If the Karoo had a heartbeat this week, it would sound a lot like the dawn chorus that rose above the Blaauwater start line of Stage 5. Ninety students from the South African College for Tourism (SACT) have turned the Nedbank Gravel Burn’s back-of-house into a festival of song, rhythm, and radical hospitality.

Based in Graaff-Reinet, SACT trains unemployed men and women from impoverished rural areas across Southern Africa for skilled positions in nature-based tourism. Most graduates go on to become guides, lodge managers, chefs, or small business owners in their home communities. But this week, they’ve swapped classrooms for canvas tents, learning their craft on the wildest hospitality stage imaginable: the inaugural Nedbank Gravel Burn, a seven-day, 800km journey through the Eastern Cape’s rugged mountain landscapes.

“We thought it would be good to get the students away from the college and to build their confidence interacting with local and international visitors,” says Morné Knoetze, SACT’s food and beverage lecturer and the tireless conductor of this roving choir. “We do a lot of functions at the college, but they’re one-day events for 120 people. This? This is a living, moving, 600-person restaurant in the middle of nowhere.”

From 3am breakfast service to post-ride recovery, the students cover every front: hosts, servers, housekeepers, tent attendants and – unofficially – the race’s moral support section. They’re the first to rise, the last to sleep, and the only people on site who can transform exhaustion into harmony. “They bring so much energy,” says Knoetze. “At the finish line today there were just four of them, but it sounded like a stadium.”

Rider Ian Martin agrees. “On day one I was out of it and went to the medical tent,” he says. “My Burn Camp host looked after me, sorted my missing bag, and made sure I had warm kit. Since that day, he’s been my shadow. I’m blown away by the service and the smiles – it makes a tough journey easier.”

For most of these students – many of whom come from rural South Africa, Botswana, and Mozambique – the experience is life-changing. The college provides full bursaries, accommodation, uniforms, and three meals a day, but opportunities like this race offer something rarer: a front-row seat to possibility.

If you’d like to support the next generation of tourism leaders, consider backing SACT through GivenGain.