the exploration society of southern africa

dedicated to discovery, conservation and exploration
essa provides a forum for the conceptual & physical exploration of southern african

Welcome to ESSA

Essa was established in 1988 and runs great trips and expeditions throughout southern Africa, as well as further afield. We hold a regular meeting on the first Tuesday of the month at the Cricket Pavilion Johannesburg Country Club at 7:00pm. We are open to all, and the society encourages ideas on exploring, as well as organising a great variety of trips for like minded people. If you wish to join ESSA or subscribe to it's mailing list please visit the Join page. .

Upcoming Trips

Rock Climbing Weekend to Machadadorp
10 September, 2010 (All day) - 12 September, 2010 (All day)
Rock climbing
Machadadorp
A weekend of rock climbing open to beginners to advanced. Have you ever been keen to learn how to rock climb? Well, this weekend is your chance to try. Plan is to arrive on Friday evening, I am planning to leave Joburg at 12. Hoping to be out and at the rock face before 9am to beat the heat on saturday. We will have supervised climbing for most of the day and probably early Sunday Morning. Accommodation has been booked for 12 people.
Venda Weekend
24 September, 2010 (All day) - 26 September, 2010 (All day)
Rafting
Hiking
Kayaking
Mountain biking
Orienteering
Fishing
Venda
Come camp in Venda for a fun filled weekend of all sports! There is so much to do up there from mountain biking, hiking, kayaking and more you will not be bored for a second. More details to follow contact Paul maraispaul [at] gmail [dot] com or / Lewis lsc [at] incusdata [dot] com
Rietvlei Horse Riding Weekend
1 October, 2010 (All day) - 3 October, 2010 (All day)
Pony trekking
Rievlei Natrue Reserve
RIETVLEI NATURE RESERVE GUIDED HORSE TRAILS Experience the Highveld on horseback, as the pioneers found it in the past century. A variety of game including two of Africa’s big 5 game species are dispersed over the undulating landscape and can be viewed from up close. Over 272 bird species have been recorded on the reserve, making it the birdwatcher’s paradise. The Rietvlei Nature reserve is conveniently situated only 18 km from Pretoria’s city centre and 38 km from the O.R. Tambo airport. 

Upcoming events

  1. Cairo to Cape Town
    5 October, 2010 - 19:15
    Monthly Meeting
    Katja Nordwig
    Johannesburg Country Club Cricket Pavilion
    Free for members, guests R20
    Katja cycled from Cairo to Cape Town on an epic four month trip this year!  She will be telling us not only of the hard slog through dust storms and stone pelting kids but also of the excursions she took on and off route.
  2. Creationist vs. Evolution
    2 November, 2010 - 19:30 - 21:30
    Monthly Meeting
    Andre Croucamp
    Johannesburg Country Club - Cricket Pavilion
    Free for members, guests R20
    Come join us at our monthly meeting at Johannesburg Country CLub for an interesting talk by Andre Croucamp on  Creationist vs. Evolution. More detials to follow on the event shortly.
  3. Paragliding off Mt. Everest
    7 December, 2010 - 19:00 - 21:30
    Monthly Meeting
    Marianne Schwarkhart
    Johannesburg Country Club - Cricket Pavilion
    Free for members, guests R20
    Join us at our monthly meeting at Johannesburg Country CLub for an interesting talk by Marianne Schwarkhart (fomerly Pretorius) . She has just returned from a trip PARAGLIDING off Mt. Everest with another South African, Pier Carter. She took the camera footage and he did the paragliding.

expeditions

Mt Aconcagua
Argentina
Mountaineering
Aconcagua Expedition
Most of the Aconcagua team made it back to SA safely yesterday. Lorna remains in Argentina to climb other mountains and spend some time in Patagonia. The trip in brief: - our route was fantastic - we even had the camps to ourselves for the first 2 nights, and the 'False Polish' route proved to be both tough, scenic, and much less densely populated than the normal route on the way up, while the normal route provided welcome human contact and a different perspective on the way down.
Argentina
Mountaineering
Mountains of the Moon

And then there was the weather. It poured an entire monsoon during the night, and it was clear things were going to be wet on the moon, despite this being the ‘dryest’ season.
In February 2004, 12 intrepid explorers, nicknamed ‘moonies’ for our desire to walk the mountains of the moon, ignored the news of violence in northern Uganda, and departed for a magical journey to walk the mountains of the moon.

Uganda
Hiking
Mountaineering

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Essa Members blogs

Our latest blog features Katja as she cycles from Cairo to Cape town http://explorationsociety.org/drupal/blog/25 Sanjay travvelled through Asia, and you can follow his entertaining journal here http://explorationsociety.org/drupal/blog/34