The recipe for a successful elementary school trip.

21 February 2011

Take 21 excited children
Add one bus driver and three chaperones
Mix together in a bus and a vehicle
Add candy, chips, cookies and soft drinks
Take away hours of sleep
See wild animals and reptiles

And there you have it – a successful school trip.

learning about the Chetah Reserve

We had amazing time on the elementary school trip this past Friday and Saturday. Larry and I along with Don, the bus driver, and Monique, one of the parents braved the trip with 21 fourth through sixth grade students. We left early Friday morning and got to the border in good time. While the agent was processing our passports, he was especially careful with the ones from Mozambique. Fortunately, we always have the parents sign permission slips and I bring them with me on the trip. They wanted to make sure that the Mozambican children had permission to be on the trip. It happened to be Child Trafficking Awareness Week and the customs guys were making sure that we were not kidnapping the kids. That was an interesting start to our trip.



Our first stop was to the Cheetah Rehabilitation Center. They served us delicious hamburgers and showed us a DVD about the center. Then we got our own personal tour and met many different cheetahs, a lioness and beautiful lion. The lion’s mane was so perfect it reminded me of the lion in the movie Madagascar. He also gave us quite a show when he started growling making us aware that we were close to his “woman” and his territory.

The next stop was to the reptile park. We were introduced to many different reptiles by a DVD and then we got to experience them first hand. The brave ones were able to hold a python (just a young one) and have their photo taken for a key chain. The rest of the group observed at a safe distance. There were cages and glass display cases that held a nice variety of snakes and lizards.

We were able to see the demonstration of some of the behaviors of snakes and why we should not be afraid of them. Right!!! We were able to touch a spitting cobra, on the back part of the tail, of course. Our guide was entertaining and very informative. The gift store at this place benefitted from quite a bit of the kids’ spending money.

From there we drove to a resort that had two huge swimming pools. What a treat to swim in a huge heated pool surrounded by gigantic mountains. It was just breath-taking. We all enjoyed our time there.

The final stop for the day was to a game reserve that has lodging and meals for groups like ours. After rice and delicious stew, we dressed warmly for our night drive in an open-air safari vehicle. We were able to see several types of antelope, quite a few giraffe and a baby giraffe, only four weeks old. We saw several wild hares hopping through the grass and a spotted eagle owl. We saw wildebeest and zebra. This game reserve does not have any of the big cats. We were hoping to see the rhinos, but they weren’t around that night.

After the night drive we went back to our rooms, but not to sleep. I guess that’s part of a school trip. I think the kids did get some sleep, but not very much.

We were up and ready for breakfast before 7:30 a.m. and after packing and inspection to see if everything was put in the bus, we were off to the Maholoholo Rehabilitation Center. This is another center where injured animals are taken in and cared for. They have quite a few birds which have damaged wings or have been caught in snares. We were able to get in the giant cage with three varieties of vultures. Several people had the opportunity to put on a leather glove and hold a piece of meat and let the vultures land on their arm and grab the meat. That sounds simple enough, but it was quite exciting to say the least. The birds had not had meat in awhile and they were all trying to get a bite, not only of the meat, but anything that looked like meat. One vulture started eating one of the student’s fleecy, another actually took a couple of pecks of Larry’s leg. It was too much for us and the birds and so we had to exit the cage quickly. We didn’t want to be part of the next meal for these birds. It was exhilarating!

At this center we saw two more lions and a beautiful leopard and two honey badgers. There have some other animals, but they were not a part of our tour.

After a group photo, we boarded the bus and the other vehicle to make our way back down the hill. We stopped off for a delicious pizza lunch. Normally this place has a two for one deal, but that day it was buy two, get two free and an extra one on top of that. It was like the fish and loaves. After all of us had our fill of the pizza, we discovered that we still had over four full pizzas left. We saved them for a snack at the end of the trip.

We really had a wonderful time and the kids were sad to return back to Maputo. They so enjoyed the beautiful clean air in the mountains of South Africa and the great adventures.

Larry and I were thankful that the Lord had given us a safe trip with good traveling, no bus troubles and no injuries. We now look forward to the 7th – 12th grade student’s trip this Thursday. Pray that it will be as successful and fun.