15 April 2007
I got to go on my first field trip with some of the kids on Friday. It took us a while to get things moving since we were taking a group of grade 4’s, but once we got on the road it was a great experience. The plan was to go to a place called Dune 7—which you might well guess is a sand dune. Then head down the Walvis Bay Harbor to take a tugboat ride. Finally, go swimming and braai at a place called The Dolphin Park. All in all, it’s a pretty eventful day trip.
First, the Dune 7 plan pretty much got knocked out by our leaving almost an hour late. Only about a third of the 17 students going showed up on time. So we had to call their schools, track them down and stuff them in the combi. I was a little disappointed about missing the dune. Apparently, it’s the biggest one around and takes about a half hour to climb. The trek up doesn’t sound very appealing, I’ll admit, but running down a giant sand dune is nothing if not pure enjoyment. We did get to drive by and take a look at it, though. The kids didn’t seem to mind at all. They were interested in boats and swimming.
I got to go on my first field trip with some of the kids on Friday. It took us a while to get things moving since we were taking a group of grade 4’s, but once we got on the road it was a great experience. The plan was to go to a place called Dune 7—which you might well guess is a sand dune. Then head down the Walvis Bay Harbor to take a tugboat ride. Finally, go swimming and braai at a place called The Dolphin Park. All in all, it’s a pretty eventful day trip.
First, the Dune 7 plan pretty much got knocked out by our leaving almost an hour late. Only about a third of the 17 students going showed up on time. So we had to call their schools, track them down and stuff them in the combi. I was a little disappointed about missing the dune. Apparently, it’s the biggest one around and takes about a half hour to climb. The trek up doesn’t sound very appealing, I’ll admit, but running down a giant sand dune is nothing if not pure enjoyment. We did get to drive by and take a look at it, though. The kids didn’t seem to mind at all. They were interested in boats and swimming.
So we headed for Walvis Bay for the tugboat ride. Walvis Bay is about 30km south of Swakop so we’re not talking very far away. It’s a pretty important harbor with a lot of history that surrounds it, but that’s not part of the field trip story so I’ll leave that on for another day. Anyway, we arrived early as instructed and ended up running around all over the port authority trying to get our permit to enter the harbor because either the lady who organized it for us got it all mucked up or the guy who was handing out the permits was an idiot—probably both actually. In the end, we had to wait until the lady who organized it came back from lunch to actually figure stuff out. She sent us off with two of her staff who promptly sorted out the permit, and we were in business. Or so we thought. Then they informed us there was no boat ride. Instead, a tour of the port itself was supposed to be our entertainment… yawn. “Here we’ve got cranes unloading shipping containers.” “And there they are loading salt to be shipped to Congo.” You get the picture. Luckily, when we were just leaving the place we would have taken a boat, some random guy stopped us to ask if we wanted to go out on one of the boats. So we did end up getting to go out into the harbor a bit. The kids loved it. Most of them, if not all, had never been on a boat before. Plus there were seals swimming around, clapping, barking and having fun.
Finally, we made it to The Dolphin Park—which doesn’t actually have any dolphins. Mostly it’s just a big swimming pool with a sweet water slide. The place was awesome. We showed up only about an hour before it closed so no other visitors were there. Having the run of the place was good, particularly because there was no line for the water slide. I’m not sure who enjoyed it more, me or the kids (as you can see from the picture above). Very few of them could swim and the water at the bottom of the slide was kind of deep so I ended up taking them down with me quite a few times. It was great flying down the slide, trying to get as high up on the corners as possible and then dunking myself while holding a kid over my head to keep them above water. As soon as I came back up all I would hear was: “again! again! again!”
Once I tired myself out and their appetites were worked up, we got the braai going and fired up some hot dogs. Ahhh… BBQ and a pool. It brought back memories. I’m pretty sure I had 5. The kids must have been thinking, “fat Americans.”
After that, we packed up and headed home. On the road, I turned around to see a combi load of children who were falling asleep of exhaustion. Now that is the way a field trip should end. Can’t wait for the next one.
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