In the Footsteps of Mandela

Day 1

Private road transfer from OR Tambo International Airport to your hotel.

Day 2

You will be collected from your hotel for your Full Day Soweto Tour Itinerary to include: Lilliesleaf, drive past Nelson Mandela’s home in Houghton, visit the Apartheid museum and Soweto, including the Hector Peterson Museum & Nelson Mandela’s former home.

Day 3

Private road transfer from your hotel to O.R Tambo International Airport. You will be met at East London Airport by your tour guide, Rob Prentis, a well known historian and raconteur. He will take you along some amazing ‘roads less travelled’ into the very heart of the land that helped shape the young Mandela. Sunset horse ride on the beach.

Day 4

Travel through the Transkei, the region where Mandela was born and travel to his birthplace and Qunu where he grew up. Visit the Mandela Museum at Qunu, the famous sliding rocks that he played on as a boy, the village where he was born, the church where he was baptized and the family graveyard. Enjoy a traditional Xhosa meal at Qunu.

Day 5

Early departure to arrive at Morgan Bay on the Wild Coast for breakfast. Cross the Kei River on the ferry into the Transkei Travel through the Transkei landscape, where little has changed over the years. Travel up the Kologha River with a Xhosa guide, walk through the forest and learn about Xhosa traditions & medicines all of which would have been common knowledge to Mandela. Enjoy a seafood lunch at Trennery’s Hotel. Visit a sangoma ( a traditional healer ) and learn about Xhosa beliefs which would have influenced Mandela during his life. Return to Morgan Bay for sundowners on the cliffs and overnight.

Day 6

Depart for the Eastern Cape battlefields via Stutterheim. Breakfast at Eagle’s Ridge Hotel. Visit St Matthew’s Mission and learn about the role of missionaries in Mandela’s life and in the history of the Xhosa people. Picnic lunch at Hogsback. Visit the battlefields of the Thumie Valley. Visit Fort Hare, Mandela’s Alma Mater, and Fort Beaufort. Overnight at Cavers Country Guest House on a colonial farm.

Day 7

Depart for Samara Private game reserve via Bedford. Learn about life works of Sir Andries Stockenstrom. Tea served at Somerset House in Somerset East. Enjoy all the pleasures of one of the Eastern Cape’s most famous game reserves in a setting that is life changing. Overnight Samara Private Game Reserve.

Day 8

After an early game drive, road transfer to Port Elizabeth Airport. Private road transfer from Cape Town International Airport to your hotel.

Day 9

You will be collected from your Hotel and taken on a Private Full Day Peninsula Tour inclusive of entrance fees for Seal Island Cruise, Cape Point, Funicular, Penguins, Kirstenbosch and Chapman’s Peak Drive and lunch.

Day 10

You will be collected from your Hotel and taken on a Private Full Day Winelands Tour inclusive of entrance fees to Wine Tasting, Cellar Tour, Museums and lunch.

Day 11

You will be collected from your Hotel and taken on a Private Robben Island tour – Accompanied Tour includes private return transfers to and from Robben Island ferry, bottled water, and Robben Island tickets The guide accompanies you to the island.( entrance fees are subject to change). Depart from Cape Town’s Victoria & Alfred Waterfront by ferry for a 25-minute trip across Table Bay to Robben Island. This World Heritage Site, and South Africa’s most revered national monument, was a prison for some 450 years – for convicts, slaves, exiled Eastern princes, lepers, the insane and those punished for resisting oppressive rule – including Nelson Mandela.
The tour, led by guides (some of whom were once inmates) includes a visit to the Prison Block, and the now infamous Limestone Quarry, where political prisoners were once forced to toil. It also includes a drive around the island, with its breathtaking views across the bay. Return to the V&A waterfront for a guided walking tour through Cape Town– “Mandela in Cape Town.” (includes lunch). Mandela spent much of his adult life in Cape Town, first as a political prisoner and later as the first democratically elected President of South Africa. On this walking tour we visit significant sites in the V&A Waterfront and central city as we explore his life and legacy. The Historic Cape Town city centre includes the City Hall, Tuynhuis – Office of the President, Parliament, St George’s Cathedral, Mandela Rhodes Foundation and Constitution Building, Adderley St and Grand Parade. Mandela’s early life, his political awakening and life as a prisoner (Waterfront) and president (Parliament) will all be discovered in this tour. In the evening you will be transferred to Gold Restaurant for Dinner and Interactive drumming.