The Mary Waters Secondary School Tourism department recently took a group of pupils on a tour of Cape Town. Nandipha Citwa, who heads the department, said they chose Cape Town “because it has world attractions”. The educators who accompanied the pupils were Citwa, Joanne Bailey and Giscard Jacobs.The main aim of the tour was “that learners could experience what they learn in textbooks,” according to Jacobs. Once their proposal was accepted by the school and school governing body, the fundraising for the trip began.
“We finally took to the tour on 24 September”, said Citwa.
The tour group stopped over at the Big Tree in Tsitsikamma before heading to Oudshoorn, where they spent a night at Môrester School Hostel.
“Visiting the Cango Caves was an exciting life experience, as all of us have never been there,” said Citwa. Their scheduled stopover at the Safari Ostrich Farm was cancelled due to rain. In Cape Town, the group was amazed at the bumper-to-bumper traffic before checking in at the Happy Haven Rotary Youth Camp, their home for five days.
The tour group visited the Simonstown Navy Base for an educational tour where learners experienced being inside a submarine and saw the historic SAS MENDI. Pupils also heard about the different careers in the SA Navy.
Cape Point was closed due to bad weather conditions although Table Mountain proved to be the highlight of the tour. The two-hour queue was well worth it for the pupils, as they mimicked the different languages of the tourists around them at bottom of the cable car. The cable car operator, who was an ex Rhodes University student was excited to see Grahamstonians and encouraged the pupils to do better at their school work.
They ended the day by going to UCT Festival and watched the show named Boy Ntulikazi. A magnificent one man show. Other attractions were the Alfred and Victoria Waterfront, Robben Island and a shopping spree at the Access Park, Kennilworth. Ratanga Junction was the highlight on the last day as pupils and educators had fun on the rides, especially on the Cobra. “Touring gave our learners a new perspective on schoolwork. We were never short of food and money thanks to our generous sponsors,” said Citwa.
