most of u will know that unicycling in south africa is in an absolutely embryonic state. bear that in mind, it’ll become important later.
in James Potter’s ‘starting a uni club’ thread, i mentioned that we (GUS) would look at incorporating a South African National Unicycling Convention with the Juggling Convention. i had a chat to the juggling guys last night and they’re quite keen on having a co-billed event.
the reason for this thread is to find out if anyone here would be interested in taking a holiday trip to south africa to attend and lend some experience to our first convention.
some detail
it will take place from monday the 22nd of march 2004 till monday the 29th.
a couple of us are quite keen on doing a whole week
the last weekend will be the ‘official’ event.
i say ‘official’ because in our experience gathered from the previous 7 juggling conventions, we’ve figured out that a very laid-back ‘get together and have fun’ approach seems to get the best results. workshops aren’t organised, someone will see someone do something and utter the magic words “can u show me how u do that?”, next thing u know, a couple of people have gathered around, all wanting to learn that particular skill/trick, and u have a ‘workshop’ happening. i add this to give u an idea of the general approach.
it will take place at the Hibberdeen Children’s Holiday Home situated on the beach in Hibberdeen on the Kwazulu-Natal north coast. this Home is a charity providing seaside holidays for underprivileged children. the rate they charge for members of the general public is structured in such a way that every person who stays there, subsidises a holiday for a child who would otherwise never have had the opportunity to experience a holiday of this nature. this was the main reason we decided to make this the permanent venue for the convention.
accomodation is dorm-style and the daily rate includes three meals a day. think ‘summer camp’ and u’ll have a general idea.
we dont have a final cost yet, but u’re looking in the region of R150-00 per day. at R7 to the $, u’re looking at about $21-50 per day.
we’re planning to take an overnight train journey from johannesburg to hibberdeen. flying into Johannesburg International Airport will put u in a position to join us on the train down.
the cost for the train (return) will probably be in the region of $50.
i know this is still pretty vague at this stage but i thought i’d test the waters and find out if anyone would consider coming out to join us.
I’m heading down to RSA in a few weeks. We’re driving from Jo’burg to Durban via Kruger. I’ll be a bit too overloaded with dive gear to take the uni this time (I have an appointment with a few sharks )
I’m not sure I could really justify another trip early next year but I might be able to talk myself into it
Thanks for the invite, but unfortunately I can’t make it.
It sounds really fun and I’d like to visit you guys some time in the next ten years…that and go to a Unicon. Maybe we could combine the two and have a Unicon there some time (after the Australian Unicon of course :)). Organising events is fun isn’t it.
8th Annual National South African Juggling Convention And Unicyclist Festival
since this seems to be the season for pec…i mean picking threads from the depths of the archives, i thought i’d get in on the fun and ressurect this one;)
off course the main reason i’m doing so is so none of u can say i didn’t tell u about it
this might become important when u realise u’ve missed one of the greatest events ever and u start looking for people to blame
i’ll be safe
the dates have moved slightly since the original post
the weekend convention will take place from the 20th to the 22nd of March
and the (almost) weeklong Festival will kick off from tuesday the 16th
the cost for the convention is R350 ($50, 35quid approx)
this includes dormitory style accomodation, all meals from sat lunch to mon brunch and convention registration.
if u pay b4 the end of February, it’s only R300 ($42.8, 30 quid approx.)
the cost for the overnight train journey from johannesburg to durban will be R165 one way ($23.5, 16,5 quid approx.)
this price is based on six people sharing a compartment
for the (almost) weeklong festival, the cost will be R125 ($17.85, 12,5 quid approx)per day, including three meals
all in, u could be looking at $164.2, 120 quid (approx) for the entire week, transport to and from JHB included
How easy is it to travel from one Southern African country to another (let’s say, the countries that are relatively close to S. Africa, like Mozambique and Zambia)? I ask because I would love to come see y’all while I’m in the Peace Corps, and I’m hoping to go to Southern Africa. I heard it’s pretty easy to go to S. Africa from Mozambique. Your thoughts?
Thanks Gild, but I’ve only caught one s’quid, and that was long ago and wouldn’t be enough anyway. I gave it to my host’s father who apparently really liked them.
Sounds really cool, though.
Reminds me of the beginning of the film “Gandhi” where he is on the train in South Africa (I believe).
You heard right. Lots of people nip up there for long weekends and stuff. You can drive, fly, take the train, take the bus, take a long distance taxi, ride your coker;) OK, maybe not ride your coker - the roads aren’t that great in places and you might get mugged. You’d also better give the bus and long distance taxi a miss too, they tend to be deathtraps.
Do some googling and you’ll probably get more options than you can imagine.
If you do get the chance to come down to Johannesburg let us know and we can find somebody to put you up and show you around.
quite right
our route takes us thru that particular station
(a forum member was kind enough to mention our convention at a gathering and put me in touch with a gentleman who expressed some interest. i may be well on my way to reach the one goal i had with posting info about the convention here.
I’d be interested in possibly coming in a couple years (if I can ever dig up the cash), but you’re on the other side of the world, and that’s not exactly a cheap trip.
)
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