On the 30th March 2016, our school P.A group went for their 2nd trip in Machakos. A quick briefing was given to us on our expedition and we were separated into 4 different groups. First we were to get up the hill to Iluvia school and then go down to a place called Kivandini Coffee Factory. It was a fun and adventurous journey indeed whereby one of our group even lost its way but eventually found it. From the factory we were dropped to our first campsite by bus. The campsite was actually in a school called Kaseve Primary School. When we reached there we found out we were to camp alongside Oshwal School. Tired and famished, we lazily pitched our tents and set off to prepare our dinner. After the dinner, we had a campfire in the school where we sang, danced, made stories, cracked jokes and had a lot more fun.
When we woke up the next morning we were first made to have an intense 30 minute workout alongside Oshwal then prepare our breakfast and lunch for the hike. At around 11 am we were briefed on our next expedition. This included climbing the hill just outside the camp school and moving onto Kitulu School which was our first checkpoint. From there we were to go back to Kivandini Coffee Factory. The hill was mostly rocky and absolutely steep. Sweat dripped off our foreheads by the end of the journey. This marked the end of bronze expedition. Only silver award members were to continue hiking though a few bronze participants were given an exception to hike as a second team as they requested. The route was to get up the hill just nearby and go all the way to Misawaki coffee factory. It was a tough route but there was teamwork at every nook and corner which made it a lot easier. We then went to camp at Machakos Technical Institute for the Blind(MTIB) to camp.
The next morning we had a small exploration adventure in the town before we left for Nairobi, all tired and dirty. The camp was fun and very resourceful to us students whereby we learnt teamwork, hiking but mainly, how to survive in and adapt to the conditions. It was an ‘absolutely entertaining’ trip.
