The Pepper Experience (1 Month - 3 Months)

  South Africa

• Cape Town: 
Cape Town (Kaapstad)

Durations of Program: 2-4 weeks, 5-8 weeks and 9-12 weeks
Typical Duration of Program: 9-12 weeks
Dates: Throughout the year

Description: The Pepper 3 Month Pepper Experience is our flagship trip and comes highly recommended! It combines adventure, community projects, water sports and wildlife with the gaining of a whole range skills and qualifications and a total experience of South Africa. Travel in a group while still having the flexibility of choosing your own mix of activities and courses.

Highlights: Our 3 Month Experience starts off with 5 days orientation. From there we will move up to game reserves where we will spend 2 weeks on various modules with experienced Game Rangers. These include, Tracking, Wildlife photography, Rifle handling, Dangerous animals (the big 5) and Survival.

From the game reserves, we move south through Johannesburg and spend a week travelling through the spectacular Drakensberg mountains on our way to Durban.

Durban is an amazing place with a lot of things going on. It's known as the playground of South Africa and its active lifestyle combined with a tropical climate and a warm ocean, make it the ideal spot to give both surfing and diving a go. We are also very involved with a local shelter in the area which welcomes volunteers who would like to help out for a while. In Durban, we will spend time staying both in the city and in a Surf Camp just north of the city. The Secret Spot surf camp is a great base, surrounded by indigenous trees and right on the coast. When we get to Durban you can choose to spend our 3 weeks in and around the city on either:

    * A surfing course, where you will learn to surf with professionals and coaches
    * A diving course which will give you PADI certifications
    * Join us in helping out at the local childrens shelter
    * Simply relax and go surfing in your own time with the Pepper guides.
    * or do a combination of the above (contact us to tailor make an option that suites you)

From tropical Durban, we move down the coast on our 2 week road-trip to Cape Town. Along the way we pass through the Wild Coast and the Garden Route staying at some amazing lodges on the way. This is a great 2 weeks, seeing some amazing places and includes the chance to try out among other things, the worlds highest bungee jump!

Cape Town is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. It has everything from perfect beaches and beautiful mountains to a buzzing nightlife and great restaurants and bars. Cape Town in summer is an incredible place to be with things going on all the time. We will be staying in the city centre which is both 5 minutes to the beaches and within walking distance to shops and the nightlife. Here you get to pick one of the following options to fill our 3 weeks here:

    * A board-riding programme, giving you 2 weeks of kite-boarding and surfing with top coaches and a week away at our wakeboard camp.
    * A yachting course
    * Helping out at with a local volunteer organisation that runs numerous charity projects in and around Cape Town.

Qualifications: There are no qualifications required but each application is carefully considered to ensure that the programme is right for the individual and vice versa.

Cost in US$: 4,270 (Full 3 Month)

- Pre departure orientation information
- Pepper staff being contactable 24hrs a day when in South Africa
- Orientation and weekends away once in South Africa
- Tour leaders on the road-trips and constant supervision and opportunities to discuss any issues with Pepper staff and programme supervisors once on various programmes

Accommodation

- Accommodation during programmes as specified in each programme
- Accommodation on the roadtrips at various backpackers along the route

Certain Meals

- Certain programmes provide certain meals during the programme/coaching days. (check details of the specific programmes)
- All food is included in the Game Reserves
- Food is provided during the yachting course for participants

Transport

- Airport Transfer upon arrival in Johannesburg, if required - provided this is organised with Pepper in advance.
- Roadtrip transport from Johnannesburg to Durban as well as from Durban to Cape Town
- Transport from Limpopo to Johannesburg at the end of the game reserve leg
- All necessary transport for all programmes and group events unless otherwise stated.

Emergency Medical Coverage

- In case emergency medical assistance is needed, Pepper is covered at all times by Netcare 911 (a private emergency service operating throughout South Africa). PLease note that any medical expense will need to be covered by your personal travel insurance.

