IC Trip - Laikipia Gold

Group photo!

For my IC trip this year I went to Laikipia, on the president's award gold trip. We spent a week hiking, riding camels, and participating in various other teamwork activities. The teachers accompanying us on the trip were Mr and Mrs Lavender, and there was a very friendly team of people with us the whole week helping out as well. We each brought along a small daypack for hiking (containing necessities, such as water, sunblock, snacks, etc), and a large rucksack.

Elephants we saw on the trip!

I was very excited for the trip, as IC trips are usually the highlight of the year for me. I was especially looking forward to seeing the camels and camping, though I thought that this trip would be very challenging physically. I had psyched myself up for a very difficult trip, as last year the biking trip was one of the hardest things that I have ever done (and that was only the silver award!). However, it turns out that it wasn't strenuous at all and the only real problem during the day was the unbearable heat. I wanted to learn more about the region and survival tactics on the trip, and connect more with the group going.

Our first campsite

On the first day we all met at school at around 7:40 in the morning to unload the bags into the bus and get organised, and then left at 8. Everyone had reasonable sized bags, and I felt a little guilty about mine because it was slightly bigger than the others. However, it turned out that we only had to carry our big bags for the last day, so I was fine. The bus ride was around 6 hours, and we ate our lunch in the bus. We arrived at around 2 in the afternoon and had a short 2-3 hour hike to the first campsite. Before the hike they warned us that bright clothing could attract buffalo and other dangerous animals, and told us that it was crucial that we all remained silent and calm if we saw elephants, buffalos, etc. I actually really enjoyed walking through the savannah. There was a light breeze which helped with the heat, and the terrain was really quite beautiful. We saw buffalo, zebra and giraffe in the first 20 minutes or so! When we saw the buffalo we all had to walk in single file in silence, and we did a pretty good job of it. When we arrived at our first campsite we met the camels, which were very tall and gangly. They were dorkily cute, and I fell in love with them at once! After we had all put up our tents we met for teamwork activities, such as organising ourselves by birthday in silence and doing motions matching our hobbies. We then had dinner and went to our tents for bed. It was a freezing cold night and I hadn't prepared for it at all! My sleeping bag was really thin and I barely slept the whole night. I recall myself curling into a ball to try and conserve warmth, but failing miserably. It wasn't the best first night, especially when I awoke to mass condensation on our tent.

We try to put up our tents

The second day consisted of raft building, hiking and camel riding! We all got up at around 6:30 and had breakfast and then split into two groups. Unfortunately, these groups were decided based on grade, and we ended up with a junior and sophomore group! We then had talks regarding how to use a compass and health and safety measures. We learnt what to do when you get a snake bite, and how to avoid it. Apparently you should try to take a photo of the snake after it bites you, as that will help them to see what species it is and inject you with the appropriate venom. Furthermore, we were reminded that snakes will not attack you if you don't provoke them, and that they will do everything they can to run away from you before they resort to an actual attack. This was a very interesting talk and I learnt a lot from Jessie (one of the men working with the organisation 'Active Team Solutions'). Afterwards the sophomore group got onto the 8 camels and headed off, while we all lavishly applied sunblock and began our hike. The hike was only about 2 hours long but the heat was extremely intense. I personally have very fair skin, and even putting on sunblock every 10-20 minutes or so got very burned indeed. On the hike we saw elephants, cows, zebra and many other animals, and it was really fun talking to my classmates as I walked and getting to know them. When we reached the lake everyone headed straight into the water, relishing the cold. Some people, including myself, even jumped in completely and started to swim around! Unfortunately, we had to get out soon afterwards. We were split up again into two groups to make rafts. We were taught how to lash together the planks of wood provided and attach barrels on to form the raft, and (though it was originally quite difficult) we learnt how to do it fairly well. We learnt about slip knots and various other types, and learnt that a good knot is:

Racing!

