During the eighth grade year at RVA, the students take a trip to Mt. Suswa. Mt. Suswa is a volcano located a few hours from Kijabe. It is a fun drive in the Landcruiser, crossing rivers and traversing boulders to get to the campsite. There you set up your tent on the edge of the crater. It is a great view. The kids enjoy time in the outdoors, exploring the lava flow caves, talking on the cliff’s edge, and sleeping under the stars (or tents if they choose). Sarah slept outside and woke to see a jackal roaming around the campsite just a few feet from her sleeping bag. The next morning a couple young Masai men accompanied us on a hike up to the peak of the mountain. A fun weekend out in the wilds of Kenya.

Heading out from RVA

Overland

Over rocks

Spelunking

Camping on the cliff edge

The hightest point on the horizon is the summit destination. This is a good example of the two craters of the volcano. An inner crater to the left surround by the outer crater on the right and on which we are camped.

Breakfast!

Our guide

RVA usually has quite a few trips planned during the year. Poor David has missed two big ones he was supposed to take because of the COVID pandemic. One was to Zanzibar, and the other was probably to Ethiopia. Sarah missed her sixth grade safari last year. We are hoping that the seniors get to go on their Senior Safo to the beach at the end of the year. Missing that will bring the entire last two years to a crashing, sad end. Most of the kids that we know will at that point be glad to have high school behind them and moving on to hopefully better things in college. My friend Matt tells his kids, and I echo “You don’t want to peak in high school!” No worries about that for this year’s RVA class. Below are some pictures of Sarah with the 7th and 8th graders at Hell’s Gate National Park. They did rock climbing, repelling, cycling, and hiking. The rock climbing and repelling were reported as fun, no one chose hiking, and the cycling was hot and tiring. However, the cycling had the climax of having giraffes and zebras running alongside at about 10 feet distance. That is pretty cool!