The Amazing Race: South Africa

For 10 days over spring break, 37 AHBBS trekkers were challenged to travel all across the nation of South Africa and take on an incredible variety of physical, mental and cultural obstacles. The group was composed of a vast mix of full-time and part-time students, alumni, friends and spouses that came prepared and excited to explore the truly unique and diverse "land of contrasts" that lay before them as they took on….

THE-AMAZING-SOUTH-AFRICAN-AHBBS-TREK-RACE-ADVENTURE-THING!!

Day 1 - Johannesburg A 17-hour plane ride has the potential to turn the toughest men and women into a lump of economy-class Jell-o, but 8 movies on-demand and countless inter-seat phone calls later our trekkers were fit as ever and ready to eat! An evening trip to Nelson Mandela Square introduced many members of the group to their first taste of game such as ostrich and kudu and to their first of many glasses of South African wine.

Day 2 - Johannesburg The team's first full day in South Africa began with a trip to the South African Broadcasting Company (SABC). There the group learned about how SABC's four television stations and 11 radio stations deal with the difficulty of broadcasting news and programming to a country that currently recognizes 11 national languages. Before the team's tour of the complex was done, however, Stern's own Wells Chen was delivering the latest sports news via teleprompter while trek leader Natasha Belgrave led a portion of the group in giving a shout out to NYU on live national radio. Having left their mark at SABC, the trekkers moved on to the township of Soweto. This predominantly black township played a major role in the country's resistance to its former apartheid regime. There the group visited the Soweto Mountain of Hope, the centerpiece of a massive educational and cultural project to strengthen the community, but not before taking a sobering walk through one of the region's biggest "squatter villages." The setting for the movie "Tsosti," this village's seemingly endless maze of makeshift homes introduced the team to a level of poverty that is simply not known in the US and truly hammered home the juxtaposition of wealth and poverty that exists in many of South Africa's urban centers. A far more uplifting evening brought together the entire group at the dance club, Moloko, in central Jo'Burg. It also answered the age-old question of "how do you get 14 people into a packed popular night club without paying a cover?" The answer: "Have Olivia Leon flash her business card from her old job at Oxygen Media and convince the club owner that she produces a travel show about trendy international night spots." And winning the award for what is likely the best pickup line in the southern hemisphere is a young South African woman who, upon learning that one of our trekkers was studying business at NYU asked him in broken English, "Do you know AS-WARTH DA-MOD-DAR-AN?" - needless to say, a totally different take on Mergers & Acquisitions…

Day 3 - Sun City Created by South Africa's equivalent to Steve Wynn, Sun City is a Vegas-style "kingdom of pleasure" nestled into the jungle of northern South Africa. Challenges faced by our trekkers here included surviving the "Leap of Faith" waterslide and besting the house in blackjack (rumor has it that Prima Chambers now owns the casino after her success at the tables).

Day 4 - Kruger National Park (Berg En Dal Camp - Southern Region) After a 17-hour plane flight and an 8-hour bus ride, the trekkers could truly be said to have reached one of the corners of the earth. And wow, was it ever worth it! Kruger National Park, encompassing 20,000 sq km in the northeastern corner of the country is home to thousands of species of wildlife and is considered to be the best safari reserve in the world. Arriving in the early evening, half of the group began to explore the camp and learn about the animals that live in the region while the other half set out immediately to try to see them firsthand on a dusk open-air safari. The sunset trip through the African bush brought the adventurers into close encounters with a number of the continent's most famous and exotic species, including one far-too-close-for-comfort run-in with a charging elephant. But the group's night excursion only served as a preview of what was to come…

Day 5 - Kruger National Park (Skukuza Camp - Central Region) 6am…as the sun rose over Kruger Park, the trek team boarded a group of 10-person open-air Jeeps and set out in separate directions into the bush. Over the course of the entire day, the group encountered giraffes, zebras, lions, rhinoceroses, hippopotami, monkeys, leopards, wildebeests, kudu (see menu from day 1), impala, elephants, buffalo and dozens of other species with such proximity that their pictures look like postcards. By the time their safari Jeeps arrived at Skukuza Camp that evening much of the group was raving about the amazing experience they had just shared. Truly something everyone should experience at least once in his or her lifetime. Festivities that evening included dinner in a converted train station that used to transport goods between Kruger and Mozambique and a post-safari party in one of the trekker's bungalows back at camp.

Day 6 - Kruger to Cape Town Kruger Park: Northeastern corner of South Africa Cape Town: Southwestern corner of South Africa The trek team had only one day to cover the 1,200 miles in between these two locations. Their journey by bus, plane and shuttle did, however, give them the opportunity to meet several South African residents during their travels and to learn more about the country from those who live there. By the end of the day, the team found themselves in a very different setting from the vast openness of Kruger as they hit the bars on Long Street, Cape Town's answer to the East Village.

Day 7 - Cape Town The group continued its exploration of Cape Town with a visit to the District Six museum to learn the story of an entire diverse community that was literally destroyed by the apartheid government. A trip to the restaurant, Lelalpa, in the township of Langa followed. There, Lelalpa's owner, Sheila, shared with the team the Harvard-Business-Case-worthy story of how she rose from an uneducated nanny to become the owner of her own successful restaurant. The trekkers then enjoyed a homemade feast of African dishes while listening and dancing to live music performed by the African Rhythms band, Abavuki. For the final leg of the day, the group took a ferry out to Robben Island where they experienced a firsthand tour of the prison where Nelson Mandela was held for years and had a few personal encounters with the seals and penguins that now inhabit the island.