ISV - South Africa

The ISV trip to South Africa in Feb of 2012 was one of the most fantastic trips I have ever been on. Each day brought a host of new exciting experiences and the work on the first two weeks of the tour was both extremely rewarding and interesting.

My group and I (about 15 all up, comprised of people 18-22 years of age) conducted habitat assessments at Lapalala nature reserve in the Limpopo province in South Africa. We were doing these assessments to ascertain whether the reserve could once again sustain populations of lions and elephants, after they had been hunted from the park earlier in the 20th century. The work was very rewarding, and the days in the field gave me the opportunity to see some of Africa's most amazing wildlife, such as leopards, giraffe's and hippo's.

The adventure tour after our volunteer work took us from Kruger national park in the northeast of the country (where record rainfall kept us in the park for almost 24 hours!) all down the eastern coast, finally ending up in Capetown. Along the way we were able to participate in amazing activities such as bungy jumping, zip-lining, shark cage diving and surfing, as well as a number of activities that could not be achieved in any other country. We were also exposed to a more grass roots level of the African culture, gaining more appreciation of South African society than you would get in similar tours by other companies
My volunteer work in South Africa was an irreplaceable trip, one where I made friends that I am still in regular contact with today, accomplished a real difference in the conservation work we undertook and had my entire outlook on life changed for the better. I would recommend anyone looking to do some volunteer work and have a great deal of fun to ISV, as their knowledgeable and extremely friendly staff made the trip infinitely better and the organisation allowed us to focus more on having a great time. 10/10.