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Here are some
pictures of the latest Grade 11 Geography Field Trip to the coast and a written
report below the photos.
The Grade 11 Geography class
GEOGRAPHY FIELD TRIP
by Simone Futter & Christine Cloete
On the 22nd of May 2009 Mr Stoloff’s grade 11 Geography
class skipped school to head for the Waters Meeting Nature Reserve and the
beaches of Port Alfred and Kenton. This was to be an amazing and interesting
trip. 12 girls and Mr Stoloff got into a VGHS school bus and drove out of town
with fascinating destinations in mind.
Destination 1 was the fresh water spring just outside of Grahamstown. Some of
the girls got out to fill up a bottle with the great tasting, clean and fresh
water. Destination 2 was the Water Meetings Nature Reserve in Bathurst. The view
was unbelievably pretty. There is a river that flows down towards the sea. The
shape that the river is and the features that has is called horse shoe bend, in
a few years time it will eventually form an ox bow lake. Eventually after a very
bumpy road we reached the tar road again and headed for destination number 3
Port Alfred. This is where the fun began. Our first stop was the marina. The
soil has been messed around with by the builders of the Marina so much that the
sand is becoming more than the water that is in there. People are now trying
methods of pumping more water into the marina so that the boats are able to get
around. We walked out the very wet and slippery pier. We know how slippery it
was because one of us took a very hard fall. Destination number 3 was Kelly’s
Beach. We took a walk along the beach to learn more about the terminology that
we learnt about in class. Some of us also found weird yet fascinating objects.
The parking area was washed away by the huge waves about a year ago, it has
since been rebuilt. Kelly’s beach is a blue flag beach. This means that it has a
safe and clean environment and the ecology is being well watched over. Thorn
bushes have been placed along the places where people are not allowed to be
because that causes erosion to happen. There are also plenty of bins around and
a bathroom/ shower facility.
The final destination for the day was Kenton. When we got there everyone was a
bit hungry even though we ate along the way. We had a short lunch break as we
had to get a move on with our long walk. We had to take our bags with us because
we didn’t want them to get stolen out of the bus. Our first obstacle to get over
was a huge rock which had some sharp edges to it. It was a mission but we all
got over it. After quiet a far walk we thought it was time to go back but Mr
Stoloff had another plan in mind, more climbing. We were walking the sea level
reached once upon a time many years ago; it was proven by the rock matter which
was found up there. This was a steep climb and was not the last either. The view
from the very top was phenomenal. Below us was a little bay which we were
allowed to take a rest. Some of us didn’t get enough if climbing so we went
climbing a bit more to take a look at a cave. On our way back we tried to take a
“short cut”. No one had ever been that way, but we tried it. After a long walk
and lots of bundu-bashing we discovered a dead end and had to go back but not
that far. We walked through more bushes and eventually found a sand dune to get
back to ground level. After we climbed back over the first obstacle we saw the
bus which to us was freedom. While Mr Stoloff took a swim in the sea us girls
washed our feet and changed into something warm and not full of sand. On the way
out we made on last unexpected stop at a restaurant which many of us never knew
about. We saw the view from the other end of the horse shoe bend which was just
as stunning as the first. To quench our thirst Mr Stoloff bought us a cool drink
while we discussed what we had like about the trip.
We learnt more about erosion and depositional features along the whole trip. We
also discovered Mr Stoloffs passion for climbing. Whenever we are at the beach
again we will all be telling our parents about the “Honde piss bos” which is
Afrikaans for dog urine bush, this interested us because the smell of the bush
was almost everywhere we went. We would like to thank Mr Stoloff for leading the
way out the “short cut”, puff adder favourite, bundu-bashing bush and for taking
the opportunity to show us what we have been learning about in the past two
terms.
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