1. Easy to tie
2. Serves a specific purpose
3. Easy to untie

The Camel behind me carrying water

My group doubted the stability of our raft greatly, and though two planks came apart almost immediately after we put it in the water (we lashed it quickly on the bank) it didn't come undone again for the whole race. Eric, Liam, Hannah and I were on our raft and we used a mixture of paddling, swimming and pulling in the race. We had to circle around an acacia tree and then be the first to return to the starting point. It was very close and we almost won, but unfortunately the other team got there a few seconds before us. However, their raft broke while ours stayed intact, and our loss didn't take away from the fun. We headed back out with some other friends almost straight afterwards, actually getting pretty far out into the lake before we had to turn back. When we got back we ate a small lunch and then got onto the camels! We only had 8 for around 14 people, and so we had a first and second group to go on. I was part of the first group, and I got a reasonably friendly camel. Getting on was actually pretty difficult, my friend Nidhi almost coming off her saddle completely as the camel stood up! Once we were on it was amazing though, I felt so high off the ground and the flowing motion as the camel walked was quite nice (though slightly uncomfortable after a while). It was interesting to find out that the black chunk of hair at the back of a camels head is actually a gland that produces grease, and that a camel can survive up to a week or more without water. I stayed on the camel for about an hour, and then walked the rest of the way back to camp. I had an extremely bad sunburn after the antics of the day, and spent the night nursing a sore neck and shoulders! I also had the unusual experience of taking a shower at camp. They had set up showers, but th

Me on the camel

ey were only concealed by leafy branches... The showers were definitely not for the modest, and you could practically see straight through them! It was one of the most awkward experiences of the trip, but it was memorable...? I helped to prepare japatis for dinner, learning from my classmates how to role them to get a round shape. We ate and were told that we were allowed to sleep outside by the fire if we wanted. Shifts were organised to keep the fire going, and I spent a little bit of time out and then decided to go back to my tent. Needless to say, I froze again. Lesson learnt - I slept out by the warm fire for the remainder of the nights!

Riding Camels! [I am on the second camel]

Maasai cows

The next day we packed up our campsite and prepared to move to the next one, which was a over 8 hours hike away. We all packed up our tents and then the sophomore group got a head start on the hiking and set off before us. We helped to load everything into the truck and do the remainder of the cleaning up.We had four camels for 14 people, and so we took turns to ride them. I went on first and learnt how to ride side saddle! However, when I got off the real work began. It was definitely the most physically challenging day of the trip, which was in a way quite nice. It was, yet again, very hot, and this was the main issue of the day. Some people struggled with the walking (including one of the teachers on the trip!), but the lunch break offered some relief. We also ran out of water, which was an issue. It was vaguely amusing because we repeatedly caught up with the sophomore group and had to sit and wait for them to get further before we started walking again. I admired the energy and optimism of everyone in my team, and I think we did a very good job throughout the day. We met up with the sophomore group just after lunch and sat by the river. We watched some maasai take their cows down to drink, and a friend and I went up to ask to stroke one. To our horror the maasai ran up and grabbed one of the young cows by the leg, and it started to cry out frantically. We desperately signalled for him to stop and instead approached slowly afterwards and let them come to us and lick our hands. This was quite a large culture shock for me. Elly and I were so gentle and careful with the animals, and yet in our society they are ruthlessly murdered each day. We only know cows as packaged meat in the supermarket, and the fact that we were so shocked by the maasai's actions and yet accept this barbaric system shows how sheltered and blind we are.

Sunset

We set out again soon afterwards, and I rode the camel for a bit to camp. The new camp was much nicer than the one we had left. It was far larger and situated by a babbling river. It was so beautiful, and we all went down and sat on the rocks and paddled to cool down. Some girls even got into their swimsuits and started to tube down the river and wash their hair! It was a well deserved break from all the work we had done that day. We all put up our tents, took showers (in more concealed bushes luckily), and changed into clean clothes. A few people then set out on an evening game drive. I decided to go that night, as I really wanted to see the sunset. The deal was that we would help prepare breakfast in the morning, which I was ok with. I got into the old landrover, and I got to stand up and stick my head out of the roof. There were only about 8 other people in the car with us, and we all chatted as we drove along. The sunset was just as amazing as I thought it would be, and we saw jackals, rabbits, lions hunting zebra, impala, and much more. When we arrived back at camp we ate dinner around the campfire, which was nice. The food on the trip was actually not bad at all. Dinners were more than reasonable, and our lunches were self-prepared sandwiches and such. Compared to the biking trip the year before this was amazing, and I was relieved that the PA people were not required to pack and cook all of their own food. That night I also slept out by the fire the whole night, which was i