Extras

- Orientation upon arriving in Cape Town (this will involve a few days away as a group to a surprise destination)
- Certain activities on the roadtrip (depending on conditions and other factors this might include ocean safaris, paintballing, zip line tours, canyoning and a range of other activities)
- Certain meals and nights out together as a group

Game Reserves

- Accommodation in 2 private wildlife reserves
- Park entrance fees and permits
- All necessary transport during the 15 day programme
- All supervision, coaching and guidance by various experts in their fields as part of the Limpopo rangers training staff
- All necessary equipment and materials needed for the various modules
- All meals

Programme Options

- All coaching/instruction/facilitators on all options is included
- All necessary equipment on the various programmes
- All necessary transport on various programmes

Community Projects

A donation to SHAWCO which ensures the continuation of this after-school programme and includes the following:
- The cost of feeding the learners during the programme
- Various equipment that will be provided to the learners including sports equipment and stationery
- Local, skilled staff and facilitator wages for all project work
- Entrance fees for various excursions and outings with learners
- Cost of transport for outings with learners
- Transport to and from the community centres on programme days both in Cape Town and Durban

A donation towards Gozololo centre in Durban. This will involve either a direct cash donation to the shelter or will be spent on necessary hardware supplies, equipment or food.

Yachting

- The following internationally recognised certificates:
    RYA Competent Crew
    RYA Day Skipper Theory
    RYA Day Skipper Practical
- All RYA training materials and books
- RYA logbook
- Food during the course
- Accommodation on the yachts during the course
- All necessary transport during the course
- An optional extra is the STCW'95 which is a course in basic first aid, fire-fighting and basic sea survival and is a pre-requisite for employment within the yachting industry. While this is not always a requirement for work on private yachts, we highly recommend this as an add-on for anyone who is serious about working in the industry (contact us with regards to taking this course)

Diving

- PADI Open Water certificate and PADI Advanced Diver certificate. (If you have these qualifications already you will be able to do more advanced courses such as rescue diver etc instead...contact us regarding this)

- Open Water course includes the following:
Day Lectures and classroom
    1 day pool sessions
    4 sea dives
    Gear for duration of course
Log Book
PADI Certification

- Advanced Diver course includes the following:
5 sea dives
Gear for duration of course
PADI Certification

- All necessary transport during programme

- Dedicated Dive Instructors

Surf Camp

- Accommodation at a beautiful surf camp just north of Durban.
- Professional coaching and theory instruction on all aspects of surfing including safety in the water, rips, tides, wave prediction
- Various extra outings including the standing wave in the city, the sharks board and a cultural tour
- All equipment
- All necessary transport

The price DOES NOT include the following:

- Flights - Flight to Johannesburg and return from Johannesburg/Cape Town. Flights are around £400-£700. Our STA Travel team will help organise your flights.
- Personal Travel Insurance. In order to ensure your safety, this is compulsory on any Pepper experience and costs around £150-£200.
- Food or Drink. Certain meals are provided (check the various option details for more information). However, the majority of food and drink on the experience is not included and a budget for this of £10 per day is advised.

Credit Available: yes

Experience Required: no

Typical Volunteer: Someone who is keen to experience new things and has an enthusiastic sense of adventure.

Age Range: 18+

This Program is open to Worldwide Participants. This Program is also open to Families, Couples and Individuals

Application Process Involves:

• Written Application

Pepper Adventure Travel's Mission Statement: Pepper are extremely passionate about travel and thrive on new experiences; Pepper is the result of this energy. Pepper offer extraordinary travel opportunities. They specialise in Gap Years, Career Breaks and tailor made adventures in South Africa, ranging from shoe string backpacking to luxury travel for the more discerning traveller. They spend a significant amount of time building links with well respected organisations and experienced instructors in their respective fields. It is this combination of unique local knowledge and established, experienced service providers that make the Pepper Experiences so different. With Pepper you will truly experience South Africa, one of the most beautiful and diverse countries in the world. Travel gives you a rare opportunity to experience as many activities, places and ideas as possible and Pepper allows you to do just that. Pepper is about more than simply travelling, it's about an entire approach to life. Our time on earth is limited and they believe you have to make the most of every moment. At Pepper they are unconstrained by convention ensuring that everything they do is fresh and innovative. They are continuously evolving and exploring new horizons in areas where they think they will make a difference. They look forward to travelling with you...

Year Founded: 2004