Grace's Game Viewing Opportunities

During their 12 days in Zambia, the party from Grace Academy had several opportunities to view African game.

The first, which was not strictly 'Game Viewing' was at Kalimba Reptile Park. Besides lots of snakes, there are enormous breeding crocodiles:

On this trip we took the children who live in the houses near to where the students stayed - a housing area on the site called Delta, so they are known as the 'Delta kids' and they really enjoyed having new neighbours. In the build up to Grace's arrival they helped make their beds and afterwards, helped to clean the houses and move furniture. Here are two of them near to a big female crocodile:

The reptile park is also a fish farm, so quite a few of them fished with African rods:

We caught five bream, which were cooked alongside sausages, which we had brought with us:

'Hedge' found a crocodile tail...

...others swam in the pool...

...but all had a great time!

An unexpected game viewing opportunity, happened when we visited the Zambian Parliament. Within the grounds are a herd of impala and we saw them leaping and running through the manicured gardens...

...before we went into the chamber, where the game was of the stuffed variety!

This is the closest I'll ever get to a leopard:

The hour journey into Lusaka passes close to a small game park called Parays. We had a school trip with Grade 10 class and saw Buffalo...

...zebra...

...and several kinds of antelope, like impala and bushbuck.

Another unexpected and rather unwelcome game encounter happened on the day we travelled to a village called Mukobela. During the football game, a boy brought a snake he had just caught - it was still alive, but stunned:

The final opportunity for game viewing happened in Livingstone, right at the end of the trip. It was a very cold morning, so Sarah and Katie, teachers at Grace Academy were trying to keep warm:

Here we saw warthog...

... and lots of giraffe...

...including some baby giraffe...

The national park at Victoria Falls only has one rhino, which is guarded all the time:

The only elephant we saw was drinking beside the Zambezi River...

...but while we were watching him, he decided to move onto the road we were on. We travelled behind him and then he suddenly turned and started to come towards us, trumpetting, with ears flared:

This photo shows how close he was, but doesn't convey the speed of the elephant, the truck reversing, the fear of everyone on board, or the screams!

It was a scary moment, which everyone enjoyed - after the elephant had moved on, of course!

Grace Academy to Zambia

I was shocked to realise that it had been five weeks since I posted anything on this blog! Where has the time gone? The answer to that is in this posting's title - Grace Academy came to Zambia for twelve days, from July 10th-22nd, so I am just recovering from the hectic weeks prior to their arrival and of course, their time here.

Although the planning had been going on for many months, the pace increased as the arrival date approached. We had had a busy two months with many visitors coming through, with its accompanying hospitality, so I think I was already in a low state. Ten days before Grace arrived my body reacted and I came down with laryngitis, finally going to the doctor two days before the due date. I had lost my voice completely, so on 10th July, when I met the party of 12, plus a film crew from Christian Vision's Creative department, the sound coming out of my mouth was very strange indeed!

Nevertheless, it was a group of very excited young people who were ushered into the VIP lounge at Lusaka Airport, while their visas were being prepared. We had hired a bus for the various trips, but it was rather a squash to get all the luggage on board:

This is one of the first group photos I took, with one of the Zambians:

The eight students and four staff from Grace Academy, Solihull, UK, had been fundraising for many months for this trip. A packed programme was about to unfold. After some rest, they had a welcome braai where they met the senior managers, and had their first taste of Zambian food and vibrant song and dance.


An early morning tour of the farm on site was an eye opener for them. Most had never been to a farm before; they didn't know how maize flour (to make nshima, the staple food of Zambia) is milled...

...or hadn't ever been up-close-and-personal with a herd of bulls:

From the farm we moved to the school on site, called Christian Vision Academy (CVA). It was Sport's Day; a wonderful way to break the ice. Besides all the usual track events there was the sack race...

...the egg and spoon race (unboiled eggs)...

...the water race...

...the bottle race...

The Grace students were split between CVA's houses, so they were competing against each other. This is Elliot with his relay team:

Tall 'Hedge', whose name is also Elliott, was popular with younger children:

The winning team was a delighted, Joshua House:

It was a wonderful start to the trip...