History Tour of South Africa

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South Africans treasure their diverse cultural heritage - and we're only too happy to share it with you. This tour will take you through the conflicts and confrontations of Apartheid, but will also show you reconciliation and restitution. This tour will show you the wounds of South Africa's past and the hope that a country has for the future.

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Day 1 Arrival in Johannesburg

Welcome to Johannesburg! Upon arrival at O.R. Tambo International Airport (formerly known as Johannesburg International Airport, is Africa’s busiest airport and named after the Apartheid struggle hero, Oliver Reginald Tambo), you will be met by an iKapa International Travel Management Representative and transferred to your hotel.

Check in at your hotel. You have time to freshen up before a welcome dinner at the hotel.

Overnight: Hotel Welcome Dinner, Bed

Day 2 Liliesleaf Trust & Lesedi Cultural Village Tour

Late morning collection from your hotel.

Forty-four years after the infamous Rivonia Raid, one of South Africa’s most significant historical sites, Liliesleaf Farm, has been restored and reopened. The historical site is known as the “Learning Centre” and comprises of a Museum, made up of the historical buildings and structures, a Resource Centre and Liberation Centre. Hidden in Johannesburg’s northern suburbs, Liliesleaf Farm, which became the High Command of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), started out as a safe haven where senior Communist and ANC’s leaders met to discuss key political and military strategy in the struggle against the Apartheid government. Nelson Mandela, Govan Mbeki (current president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki’s father), Walter Sisulu, Ahmed Kathrada, Raymond Mhalaba, Bram Fisher and Harold Wolpe were some of South Africa’s heroes that spent time here. Many of these individuals were caught in the police’s raid on Liliesleaf Farm on the 11 July 1963, and tried in the subsequent Rivonia Trial. They were to later spend over 25 years in prison. Now, four decades later, a portion of the original farm has been reclaimed and the original structures uncovered, as a tribute to the struggle for freedom endured by all South Africans today.

Depart the Liliesleaf Farm and travel to the Lesedi Cultural Village for an afternoon tour including dinner. Guests can share the excitement and warmth of true rural African culture. A guided tour of the village with its four homesteads – Zulu, Xhosa, Basotho and Pedi, each with their own unique culture is included. After a few drinks in the bar, guests and the families meet back in the Boma for traditional song and dance of all four villages. This is followed by a Pan African Feast, which is served in the Nyama Choma restaurant with delicacies from North, East and South Africa.

Overnight: Hotel Dinner, Bed & Breakfast

Day 3 Apartheid Museum & Soweto Tour

After a few hours at the Apartheid Museum you will feel that you were in the townships in the 70s and 80s, dodging police bullets or teargas canisters, or marching and toy-toying with thousands of school children, or carrying the body of a comrade into a nearby house. This extraordinarily powerful museum has already become the city's leading tourist attraction, an obligatory stop for visitors. The Museum, has large blown-up photographs, metal cages and numerous monitors recording continuous replays of apartheid scenes set in a double volume ceiling, concrete and red brick walls and grey concrete floor.

Visit Constitution Hill – the new home of the Constitutional Court, the protector of South Africans’ basic rights and freedoms. Constitutional Hill is also the site of Johannesburg’s notorious Old Fort Prison Complex, commonly known as Number Four, where thousands of ordinary people were brutally punished before the dawn of democracy in 1994. Many South Africa’s leading political activists, including Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela, were detained here.

Thereafter, proceed to the township of Soweto (SOuth WEstern TOwnship). Enter the township through the upmarket Diepkloof - The suburb boasts beautiful houses, the roads are in good condition, there are playgrounds and schools. Other attractive sights are residences of famous anti-apartheid activists. Just a few kilometres drive from Diepkloof, you arrive at Orlando, the first township of Soweto. Here, you can see Nelson Mandela's first house, which is a popular tourist attraction. Mandela stayed here before he was imprisoned in 1961. Security guards will not let you in, but you can see the modest house clearly enough from the street. You can also have a glimpse of the mansion belonging to Winnie Madikizela-Mandela in an affluent part of Orlando West. Archbishop Desmond Tutu's house, the Sisulu residence and the Hector Peterson memorial museum are in the same neighbourhood. The recently renovated museum offers a detailed account of the events of 1976, including visuals and eyewitness accounts.

Drive through the Kliptown Squatter Camps – it was developed in 1903, but still today, the residents are living in a poverty stricken environment.

Lunch is included at Wandies Place - The world renowned restaurant, Wandies Place, has been visited by Sir Richard Branson, Christina Aguilera and Brad Pitt offers African cuisine including pap, chakalaka, dombolo (steamed bread), moroga (spinach), tripe and delicious more recognizable dishes such as boerewors and lamb stew.

After lunch, visit the Regina Mundi Church & Thokoza Park. The Regina Mundi Church is Soweto's largest Catholic Church. Not only has the vast church always been a spiritual haven for thousands of Sowetans, it has also played a pivotal role in the township's history of resistance against apartheid. The church is the focal point of much of the struggle in the 70’s and 80’s and home to the famous Black Madonna and Child painting.

