Saturday 14th July and Sunday 15th July : Day 1 and 2 - 'Travelling to ‘The Hub’

The team gathered on Saturday morning in which we met to make sure everyone had their passports and to check everyone’s luggage weight, of which some were over the 23kg restriction! We sorted our luggage issues and prepared to leave St. Andrew’s, after taking the all important group photograph. We were taxied to Heathrow Terminal 5 by John and Alice where we unloaded and said our final goodbyes.

After waiting for Charlotte and Ren (relatives of Dan from Hands@Work) we were able to get early check in due to being classed as a family (even if we did look a little dysfunctional). We managed to kill some time by finding a ‘Spoons’, a classic for many members of the team! We then took our seats on the airplane and made ourselves comfortable for take-off, especially considering the 11 hour ish journey that awaited us.

                   

 We arrived in Johannesburg at 07:10 this morning, after being greeted by thick fog and very cold temperatures, something that the majority of us had not been accustomed to recently! After collecting all our luggage we headed to find our minibus driver through what we thought was freezing temperatures, feeling very excited to get into the bus and out of the cold wind. After meeting the minibus we began our 4 hour trip to the Hands village.

2 hours in, we stopped at Alzu service station in which we managed to see a rhino and it’s calf, along with many other different animals. Stocked up with different foods, we then left Alzu and began the final stretch of the journey. Arriving in White River (the closest town to the Hub) we dropped off our minibus driver (Andrew) and handed over to DJ who took us for a quick visit to the supermarket for some essentials and bits for dinner.

We finally arrived at ‘The Hub’ where we were greeted by Cat who showed us our rooms and gave us a quick tour of the compound. She treated us to delicious warm cookies and gave us some time to unpack and freshen up. Chris then took us on an adventure around each house, allowing us to meet both long term and short term volunteers and workers for Hands@Work. Having been introduced to most people, we were invited to join in a game of Ultimate Frisbee, of which many of the locals took very seriously! The game certainly woke us up after having very little sleep for the past 24 hours, and gave us a chance to bond and get to know many of the volunteers. After a short orientation from Angie, we enjoyed our meal of homemade pasta bake and garlic bread before deciding to play a game of UNO before bedtime.

By Oliver and Clarrie