Week Without Walls

Bonamanzi River Camp – MYP1 2019

Bonamanzi Adventures played host to the MYP1 classes last week for their Week Without Walls. We were fortunate to have mostly excellent weather for the week and we made the most of it on the sprawling lawns. The MYP 1 students were kept busy right from their arrival. The facilitators had a wide range of exciting educational activities lined up Our students built a water filtration system for purifying water and put it to practical use , went river rafting, and completed a wide range of collaborative and team-building exercises all of which were designed to be fun and challenging. The students played rugby, skim ball, and enjoyed a night hike under the beautiful African sky. We made flags, learned about local fauna and flora and even tried our hand at carp fishing.
Evenings were kept busy with potjie cooking competitions, talent shows, and night hikes.
The level of involvement and enthusiasm from all the students was outstanding, and we left the camps having strengthened our bonds as well as making new friends.

Alan Gray & Lucas Grant

MYP 2 & 3 – Swellendam

The MYP 2 and 3 classes spent their Week Without Walls just outside of Swellendam, where an activity-filled camp took up most of their energy. The students participated in various games, obstacle courses, swims across the river and war-cry competitions.

On Thursday, we visited an animal sanctuary in Swellendam, walking along paths to look for giraffes and various types of buck. The extreme heat and looming bout of the flu didn’t do much to dampen the students’ spirits and much fun was had by all.

The camp ended on a high note, with a potjie cooking competition and a presentation of some interesting skits. This camp was one which we shall remember for a long time to come.

Genevieve Young & Daniel Cudlipp

IGCSE 1 & 2 – Orange River

For the IGCSE 1&2 classes, our destination for Week Without Walls was the Orange River.

There were about 30 of us who climbed on the bus that morning and spent hours together as we got closer and closer to Namibia and it slowly got hotter and hotter the further away we went from cool Cape weather. By the time we had reached the camp we were utterly exhausted, ready to just eat and go to sleep, so we did just that and left the rest for the next morning.

It was our first day of paddling and we set off onto the river, a pair in each boat and river water splashing us constantly, keeping us cool. We paddled for hours that day, stopping for lunch on the rocky bank of the river and skipping any smooth flat stones we found at our feet. We only stopped when the sun was setting, the river was in shade and our final stretch we had to make was the crossing of Dead Man’s Rapid to get to our campsite along the river bank. Fortunately, we all survived the rapid and set up before it got dark and settled down with a campfire and warm food before sleeping under the stars or in tents with the sound of the river flowing in the background. The second day was much of the same, though this time our arms were aching and a few sunburns had settled in: more paddling and rapids, nappy-runs, drifting and swimming down the river, the mountainous view constantly changing as we travelled along the twists and turns of the river, coming across birds and wild horses living on its bank. When we set up camp that day, we were told it was our last day of paddling after covering 36km in our two days on the river, so the next day was spent hiking up a rocky mountain to find what we called ‘pop-rocks’, translucent blue rocks that glow bright and pop when you throw them in the fire. Our pockets full, we climbed down and made our way back to begin packing in the scorching heat.

Our last night was spent at base camp, we had a laid back evening, playing cards and pool, some of us singing karaoke and then finally going to bed for our early start the next morning, finally heading back home. I think we all enjoyed some aspect of the camp, whether it was the actual paddling or just spending time with the people around us.  It was a little getaway from school to ground us and remind us what else there is out there.

Irie Dawson – IGCSE 2