Return to your hotel in the afternoon.

A special treat awaits you tonight as you are collected and transferred to a local hosted farewell dinner.

Overnight: Hotel Lunch, Dinner, Bed & Breakfast

Day 4 Johannesburg to Sabi Sands Game Reserve

You will be collected from your hotel and transferred back to O.R Tambo International Airport for your flight to Djuma Game Reserve (included).

Djuma Game Reserve - named from the Shangaan word meaning "roar of the lion" - is part of the world-renowned Sabi Sand Game Reserve. This reserve borders on the Kruger National Park. There is no dividing fence between the two reserves and therefore Djuma’s 7000 ha is part of the vast Kruger National Park ecosystem.

Check in and depart on your Afternoon Game Drive.

Overnight: Game Lodge Full Board

Day 5 Sabi Sands Game Reserve

Shortly before sunrise you are awakened with steaming coffee and rusks. As the sun rises - a magical time of the day - we set off on our early morning game drive.

The animals that can be seen include the 'Big Five'.

These legendary animals -The 'Big Five' - Lion, Leopard, Buffalo, Rhino and Elephant, so-called because of their ferocity when hunted. In a thankfully by-gone era of big game hunters, intrepid travellers endured many a hardship to visit Africa.

During the next three hours or so we will track and find some of the amazing animals that are to be found at Djuma Game Reserve. Soon you will be enjoying the early morning fresh air with one of the 'Big Five'. A close encounter with one of these magnificent beasts is an experience of a lifetime. Your guide is qualified, and has an extensive knowledge of the savanna and its inhabitants.

After the exciting morning drive we sit down for a hearty breakfast. The mid morning activities include a bush walk. During the bush walk your guide will show some of the smaller things such as animal tracks, the diverse array of insects, or even a chameleon waiting in ambush of an insect meal.

And of course the birds - there are more than 200 species - are magnificent and the morning walk will introduce you to many of the species. Your guide also has an extensive knowledge of the culinary and medicinal uses of the various plants. By lunchtime we are all are ravenous and tired. You will enjoy a quiet lunch and afterwards relax in the lush gardens or around the pool, or even partake in bit of siesta.

By late afternoon we all assemble again for some tea and cakes and set off for the evening game drive. The game drive stops for a 'sundowner' drink overlooking the magnificent African sunset.

The climax of this game drive is at night when a spotlight is used to find some of the more elusive nocturnal animals such as the awesome Leopard or the cute bushbaby.

At the end the night drive a warm, crackling fire and a sumptuous meal awaits at the lodge. To sit around a blazing fire under the endless African night sky - the brilliant Milky Way intense in the unpolluted skies - is to evoke ancient memories of our ancestors who evolved in this magnificent African Savanna all those millennia ago.

Overnight: Game Lodge Full Board

Day 6 Sabi Sands Game Reserve

Repeat itinerary as per Day 5.

Overnight: Game Lodge Full Board

Day 7 Sabi Sands Game Reserve to Cape Town via Johannesburg

After your morning game drive and breakfast, you will be taken to the airstrip for your flight back to Johannesburg (included). Connect to your onward flight to Cape Town (excluded).

You will be met by your guide who will accompany you for the remainder of your journey.

The remainder of the day is spent at leisure.

Overnight: Hotel Bed & Breakfast

Day 8 Table Mountain & Robben Island Tour

After collection from your hotel, you are taken to the lower cableway station on the slopes of Table Mountain. Weather permitting; ascend the mountain by aerial cable car. From a height of 1067 metres view the city and Table Bay below; also Robben Island, the Atlantic Seaboard and most of the spectacular Cape Peninsula.

Proceed to the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront - Situated between Robben Island and Table Mountain in the heart of Cape Town's working harbour, the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront has become South Africa’s most visited destination. Set against a backdrop of magnificent sea and mountain views, exciting shopping and entertainment awaits you. Lunch is enjoyed in the Waterfront before boarding the ferry to Robben Island.

For nearly 400 years, Robben Island, 12 kilometres from Cape Town, was a place of banishment, exile, isolation and imprisonment. It was here that rulers sent those they regarded as political troublemakers, social outcasts and the unwanted of society. During the apartheid years Robben Island became internationally known for its institutional brutality. The duty of those who ran the Island and its prison was to isolate opponents of apartheid and to crush their morale. Some freedom fighters spent more than a quarter of a century in prison for their beliefs.

Those imprisoned on the Island succeeded on a psychological and political level in turning a prison 'hell-hole' into a symbol of freedom and personal liberation. Robben Island came to symbolise, not only for South Africa and the African continent, but also for the entire world, the triumph of the human spirit over enormous hardship and adversity.

We are taken on a walking and driving tour of this political prison where Nelson Mandela was jailed for 18 years.

