Saturday 15th saw 26 Explorer Scouts and 9 Leaders leaving Heathrow Airport to embark on the journey of a life time. They will be spending the next 3 weeks in South Africa taking part in a game park wardens course, community and conservation projects and learning about the history of the country.
2 weeks into Expedition 1 and so much has happened alreay. The group have finished their game park wardens course, visited the reptile centre and sat their exams. Game drives were also involed, these took place in a reserve called Timbavati - a private reserve which shares game with five others, and shares borders therefore big cats with the Kruger. At the reptile centre they learnt about handling and caring for reptiles and their environments - the main focus being the handling, with the puff adder being part of the exams.
The group then moved onwards through the Kruger park and into Swaziland. The group were able to take in some of the local culture (tribal dancing) followed by a foot safari and a night stop before moving onto St Luncia.
St Lucia is a wetland heritage site and to help with the conservation workf the group have spent the last few days preparing sites for the corcodiles to nest in in a couple of months time. The next jobs on the list include bush burning.
The group are still to face the challenges of a three day wilderness trek through the eastern part of the park starting on Saturday, then on Tuesday they will head north into Zululand for some historical stuff and some community work with three schools.
The wilderness trek was the first time on the expedition that the whole group, including leaders camped out in their mosquito nets. The next day they all set off in their teams across the savannah towards their next campsites. Each team was given a challenge to complete along the way, one group did a hippo survey nat one of the rapidly diminishing water holes. Four hippo pods had congregated in an area that's usually too small for one pod, so there was some unrest and quite a lot of fighting between them when the team got there. The group then spent the night camping near by. A large fire and a rota of watch keepers kept the group safe that night. The trak continued for another 2 days before the three groups met up again and went out for a slap up dinner to celebrate their return to civilisation.
Next on the intinerary was a visit to Rorke's Drift and a night stop at Fugitive's Drift. A day of history on Wednesday with lectures and tours around Insandhwana and Rorke's Drift itself...gave a bit of culture to the trip. And the weather made it more memorable - freezing cold and howling gales!
The next two days were spent at a zulu primary school, working on projects to improve the school and playground for the kids who go there. The school caters for local kids (well, some walk 12km each way) from 2 - 15 before they go off to the high school down the road. The Expedition members spent their spare time talking to the kids and sharing stories of their lives, but were sad to hear how many were orphans and how important their school was to them.
The next day everyone packed up for the last time, loaded up the buses and drove the 6 hours up the motorway back to Johannesburg. And are now safe and sound and back in the UK.
