Students have trotted the Cape

A group of students in the Liesbeeck Gardens Residence call themselves the Saturday Trotters, so named for their fortnightly trots across the breadth of Cape Town.

Over the past three semesters, the students have, on modest budgets, visited over 20 popular tourism destinations in Cape Town, from the world-acclaimed Table Mountain and Robben Island to the Cape Flats and Mzoli's Braai Restaurant in Gugulethu. They've gone star-gazing at the Astronomical Observatory, ice skated at Grand West, waddled alongside penguins in Simon's Town, shot each other with paint balls in Salt River, hooted their vuvuzelas at local soccer matches, and have been to galleries, museums and shows.

And they do longer jaunts, like trekking to Oudtshoorn in the Karoo over the long June vacation. For December, the group plans to travel almost the entire South Africa, heading for Port Elizabeth, Durban, Lesotho, Swaziland and Johannesburg.

Why?

"The trips have broadened our minds, fostered the social knitting of Liesbeeck Gardens Residence and, above all, we all had fun," says Hope Gangata, the master's student who started the group.