Grade 7 - Trip to Botswana: 25 July: 1 August
Our Grade 7s walked all the way from South Africa to Botswana, as we have done since the onset of our traditional Botswana tour. Admittedly it is only the few hundred metres between border posts as we crossed Kipling’s great, grey-green, greasy Limpopo, but it was the first part of our adventure!
We had arrived at the border courtesy of our diligent bus driver, Mr Clement Nqulunga, a seasoned, experienced gentleman who is very familiar with Clifton’s travels, having done the Tuli trek with us for some years now.
Seamlessly through the border posts, we travelled to Tuli Wilderness (our hosts) on a variety of vehicles, including a Samil 20, which may cause for some reminiscing from our ex-servicemen readers.
Safety briefing concluded, we were then into the thick of it… a smorgasbord of tree squirrels, lions, clouds of birds, elegant bee-eaters, snakes, antelope, insects, trees, leopards, Stone Age settlements, dusty roads, elephants, Mopane worms (yum?!), making grass bracelets, Pel’s fishing owl, yellow-bellied sand snakes, stars so bright and close you could touch them, scorpions, sunrises, sunsets and the chilling call of hyena after dark… oh, and rain. Honestly. (There may be rumours of a tyre change in the dark with lion and hyena calling within earshot, too), as well as some frost on game viewer seats early one morning.
Mostly, it was about just immersing ourselves wholeheartedly and being… most powerful experience.
Sometimes it’s necessary to realise just how vast and fragile our world is in order to appreciate it, and appreciate it our children most certainly did.
Sightings aside, the trip was educationally rich, both socially and from our ‘bush classroom’ perspective. Being able to experience real Geography, History and Natural Sciences lessons, with a smattering of languages to boot, the children were engaged, inquisitive, and reflective, with our gracious guides’ encyclopaedic knowledge and the exceptional catering camp experiences culminating in an experience of a lifetime. We were fortunate to have had 3 unique camps as our ‘bases’ during our time at Tuli Wilderness - Serolo, Mohave and Eagle View, but perhaps you should ask the children for more details, though? They’d love to tell you all about it…
The Grade 7s should be justifiably proud: they were noble ambassadors for our school, living its outdoor ethos to the full, and holding our flag high, returning safely to a chilly Nottingham Road with memories for a lifetime… once we’d walked from Botswana to South Africa, of course.
Our sincere thanks to the Tuli Wilderness team… we have no words.
Keep an eye out for our Botswana Photo Competition winner, to be announced soon! The video will be shared next Friday – don’t miss it!
