The hiking section took them on the route that the Voortrekker Louis Trichardt took in 1838!
We even walked on a section of road they built to get down the mountain!
We had very interesting weather during the hike, from hot and humid to windy and heavy rain.
At Louis Fontein – our 2nd camp – it rained hard for 3 hours that evening.
Day 3 was the worst and longest day of the hiking section.
We were lucky with the weather and it was not as hot as it usually is when we go through the notorious gorge!!
On the last day of the hike to Penge, we found a really big chameleon. In Penge, the shop was a big hit as usual, where the group got to buy some ice cold cool drink and anything other than camp food!
This is also where we met up with the rafts and started the rafting section.
Day 1 on the river was hard because of the low water level.
We had to paddle around all the sand-banks and zigzagged our way to camp which could not come fast enough!
During the night, the water level rose up a bit and that made day 2 a lot easier.
Very interesting at camp 2, was the fact that we spotted 2 Samango monkeys, unusual being in the middle of the bushveld.
Day 3 on the water was a short day, which gave us the time at the camp to practice some swimming techniques in fast flowing water.
This was to prepare the group for the last day’s rapids that lay ahead.
We left Boabab beach early on the last day and paddled straight into the Olifants gorge.
At the end of the gorge was the first big rapid named ‘Rent-o-kill’!
After that we had rapids like ‘double trouble’, ‘corner post’, ‘longdrop’, ‘no name rapid’, ‘simple Simon’ and the last one – ‘roller coaster’!
It was once again a very successful expedition with many learning opportunities for the students and a wonderful privilege to be out in the bush.
Well done to them all for finishing this epic trek and a big thank you to every member of staff who came along and helped so much.
