The conference welcoming party, ice-breaker and registration will take place at the Sasol Art Museum in Ryneveld Street, central Stellenbosch from 6pm on Sunday evening, the 9th of September. The Art museum is housed in a gracious but brightly painted turn-of-the-century building that houses the University Art Collection, including a collection of African art. Conference participants will be free to look through the elegant rooms and collections during the conference ice-breaker. The conference ice-breaker is included in the registration fees for all participants.

Blauwklippen Wine Estate on the outskirts of Stellenbosch is the venue for the conference dinner which will take place on the evening of Thursday the 13th of September. Transport will be provided to the grounds of Blauwklippen late afternoon so that participants have an opportunity to sample the wines. The conference dinner is included in the registration fees for all participants.

Included in the registration fees for all participants of AIG7 is an excellent full day excursion to the Cape Peninsula. From Stellenbosch we will take the False Bay coastal road to Groot Constantia, the oldest wine estate in South Africa. From there we will head to Hout Bay and travel along spectacular Chapmans Peak Drive to look at the geology of Table Mountain and surrounds. From the far side of Chapmans Peak we will head south to the Cape Peninsula, where we will have lunch and visit the Cape Point lighthouse and the Cape of Good Hope. From Cape Point we will travel back to Cape Town to visit the Sea-point contact visited by Darwin on his voyage of the Beagle before heading to the Waterfront where conference participants will be dropped off for a casual wander around and dinner. Buses will depart from the Waterfront at staggered times to bring people back to the Stellenbosch.

The following trips and tours are included in the conference registration fees but must be booked before your arrival in Stellenbosch (preferably at the time of registration) so that appropriate arrangements can be made.

The region around Stellenbosch is home to South Africa's premier wine growing district. Wine estates, where red and white wine, ports, muscadelle, brandy and grappa can be tasted, abound. Two different wine-tasting tours will be offered on both the Saturday and Sunday before the conference begins.

Cape Town was originally established as a re-supply post by the Dutch East India Company (the VOC) in 1652. Remnants of the original settlement can still be seen today and a guided walking tour of downtown Cape Town, which is small and compact, is an ideal way to find out about the history, geography and cultural diversity of Cape Town. This tour is included in the conference registration fees. Transport to and from Cape Town will be provided.

Robben Island is probably the most important historical site in South Africa and has been designated a world heritage site. Since the beginning of white colonisation by the Dutch East India Company, the island has been used as a prison (and leper colony). Nelson Mandela is Robben Island's most famous prisoner but many other important ANC activists were also imprisoned on the island and many, unlike Nelson Mandela, died there. Robben Island became the focal point for the ANC resistance and it was while still on Robben Island that Nelson Mandela began talks with the Apartheid government that eventually lead to liberation and the free democracy that exists today. In addition to the political history, Robben Island also has a wonderful natural history with many bird and animal colonies living on the island. The trip out to the island by ferry also provides an opportunity to see seals, penguins and the occassional whale and dolphins that inhabit Table Bay at different times of the year. The trip to Robben Island takes three hours, including the boat trip there and back and will allow time in the afternoon to relax or see some other sites.

This tour is similar to that offered as part of the pre-conference activities but for anyone not making those tours they can see the highlights here as well as some details that only a smaller group can do. In particular, this tour will visit some of the vibrant and colourful traditional (and not so traditional!) craft markets in and around Cape Town. In particular, the market in green market square is a great place to look around and haggle over african masks and carvings. This trip will also visit many of the graft galleries in the city to look at more traditional african crafts that are slowly dying out.

The Cape Floristic Kingdom is home to over 8000 plant species, more per square kilometer than in the Amazon, with Table Mountain itself containing more species than the whole of Great Britain. The most common vegetation is Fynbos which comprises three main plant families: Proteaceae (proteas), Ericaceae (heaths) and Restionaceae (reeds). The family with the largest number of species is actually Asteraceae or the daisy family with over a 1000 species, of which nearly two-thirds are endemic to the region. Kirstenbosch Gardens contain over 9000 of the 22,000 plant species in South Africa and focus on the fynbos, with the gardens situated on the lower eastern slopes of Table Mountain, blending imperceptibly with the Table Mountain National Park. Something is always in flower in the gardens but they are at their very best between mid-August and mid-October.

Cape Town is synonymous with Table Mountain and a visit to Cape Town is not complete until you've scaled the heights of this amazing mountain. Located right in the heart of Cape Town, Table Mountain rises to a height of just over 1000m above sea-level and is home to the Cape Floristic Kingdom. But not worry if you don't think you're up to walking up because the tour will make use of the Cable Car to get to and from the top of the Mountain. The views from the top are quite spectacular but can be cut short very quickly by the arrival of the "tablecloth", a cloud formation that drapes over the top of the mountain under certain climatic conditions.

The Slave Lodge and District Six museums highlight some of the most imfamous episodes in South Africa's history. The District Six museum celebrates the now demolished District Six suburb which lay just to the east of the city. In its day is was a poor but colourful neighbourhood made of a people of many nationalities and skin colours. Unfortunately, in 1966, the National Government decided to declare it a white suburb and families who had lived in the area for sometimes five generations were unceremoniously removed and dumped in newly created souless suburbs with no regard for the bonds between friends and neighbours. The houses from the old District Six where mostly demolished but the site had largely not been rebuilt on. After a successful land claim, the old families of District Six are slowly moving back. The museum tells the story of what happened to them and is fascinating both from an historical and personal context. The Slave Lodge probably needs no explanation being the building in which slaves were kept befor being shipped off to places far away for a life of servitude and hardship. The building has undergone some changes since then, including being used at one stage as the debating chamber of the legislative assembly of parliament! Today it offers a glimpse into the past of the Dutch East India Company and its less politically correct activities.