Day 4: Our adventure in Northgate Mall, North Riding

Today we were lucky enough to have (an hour) lie-in as we were all so exhausted after a long day and staying up until 11pm. After a late start, we had a quick breakfast and whilst team South Africa washed up, we caught up with diaries, updated the blog and started packing our bags in preparation for our flight tomorrow. We then walked 4km, which took 45 minutes(!!!), up and down steep, rocky terrain to Northgate Mall. Our first challenge of the day... find somewhere to eat. After investigating various possible lunch venues, we decided as a group to eat at Mike's Kitchen (typical SA food) which we all really enjoyed. We then had some free time to explore the mall, but were disappointed with the lack of souvenir shops, and the fact that ALL the banks were closed so some of us were unable to exchange money into Rand so we had to use the bank of SA! After our free time, we met outside Mugg & Bean, which is SA equivalent of Starbucks, and after ARC had an iced coffee (yay!), we speed-walked back in only 35 minutes in the very bright African sun. Two Rangers, Kaelynne and Roxy, and their mum, from the local Ranger unit then joined us - they cooked us a traditional SA evening meal, introduced us to a bright green Cream Soda drink and showed us a video about Guiding in SA. They then spoke to us about SA pop culture and Guiding uniform before leaving, when we ended our day's activities with our group meeting. We are currently packing and preparing to leave at 5:30am tomorrow, which includes eating all the left over food, cleaning our whole accommodation and sharing out the books. At 9pm, Linda Botha, the chief commissioner for the Cape West Region and Michelle February, a board member for WAGGGS, are coming to catch-up as KB and SA last saw Michelle in 2005 at a Christmas Summer Picnic in Kirstenbosch and Linda has brought many Guides and Ranger's to Girlguiding London over the Border over the last 10 years because of the link with Cape West and our county.

ARC, EB and MW