Day 1:
At 6am on Wednesday, it was our tour. We got on the bus and off we went to…Eshowe and Shakaland. It was so exciting. My very first tour! On the bus, I was chatting to my friends about what I think is going to happen. Finally, we got to Eshowe. We dropped off our luggage at Eshowe High Hostel. We hopped back on the bus, and went to the beach! Our tour guide was Mr Gaisford. We first had our picnic at Umlalazi Nature Reserve. We saw a lot of army crabs. Then we went to the Mangrove swamps. The trees names were: Black Mangrove tree and the other one was the White Mangrove Tree. We learnt a lot. When we were done we went to the beach, finally! When I saw the sand dune I was amazed. They were so beautiful. We did a lot of activities. We had to run to the ocean and taste it and collect some sand, we had to collect sea objects and we had to build a boat made out of sand. When we got back to the hostel we had a lovely hot shower. We had our supper and went off to bed. I could not wait until the next day.
Day 2:
We woke up at 6:30. We had our breakfast at 7:30. The breakfast was really tasty. We got onto the bus and went off to the Dlinza Forest. When we got there we went through the forest. We had to find four different trees to cure illnesses and/or special uses. It was really cool walking through the forest. After that, we had a tree climbing competition. Nathan, in our group, won. Mr Gaisford told us the different types of layers of the forest. Finally, we got to the boardwalk. I could not believe it, we were so high up! You could see everything. After the amazing boardwalk we went to buy some cool drink and ice-cream. Then we were back on the bus again. Now it was time for lunch. Everyone was very hungry and exhausted though we did have a little bit of energy. Elizabeth, the guide showed us everything in Fort Nonggaye Museum. That is where we had lunch. After we had our delicious snacks and had enough energy again, we went to the Vukani Basket Museum that is the clay pot exhibition. It was so beautiful. The lady told very beautiful stories. Now it was time to leave Eshowe and go to Shakaland. I could not wait! It was not a very long drive to Shakaland. We arrived at Shakaland. Our cultural advisor was Joe. He is a very kind and happy man. He showed us to our huts and we settled down and we got to make ourselves comfortable. Then Joe put the Shaka Zulu Movie on for us. It was very interesting. Joe showed us the model of the Zulu homestead. Then we got to go into the Zulu Village with the chief’s permission. In the village they showed us how they make the shields, mats, beer and they showed us the Cultural clothing. After that, they showed us how they throw a spear. We all saw the Chief. Then we all sat around the fire and we got to enjoy the Marimba band. Then we got to see their traditional dancing. It was amazing! Straight afterward we had supper. It was delicious! Time to go to bed. Can’t wait until tomorrow.
Day 3:
Now….I Cannot wait till we can buy stuff! We got to go to the market – we bought a lot of stuff like shields, spears, knobkieries and jewellery. It was amazing! They showed us stick fighting, spear throwing and how a boy proposes to a girl. It was so much fun. But the fun had to stop. It was time to go back home. We were very sad to go home and come back to school. We said goodbye and we gave hugs. It was very sad. But I enjoyed my very first tour.
By Husna Ismail