Overnight: Hotel Lunch, Bed & Breakfast

Day 9 Township Projects & Jazz Night

Experience South Africa like never before…its not a township tour, its not a trip down guilt lane, it’s not a begging bowl route… it’s a field excursion to discover, learn, understand, see, experience, feel and most importantly, be inspired! This is not a sightseeing tour; it is an interactive tour, with people giving up time and energy to engage the visitors. The cost also includes a donation to the projects, tea, coffee and snacks (excludes other meals).

Return to your hotel, freshen up – you will be collected this evening for a Jazz Night.

Any seasoned traveller will tell you that to truly get to know the rhythm of a culture, you need to get to know the rhythms of its music. And in Cape Town, that means jazz. The tour kicks off at 7pm at the Distrix Café. There can be no more fitting place to begin our jazz experience than here at the foot of District Six, where old-school greats such as Basil Coetzee and Abdullah Ibrahim gave a musical voice to a nation’s heartache and hope.

Under the accredited guidance of a local jazz aficionado, you will then enjoy privileged access to Abdullah Ibrahim’s music school, “M7”. A beautiful collection of black and white photos and an introductory talk will give you a feel for the city's distinguished jazz history.

Next we move to the home of a key master musician, such as Cape Town's composer laureate Mac McKenzie. Mac lives in Bridgetown, which was the first coloured township of Cape Town.

After Mac and his family have entertained us, it’s on to our last stop. On Mondays we will attend a local jam session, which typically involves a mélange of cool jazz, bebop and Cape Town standards. On any other day, we visit a second musician such as local ivory-tickler Hilton Schilder for a final half-hour of ear candy.

This is an opportunity to experience a rarefied side of Cape Town. The Jazz Safari puts you in the talented hands of those who make a living from conjuring the city’s soul.

Overnight: Hotel Dinner, Bed & Breakfast

Day 10 Transfer out

This morning we wish you a fond farewell as you are collected from your hotel and transferred to Cape Town International Airport for your onward flight...

Climate in the Sabi Sands:

Summer
The height of summer is during the months December, January and February. A clear indication that summer is here is the shrill trill of the Woodland Kingfisher, which incessantly proclaims to all that he is now resident on his territory. The hot days – temperatures range from upper 20’s to mid 30’s Celsius – are interrupted by spectacular thunderstorms that are as brief as they are intense. This is the time of the year when the insect populations reach their peak and all that feeds on them arrives, such as the migratory birds. But, most spectacular of all is the start of new life, during December the lambs of most of the antelope species are born and this is the time of sprightly young creatures finding their running legs and partaking in the bounty of succulent summer grasses. Also, this the time of plenty for the predators and so the circle of life continues. The vegetation is lush during January and this is when most of the browsers lamb, hiding their babies in the dense undergrowth. Whilst it can rain anytime during summer, each rainstorm is of relatively short duration and the total amount of rain during the entire season is a paltry 500 mm (about 20 inches) on average. Rain seldom disrupts a safari. February is the hottest month of the year and most animals conserve energy in the shade, also the time of the year when the joys of cool pools and air-conditioned rooms are especially pertinent! The maroelas – an indigenous fruit tree – ripen during February and March and the elephants seem to enjoy this time of the year the most! Towards the end of March there is change in the air and there are signs of the end of summer. The migratory birds start to leave.

Autumn
During April the deciduous tree leaves change colour and the grass becomes more khaki in colour. In May the temperature is markedly cooler – ranging from the mid 10’s to mid 20’s Celsius; cool enough for warm clothing on the early morning and late afternoon game drives, but delightful during the sunny days. This is ideal walking weather. Surface water starts to disappear during this time and soon most pans are shallow muddy depressions; perfect for a mud bath, elephants, rhino and buffalo enjoy this activity.

Winter
June and July are the mid-winter months and not only is this the coldest time of the year (although we never freeze – this is sub-tropical Africa after all!), but by now most surface water has dried up and day-by-day it becomes drier. August and September are the driest months of the year and it is during these months that the vegetation really opens up and allows for greater visibility into the bush. All animals are under greater water stress this time of the year and many congregate around the few remaining water filled pans and dams; making for spectacular game viewing.

During the month of September daytime temperatures start to increase, placing most animals under increasing water stress. And this time of the year more than any other is when the weak and old fall prey to the predators, the circle of life continues. It is also towards the end of this month that some of the trees start to blossom in anticipation of coming rains. These months are surely the best time for safari.

Spring
The month of October is the month of anticipation, with great cumulus cloud formations, rumbling their promise, but not delivering on it, not yet. The entire bush is stirring in expectation of the coming rains – many trees are in full bloom with tentative green leaf buds at the end of each branch. And then the first rains fall, not much at first, but enough to usher in spring. By November the grasses and trees are green with fresh new leaves. Enough rainwater starts to accumulate to fill the pans and dams and summer is truly here.

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