Yr 7 adventure to Sagana!

22nd May-26th May, 2023

Yr7 had a highly successful adventure to the Savage Wilderness Camp in Sagana, Kenya. Seventeen students, myself, and Ms. Marcelina made the trip. After a fairly uneventful, seven-hour drive, we were all relieved to disembark from the bus and find ourselves in the beautiful setting of the camp. Before us, a well-maintained garden with tall trees providing shade from the sun, the high Tana River flowing vigorously by, and the owner Mark followed by a coterie of dogs who came out to greet and welcome us to the camp. After settling into our comfortable accommodations, the children took to the pool to cool off and refresh themselves after our long journey. We were then met by Ms. Lillian, one of the staff members who coordinates the activities. She informed us that the dinner would be served at 6.30 pm and she expected all students to be on time! Any latecomers would have to do a burpee for every minute they were late; this would be multiplied by the number of days stayed, so anyone late on Friday-the fifth day, would have to do five burpees for each minute they were late; an excellent deterrent for tardiness and something I think Braeburn should consider implementing.

The food was consistently good at the camp, well prepared and served, and gave due consideration to our vegetarians and others with special dietary requirements. This was also very welcome, as our activities each day were physically demanding, and we all returned to base progressively more tired, hungry, and in need of sustenance as the week progressed.

Tuesday was our first day for the activities, and after breakfast, the students enthusiastically kitted up with helmets and flotation jackets and took our kayaks down to the jetty by the river. The instructors were very good at directing the students and clearly went through all the important health and safety details that were essential to know. The river was quite fast flowing on the far side, so we were instructed to make use of the barrier and congregate around the near side of the bank while awaiting further instructions. I was keen to make sure all students successfully entered the water and remained on the bank until everyone was safely in position. I then entered the kayak and, with my second paddle, managed to flip myself into the water, much to the amusement of all. “That’s how not to do it!’ I gasped as I arose from the water. I was quietly glad one or two others fell out later so as not to be the only one to get a dunking. As I mentioned earlier, the current was quite strong on the other side of the river, but if you were caught by it, our expert instructors could quickly catch up with you and use their kayaks to take you to safety by pushing you back to the bank on the calmer side.

After a much-needed lunch, we returned to the river, this time with paddle boards. This was going to be another first for me and although they were quite easy to lie down on and paddle with your arms, it was quite another matter to be able to stand up and use the paddle to move yourself around. There was quite a bit of falling in during this activity by all, however, I was the only one who needed rescuing from the weir as try as I might, my arms were no match for the current. By the end of the day, and another swimming pool session, the children were ready for the night walk.

The instructors had set up a route in which we all had to circumnavigate a route outside of the camp in total darkness! Our only guide was a rope that you had to hold on to and not let go of. We could not take torches, and this did prove to be a bridge too far for two or three students who would have preferred not to have been there, although bold Ashley said it was fun and wanted to do it again the next night.

Wednesday was the big one as far as I was concerned: it was time for whitewater rafting! I had never done this before, so I was looking forward to it with a mix of excitement and trepidation. We were driven about twenty minutes from the camp, seemingly not far, however, it was still quite an extensive route by the river back to camp. Again, our hosts went through all the different safety procedures, as we expected this to be the most challenging of the activities. Our captain was excellent and guided us through each stage of when we needed to paddle forward, backward, rest, and get down when a big fall was coming. Miraculously, none of us fell out, and it was, for me, the best activity of the week. Even the disturbingly named Devil’s toilet bowl held no fear as we left the boats and plunged feet first into a swirling torrent of water coming up on the other side, being thrown a rope with which to crawl back to safety. The later part of the journey was calmer as we approached the camp, and we were treated to seeing lounging lizards and communities of black and gold-headed weavers living up to their names by busily building their nests on sprawling palms along the bank and the islets as we headed downstream.

If that wasn’t enough drama for the morning, in the afternoon we commanded our own boats called duckies. Two to a boat, one at the back being the rudder, one to the front being the engine. We had to navigate the weir, which although not as big as what we had gone through in the morning, was still challenging as we had no experienced captain to guide us down it. Once again, I patiently waited for each pair to go through, making sure they were safely over to the other side, and then finally, when my turn came, the duckie turned as we were going through, I was hurled out the back and had to struggle to reach safety. My partner successfully made it across without a scratch and remained dry. We continued on the journey completing the 5km before tiredly having to lug the duckies uphill and back onto the truck. We all slept very soundly that night.

Thursday was our last day of activities and to give everything a chance to dry, we weren’t going in the water. We were going rock climbing and again, this was another first for me. We were equipped with helmets and safety harnesses and the students warmed up on the practice walls and competed in two teams to see who could get across without falling. I tried afterward and it’s surprisingly difficult as some of the footrests are very small and you find yourself using muscles you didn’t know you had. The children impressed me with their fortitude and skill and some were up the entire wall three or four times. I managed it once and didn’t go all the way to the top, there’s always next time.

The afternoon was taken up with the zipline, which they loved, and then archery for accuracy and low ropes for teamwork, which brought us to our last night there and our evening activity in which the students came up with some comedy skits to perform and use their ample drama skills. I asked the students to organize their bags and rooms that night as we would be leaving early on Friday. Despite this, one or two rooms still looked like they had been visited by a small tornado.

Happily, our journey back was as uneventful as the one there and we returned tired and happy to Braeburn to waiting parents with many new stories to tell of derring-do and many dunkings.

Philip Parham