This is the first of the regular updates by Nick Stevens from South Africa where the Carlton players are involved in a special pre-season training camp and community visit in Johannesburg and Pretoria.

It was certainly a long first day ‘on the road’ for the Carlton party of 60. We all met at Melbourne Airport early on Friday morning for the 7.30am flight to Sydney and then it was a quick transfer to the International Terminal for the Qantas flight to Johannesburg leaving at 10.30am.

For a number of the players and some of the staff it was their first trip overseas so there was plenty of excitement and a little apprehension within the group but travelling with such a large group made it much easier for those who had not been on such a long flight before. Without going into too much detail about the flight it was the first indication that Heath Scotland was going to be one of the biggest pests on the trip. He had the video camera out on the flight taking some vision and interviewing some of the boys. His excuse is that he is making a “Scotland documentary on South Africa through the eyes of Carlton”.

It was weird having left Sydney around 10.30am and flying for around 14 hours and arriving in Johannesburg at 3.30pm (just five hours later local time). Thankfully our first day in South Africa was a bus ride to our hotel in Pretoria, about 50km north of Johannesburg. Pretoria is the capital of South Africa, and while it is in the same province, Gauteng Province, as Johannesburg, Johannesburg is the capital of Gauteng.  This is the most densely populated province of South Africa with seven million people living in Gauteng (Johannesburg, Pretoria, Soweto are the biggest and most well-known cities).

We had been advised on what to expect along with some of the “do’s and don’ts” before we left Australia but it is fair to say that even with an expectation it was an incredible feeling seeing the different culture. The initial impact on all the players was the security at the airport and then it was some of the poor living conditions of a number of areas as we travelled through Johannesburg to Pretoria. After the long flight and the nine-hour time zone difference it was a very quiet evening at the hotel for the Carlton party.

Australia day for us was a lot of fun and there was also plenty of excitement. We travelled from Pretoria to Sun City for a day of relaxation. Sun City is something like Las Vegas, a luxury casino resort (made up of four hotels) that is well known as one of Africa’s premier holiday resorts. Like Vegas it is pretty much in middle of nowhere however it is on the border of the Pilanesberg National Park. And while we were able to have some fun in the pools etc. at Sun City it was the Pilanesberg Game Park that was the South Africa everyone is keen to see.

I would like to tell you we roughed it by camping out in tents in the wild, but we actually stayed at Manyane Resort in chalet style accommodation. We did have a BBQ dinner under the stars and it was amazing being out in the middle of the park with a couple of guides who were also acting as security, both with guns for protection in case animals were also keen for some dinner. This was part of the ‘Game Drive and Bush Braai”. Thankfully there was no problem and it was a fantastic night. In all we were out for around three hours in the busses and enjoying the BBQ dinner before returning to our chalets.

We were up early on Sunday morning for another bus trip into the park and this was absolutely incredible. We saw a number of animals in their natural surrounds including Zebras, Giraffes, Rhinos but the most amazing experience was when we saw a Lion. The Lion was about 2 metres from our bus and was just walking along as if we weren’t even there. It was a sensational experience. The morning game drive was also around three hours and one that we will all remember for a long time.

We left Pilanesberg Game Park later Sunday morning and headed to our hotel in Pretoria before travelling to the University of Pretoria for our first training session in South Africa. The session was held in the High Performance Centre in the University and consisted of swimming, ice-baths and weights. The facilities are amazing, it has everything and I just hope Carlton’s new facilities will be something like this when the redevelopment is completed.

It is great to be settled in the one place and to be back in training as we will now combine our training sessions with community visits, something we are all looking forward to. This is especially so after a meeting we had last night with an AFL South Africa official. He spoke to us about the important role the AFL is playing with a number of communities in South Africa. He told us about the poverty, the unemployment and the issues the community faces with the Aids virus. It was a real eye-opener and it is fair to say we were all depressed at times during his talk. Thankfully in the next couple of days we will be out in the communities and can be involved in working with many of the young people and hopefully leaving a very positive message with them about being active and being involved in sport.

Nick Stevens