{"id":13452,"date":"2015-02-13T11:40:00","date_gmt":"2015-02-13T11:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saveourseas.com\/sosf-shark-education-centre\/mcen-conference-2015\/"},"modified":"2016-10-27T08:13:25","modified_gmt":"2016-10-27T07:13:25","slug":"mcen-conference-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saveourseas.com\/sosf-shark-education-centre\/mcen-conference-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"MCEN Conference 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"the-content\"><p>By:  Zanele Mayiya<\/p>\n<p>The Marine and Coastal Educators Network (MCEN) Conference was held at the National Zoological Gardens of South Africa in Tshwane (Pretoria) from 11 to 16 January 2015. I attended the event with Eleanor Yeld Hutchings and found it to be very inspiring and very well planned. From the activities and workshops that we participated in I gained a lot of new ideas that I think will be useful for our holiday clubs, marine camps and suchlike.<\/p>\n<p> We visited so many places:<br \/>\n&#8211; Maropeng Cradle of Humankind,  a World Heritage Site. Inside the Tumulus building we saw interactive displays, such as the one about \u2018Mrs Ples\u2019, the most complete skull of the oldest pre-human specimen, which was discovered in 1947 by palaeontologist Dr Robert Broom. We had an underground  boat ride on an artificial lake and visited the world-famous Sterkfontein caves.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_9568\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"width: 4608px\"><a href=\"https:\/\/saveourseas.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/imported\/DSCN1368.JPG\" class=\"fresco\" data-fresco-caption=\"\" data-fresco-options=\"thumbnails:false\" ><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/saveourseas.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/imported\/DSCN1368.JPG\" alt=\"\u00a9 Save Our Seas Foundation\" width=\"4608\" height=\"3456\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9568\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u00a9 Save Our Seas Foundation<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&#8211; Rietvlei Dam, which supplies Tshwane with 15% of its water.  We toured around the adjacent nature reserve, which is home to approximately 2000 animals. Although it was raining that day, we still managed to see  quite a few of the animals, like rhinos and zebras and different kinds of birds.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_9569\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"width: 2592px\"><a href=\"https:\/\/saveourseas.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/imported\/2015-01-14_12.35.20.jpg\" class=\"fresco\" data-fresco-caption=\"\" data-fresco-options=\"thumbnails:false\" ><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/saveourseas.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/imported\/2015-01-14_12.35.20.jpg\" alt=\"\u00a9 Save Our Seas Foundation\" width=\"2592\" height=\"1936\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9569\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u00a9 Save Our Seas Foundation<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&#8211; Ditsong Museum of Natural History, whose  collections of South African natural history include hominid fossils  from the Maropeng site and skeletons like that of \u2018Mrs Ples\u2019, as well as  875 bird species that are indigenous to South Africa. The journey that follows the development of the animal kingdom was especially fascinating.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_9570\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"width: 4608px\"><a href=\"https:\/\/saveourseas.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/imported\/DSCN1367.JPG\" class=\"fresco\" data-fresco-caption=\"\" data-fresco-options=\"thumbnails:false\" ><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/saveourseas.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/imported\/DSCN1367.JPG\" alt=\"\u00a9 Save Our Seas Foundation\" width=\"4608\" height=\"3456\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9570\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u00a9 Save Our Seas Foundation<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&#8211; Walter Sisulu National Botanical Garden.  Founded in 1982, this garden has a range of 600 naturally occurring plant species, 220 different  bird species and a number of reptiles and small mammals such as jackal and antelope. And the beautiful waterfall is amazing!<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_9571\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"width: 3456px\"><a href=\"https:\/\/saveourseas.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/imported\/DSCN1507.7.JPG\" class=\"fresco\" data-fresco-caption=\"\" data-fresco-options=\"thumbnails:false\" ><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/saveourseas.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/imported\/DSCN1507.7.JPG\" alt=\"\u00e7\" width=\"3456\" height=\"4608\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9571\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u00e7<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Going to the Union Buildings to see the tallest statue of Madiba was also a highlight of the trip. And then there was the gala dinner, where we exchanged gifts and had a lot of fun.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_9572\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"width: 4608px\"><a href=\"https:\/\/saveourseas.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/imported\/DSCN1570.JPG\" class=\"fresco\" data-fresco-caption=\"\" data-fresco-options=\"thumbnails:false\" ><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/saveourseas.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/imported\/DSCN1570.JPG\" alt=\"\u00a9 save our seas foundation\" width=\"4608\" height=\"3456\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9572\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u00a9 save our seas foundation<\/p><\/div>\n<p>It was my first visit to Tshwane, and after this conference I can proudly confirm that South Africa is one of the most beautiful \u2013 and hottest \u2013 tourism destinations in the world. <\/p>\n<p>The MCEN Conference 2015 was the most incredible experience I have ever had. I met so many different people from all around the country and made memories that will stay with me forever. I had such a great time!<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_9573\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"width: 4608px\"><a href=\"https:\/\/saveourseas.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/imported\/DSCN1373.JPG\" class=\"fresco\" data-fresco-caption=\"\" data-fresco-options=\"thumbnails:false\" ><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/saveourseas.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/imported\/DSCN1373.JPG\" alt=\"\u00a9 Save Our Seas Foundation\" width=\"4608\" height=\"3456\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9573\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u00a9 Save Our Seas Foundation<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By: Zanele Mayiya The Marine and Coastal Educators Network (MCEN) Conference was held at the National Zoological Gardens of South Africa in Tshwane (Pretoria) from 11 to 16 January 2015. I attended the event with Eleanor Yeld Hutchings and found it to be very inspiring and very well planned. From the activities and workshops that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.1 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>MCEN Conference 2015 - SOSF Shark Education Centre<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/saveourseas.com\/sosf-shark-education-centre\/mcen-conference-2015\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MCEN Conference 2015\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By: Zanele Mayiya The Marine and Coastal Educators Network (MCEN) Conference was held at the National Zoological Gardens of South Africa in Tshwane (Pretoria) from 11 to 16 January 2015. 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