The training trip to South Africa

“Great, incredibly impressive! Thanks for this totally amazing trip. It was again something very special and very pleasant.”

The trip to South Africa allowed the first-cat­e­go­ry qual­i­fiers to get very close to the peo­ple and nature there. The promis­es that were made weren’t exag­ger­at­ed. It would hard­ly be pos­si­ble to expe­ri­ence this excit­ing coun­try as a vis­i­tor any more inten­sive­ly, emo­tion­al­ly or clos­er.

The trip start­ed in Elans­doorn, where Hugo Tem­pel­man, our long-stand­ing char­i­ty part­ner, works. The busi­ness part­ners were able to see for them­selves in the hos­pi­tal ward and research lab­o­ra­to­ry that ENERGETIX’s dona­tions over recent years are being put to extreme­ly good use.

A per­for­mance by a few mem­bers of the now world-famous choir showed how much qual­i­ty of life Hugo Tempelman’s work is pro­duc­ing in South Africa.

These first mov­ing impres­sions accom­pa­nied the group as the trav­ellers immersed them­selves direct­ly into the near­by nature where a beau­ti­ful lodge where they could relax was wait­ing for them.

The next day offered pure adven­ture when the par­tic­i­pants were tak­en on a safari to expe­ri­ence the Big Five with excit­ing and even dra­mat­ic aspects. The pic­tures speak for them­selves. The evening end­ed with a bush din­ner against the fan­tas­tic back­drop of dusk.

The next day’s pro­gramme of con­trasts saw the group take a short flight to the pul­sat­ing metrop­o­lis of Cape Town. 

The impres­sion that this ‘pearl at the south­ern tip of Africa’ offered was very pro­found with fan­tas­tic beach­es on the shores of two oceans, scenic diver­si­ty and a vibrant mul­ti­cul­tur­al soci­ety. The renowned ‘Gold Restau­rant’ took the guests on a culi­nary jour­ney across the entire con­ti­nent in the evening.

Next con­trast: Cape Town’s town­ship. The guide let us take a look behind the scenes. One of the high­lights of the jour­ney was a trip to a gen­uine med­i­cine man and to the guide’s moth­er, who lov­ing­ly pre­pared an African lunch for the group. It couldn’t have been more authen­tic!

The vis­tas from Table Moun­tain are, of course, always a must-see on any trip to Cape Town. The view at sun­set was mag­nif­i­cent.

And only ENERGETIX busi­ness part­ners could have expe­ri­enced the con­sump­tion of night cof­fee this way: the evening meal was served at the home of jazz musi­cians who pre­sent­ed a sam­ple of their skills with music that has con­quered the entire world.

The Cape of Good Hope’s pop­u­lar mas­cots, the charm­ing pen­guins, were one of the final last­ing impres­sions of a ‘stun­ning’ jour­ney before the first-cat­e­go­ry qual­i­fiers were appro­pri­ate­ly rec­og­nized for their out­stand­ing per­for­mances dur­ing ‘Din­ner at the Stack’.

An incred­i­ble trip but it can already be revealed that the new competition’s des­ti­na­tion for first-cat­e­go­ry qual­i­fiers that is going to be pre­sent­ed in Berlin at the end of August is eas­i­ly going to match these stan­dards for excite­ment and adven­ture.

We’ll be see­ing you in Berlin!

More impres­sions from this extra­or­di­nary jour­ney are to be found on Flickr.