Sleeping round the campfire

ncredible. The stars were so beautiful, and we all pointed out various constellations from our sleeping bags (for example, Orion's belt). My shift was also bearable, and it was lovely to just sit up and quietly enjoy the fire and stars on my own. I slept far better than I ever had (or would of) in my tent, and it was really nice to be with friends and talk. I only learnt the next day that there had actually been hyenas creeping about camp!


The next day we spent the whole day at camp playing games and doing various activities. This was actually the best day of the trip for me, as I got to interact more with my friends and learn various survival techniques. Everyone split into four or five groups, and there were five activities - camouflage, abseiling, escape games, and challenges with buckets of water on and around a zip wire. I did abseiling first. It was from a tree, as they couldn't find any cliffs, but it was still fun all the same. We climbed up and then were lowered down. Unfortunately, our group discovered some bottles that could be used as water guns, and some water balloons. As you hung, fully exposed, from the tree the whole team would attack you with the water! This was actually quite nice (as it was very hot), but resulted in loud screeches and chasing! We also had to go and find all the people who had camouflaged themselves, and spent a good 10 minutes or so prowling the undergrowth and attacking those we found with our water guns. It was interesting to see how they had decided to hide. We had been told that it was important to hide your face, change your shape, block bright colors, and not to move - this is what people look for when they search for wildlife. Most people didn't hide very well, but Alex Alverson hid himself up in a tree and was only found near the very end.

We all pose with our camouflage makeup in the abseiling tree!

The activities after lunch were more tactical. In our first we were all tied on a rope and had to find a way to escape, and then were blindfolded and had to follow a rope through the shrubbery. This worked on our teamwork, as we had to verbally communicate with the person behind us to warn them what was coming (overhanging branches, etc). After this one we had to transport buckets of water out of a circle using only two long ropes. This was originally quite difficult as we couldn't get a good grip of any of them and they tipped over very quickly, but once we found out the secret to it it was simple. Some people then carried the buckets in their mouths across a zipwire, which was very difficult. The bucket was unstable and Jesse threw large rocks in the water as they reached the other side to splash them.

Camouflage...masters?

That night we had the traditional meal of nyama choma and ugali. They had slaughtered the goat earlier that day, but I had refused to participate or watch this activity. The meal was good, though I'm vegetarian and couldn't actually try the nyama choma, and we played games of cards around the campfire together. We also had a group discussion in which we reviewed the best parts of the trip and thanked everyone for their help. It was nice to see the connections that had been formed, and I was very sad that it was our last night. I slept out by the fire again, and the shifts were especially strict as the hyenas were apparently still close to camp and were attracted by the goat. However, nothing happened and we were all fine in the morning.

The last day went by very quickly. We got up and packed up the camp, took group photos, and then carried our big bags up the hill in a final trek to the bus. My bag was so large that I almost fell over backwards, but luckily I made it to the top! The bus ride back was bittersweet, and I was both happy and sad to go home.

'Dorkily Cute' Camels

Lunch by the river - day 2

Overall, this was an amazing experience for me. I learnt so much about the region and myself, and I made some really solid friendships. It wasn't quite as challenging as I had originally suspected, but it was much more fun that last year due to the extent of activities in which I participated. Raft building, camouflage and abseiling were by far my favorites and I took a lot away from it all. Everyone was just so motivated and enthusiastic about everything, for example during the camoflage activity some girls even went down to the river and covered themselves from head to foot in mud! In this trip I learnt the importance of teamwork, a lot about the animals and people of Laikipia, determination and perseverance. All that I did can be applied to my everyday life, and I'm so happy that I have the memories that I do of this trip. All the people that came along made it incredible, and I'm so happy that I chose to do the PA Gold trip this year. I hope that next year is just as amazing!

The river at our second camp

The camel takes rest at the second camp