ICNT Conference Potchefstroom

It has always been my dream to visit South Africa, and then I suddenly get the opportunity to go even twice in one year! In June, I went to the 6th Coastal & Marine Tourism Congress in Port Elizabeth. I didn't have much time to see more of the country then, but Peter took us to Addo Elephant National Park for an overnight trip, which was great! For my blog of that trip click here! I fell in love with South Africa, and was very much looking forward to going back in October.

In October I was to attend the 3rd ICNT conference (ICNT = International Competence Network of Tourism Research and Education) in Potchefstroom. My colleague Alice was to come along, and I wanted Neil to come as well, so that we could add our annual holidays after the conference. Singapore Airlines had a good deal, so we decided to go the slightly longer route via Singapore. We had 7 hours in Singapore, and used that to go to the Esplanade and have a couple of cocktails, before we headed back to Changi for our second leg to Johannesburg.

We arrived at 7am in Joburg, and were greeted by Annelies, who would drive us to Potch. But we had to wait for about 4 hours, since there were two more people to be picked up. We spent the time at the airport, exchanged money and had some yummy fast food. Yes, it was early in the morning, but after the 11 hour flight it didn't feel like it, and we were hungry, hehe. The transfer was quite comfy, and after dropping off Doerte at her hotel (and meeting Peet there!), we were dropped at MaCachette - our beautiful guesthouse, only 5 minutes walk from North-West University, where the conference was held. Apart from Alice, Kaija from Finland stayed at MaCachette.

Moi, Alice, Kaija at MaCachette

I haven't got photos from the conference, except this one:

The conference was great! We started with some opening addresses and presentations, including my paper on the impacts of cetacean watching. In the afternoon, we went on an excursion to Vredefort Dome World Heritage Site, which is a huge meteorite crater. The description from the UNESCO World Heritage Website reads as follows:

Vredefort Dome, approximately 120 km south-west of Johannesburg, is a representative part of a larger meteorite impact structure, or astrobleme. Dating back 2,023 million years, it is the oldest astrobleme yet found on Earth. With a radius of 190 km, it is also the largest and the most deeply eroded. Vredefort Dome bears witness to the world’s greatest known single energy release event, which had devastating global effects including, according to some scientists, major evolutionary changes. It provides critical evidence of the Earth’s geological history and is crucial to understanding of the evolution of the planet. Despite the importance of impact sites to the planet’s history, geological activity on the Earth’s surface has led to the disappearance of evidence from most of them, and Vredefort is the only example to provide a full geological profile of an astrobleme below the crater floor.

Following are a few photos from Vredefort. I only had my small crappy camera with me, so apologies for the poor quality...

We then were driven to a nice lodge/resort, where we were to taste a South Africa specialty: Mampoer! That is kind of a Schnapps, and comes in many flavours, as you can see on the photos below...

Some "sampled" more than others, but we won't name anybody in particular here...;-)