School Trips

Grade 7 Trip to the Lower Zambezi

The grade 7 trip is the highlight of many pupils time at Musikili.  The children spend 5 nights camping on the banks of the Chongwe River supervised by an extremely experienced group of adults. Some of the children have never been out into the bush, seen elephant or hippo, or felt the thrill of catching a fish.

Conservation, ecology, science, art, survival skills, history ... these are just a few of the subjects covered during this excursion.  The children are divided into small groups and each group spends a morning with the mammal team, the tree and bird specialists or the fishing experts.

The afternoons are spent looking down microscopes and discovering the wonderful world of microscopic creatures, learning the basics of first aid, creating artistic masterpieces using only what they find on the banks of the river, the list just goes on and on.

Campfire tales, singalongs and wonderful food all ensure that a class of very tired children creep into their tents for the night, perhaps to dream about what they have seen and what new discovery tomorrow holds.

The Musikili community is very lucky to have a number of dedicated professionals willing to give up their time to share some of their vast knowledge as well as generous individuals who uncomplainingly lend trucks and equipment, donate numerous necessary items, bake biscuits (and Yorkshire puddings), provide crates of bananas and generally help make this the wonderful success it has been for over 20 years. 

Security is the number one issue in all the supervisors' and teachers' minds. The camp fence is electrified and there are always adults not involved in the activity at hand keeping a wary lookout.

Grade 6 trip to Ndubaluba

The Ndubaluba trip is, without doubt, the highlight of the Grade Six year. The children change dramatically in the space of five crammed days and they probably grow more in the one week than in the rest of the year put together. The aims of the course are to do with leadership skills and team building, but much more than this is achieved. It is the personal growth of each individual that always surprises me. They discover themselves as they are nudged out of their comfort zones and they also get a brand new perspective on each other. The atmosphere in the classroom after the trip is always very, very different and the change is always for the better.

The children are kept extremely busy with a wide variety of exciting and challenging activities. The Ropes Course, Jacob’s Ladder, The Climbing Wall, The Adventure Challenge Race, Initiative Tests, Orienteering, Clay Work, Solitaire, The Faith Pole, Camp Out, Canoeing, Wide Games and many other activities fill the week with triumphs and memories that will last forever.

Grade 5 Field Trip to Treetops 

The Grade Five Field Trip to Treetops which is in the Kafue National Park took place from 21st to 26th September 2008. The Kafue National Park is the largest park in Zambia, the third largest in Africa and the fifth largest in the world. Treetop is a schools’ camp situated in the northern section of the Kafue National Park and is close to the Busanga Plains on which game viewing can be stunning. The camp is called ‘Treetops’ because of the enormous baobab tree at the campsite. The baobab tree is hundreds of years old and it is so big that as many as twenty five children are needed to encircle it at the base.

Pre-trip preparations which consisted of lead-in lessons on the flora and fauna of the park added to the mounting sense of excitement. The journey to Treetops took approximately ten hours including a number of stops on the way. We travelled in considerable comfort as the road is generally in a good state. The exuberant party of ten girls and twenty-two boys nattered away with the chatter only subsiding after entering the park. We were lucky to view a large herd of roan antelope on our way to camp as they are not a common sight in the northern part of the park. A few boys and the game scout were even luckier; they saw a leopard! Other animals we saw include puku, impala, kudu, warthog, hartebeest, waterbuck and the occasional bushbuck.  We arrived at Treetops as dusk was falling and the children ran to the enormous baobab tree and gazed at it in awe.

During our stay at the camp, we followed the tried and tested pattern of previous years. The children spent their time involved in a multitude of activities that were designed to be stimulating, challenging, informative, exciting and most of all - fun. The highlight of the trip was visiting the Busanga plains. We viewed a pride of lions resting on an anthill. As it got rapidly hotter and more dusty, we did a quick circuit of the plains and then headed back to camp.  On our way back, the children were baffled to see an alpha male puku follow a lioness. The children concluded that he was trying to make an impression on the female puku which stood watching at a safe distance. We also had fine views of wildebeest, red lechwe and zebra and identified several birds on our bird list.

The swim at Lufupa camp and the boat cruise on the Kafue and Lufupa Rivers were thoroughly enjoyed by everyone. We were elated by the sighting of elephants and two lions on our last game drive; an apt finale!

Aiden van Breda:

When we were at treetops it was very fun and exiting. The things I liked most were when we saw the leopard and the injured lion. L also liked everything  that we saw. I liked the bush walk, art and l definitely liked the fear Factor, it was funny, scary and revolting. I did not like the tsetse flies in the plains.

Ryan Rusch:

At Treetops we had loads of fun, and I experienced lots of things like how to identify a bird and a puku and a impala but the most interesting about it for me was seeing a Leopard.

It was when we were on our way to the Busaga plains about two kilometers until we reached the Busaga plains, when Tembo, our bus driver, stopped the the game truck and told us that he had seen the leopard and that was the best thing we saw at Treetops.

Tristan Kirby:

I thought the most interesting thing about Treetops was seeing the buffalo. As soon as we saw the buffalo they all ran across the road. When the buffalo stopped all of the bulls surrounded the herd and all of the cows and calves stayed in the middle of the herd. Our scout said we were so lucky he had never seen buffalo in this area. It was the biggest herd I had ever seen. And if I could go to Treetops again I would. 

Siampunga Sindaza:

Treetop was nice place to go because you learn a lot about animals. My favorite day was Wednesday because I got to see a Leopard for my first time in the wild. The Leopard got really close to us in the truck. The Leopard was hunting a group of Impala’s unfortunately we never got to see it chase the Impala’s. We also got to see a Kingfisher nest and the Kingfisher was standing right at the top of the tree were its nest was. We also drove to the Busanga plains it was a hot and long drive but we also got to see Wildebeest and Zebra. When we came back we had art we collect a lot of leaves and feathers for art. Then we went on a game drive and saw a Porcupine and Hippo.