't agree with attacking women. By the time the tribe realised they were in fact men, it was too late and they were defeated, thus adopting the kilt as a sign of respect to the Scots and to remember their clever disguise.

Following this, we then continued our journey to Pilanesberg Safari Park. The plan was to drive through in the minibus with Lewis that evening and then also go again with the ranger the next day. We only found out on arrival in Pilanesberg that we would in fact have to be back at the Safari Park at 6.30am on the Sunday to increase our chances of seeing the animals. So we had another early start to look forward too! However, as soon as we started driving through, we realised the early morning would definitely be worth it. We saw giraffes, zebras, elephants, impala to name but a few, but little did we know just how amazing the next morning would be.

This brings me to the title. Many of you will have heard of South Africa’s “Big Five”, but let me just refresh your memory. The big five animals to see in South Africa are not only named so because they are big, but because they are hard to find and therefore spotting one of them is particularly exhilarating. They consist of the lion, leopard, elephant, rhino and buffalo. And we saw four of them!

I have thousands of photos I wish to share with you – no doubt on my return they will all end up on facebook! But unfortunately I have to limit the number of photos I upload, otherwise I won’t have enough data to last me the six weeks.

So here are just a few of my favourites!