For our World Challenge Expedition, we embarked on a three-week trip to Northern Tanzania in July 2024, during which we immersed ourselves in the country’s culture and explored some of its most beautiful and striking landscapes. Our main itinerary consisted of a community initiative, safari, trekking and R&R in Zanzibar, all truly unforgettable.

Having arrived at school early July 13^th, laden with our bags and kit for the trip and ready to travel, we had our build-up day, where we checked through the packing list and completed our final modules before going to the airport. After a long journey, including a 3-hour layover in Kenya, we landed at Kilimanjaro Airport, Tanzania.

Although tired from the journey, spirits were high as we got onto the bus we would be travelling in for the next 3 weeks. We met Aggrey, our constantly cheery and smiling driver who would become very much part of the team for our time in Tanzania. After a short bus journey later, we arrived at the Weru Weru River Lodge and the next morning we woke up early for breakfast and set off to Moshi to organise the trip admin before strolling around the markets and testing our haggling skills. Later that day, we had our first taste of hiking as a group, exploring our local surroundings whilst trekking through local farmland and across rivers, with some beautiful scenery to admire.

The Community Project Phase

For the project phase of our expedition, we travelled to the village of Msitu Wa Tembo, after having arrived at Londoto Primary School, we settled into the classroom that we would be camping inside of for the next few days. When the children were let out of their lessons for lunch, we had so much fun playing games, dancing and singing songs with them.

Once the local children and teachers had gone home, and after an even game of hacky-sack, we watched the sunset from the school field with Mount Kilimanjaro as a stunning backdrop. Following our first “bucket” showers of the trip, we tucked into a game of Werewolf, which would become a real feature of the trip!

The next day we were woken up early by the school bell and visited the local ‘Kilipads’ project, an initiative that helps educate local communities about women’s health. We learnt about their work and even tried – some more successfully than others - sewing reusable sanitary pads. After lunch, we met women from the Maasai tribe and enjoyed making tribal bracelets with them, before teaching them the Hokey Cokey and the Macarena as well as learning some of their traditional dances.

Later on, the Maasai women hitched a ride on our bus to get to the market, where they enjoyed listening to and bopping along to Katy Perry. After briefly looking around the market, which was a real attack on the senses, we returned to Londoto primary school and enjoyed some after-school play time with the local Maasai children. Before bed, we had a structured debate about our project work, allowing us to reflect on its benefits and potential drawbacks.

After being woken bright and early once again by the school bell, we set to our tasks for the day, which started with the setting up and running of a games session for the children, including duck-duck-goose, a high-jump competition, various running races, and football matches.

Later in the day, wielding machetes, we chopped our way through thorny shrubbery that would later be used to surround the trees we planted to protect them from wildlife. Finally, led by some of the pupils, we went on a huge litter-pick around the school and its local surroundings, collecting plastic bottles that would later be used by the school in building paths.

On our final project day, after having packed up our kit, we met with the local Maasai women and learnt to cook Pilau, a traditional Swahili dish, involving seemingly innumerable steps and ingredients. Whilst the food was cooking, we put our hand to painting some desk frames which would later be used to furnish a new classroom. Our reward was tucking into the slow-cooked Pilau which was exquisite and turned out to be pretty much everyone’s favourite meal of the trip. As a parting gift, many of the children drew us pictures and made us bracelets, which they gave us before we left.

Ed, our group leader for the day, made a speech to a group of children – thanking them for their kindness and for making us feel so welcome. In return, the group sang a farewell song to us, and many tears were shed as we said goodbye to the friends we had made.

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Ngorongoro Crater Safari and Hot Springs

The next stop on our adventure was the Ngorongoro Crater for our safari adventure. Upon arrival at our campsite, we were warned by the staff at the campsite that during the night, hyenas circle the area, and you can hear them laughing. This added to the experience as we were even more immersed in the wildlife – although it was worrying to hear at first! At dawn the following day, we embarked on our safari, spending the entire day eagerly spotting the abundant wildlife, including lions, elephants, buffalos, rhinos and even a leopard for one of our three jeeps! The views within the Ngorongoro Crater were breathtaking, and witnessing the animals up close felt surreal. For lunch, we stopped by the hippo pool, which was a uniquely memorable experience. Additionally, we were fortunate to spot a giraffe at the start of our safari, a rare sight due to the crater’s sparse vegetation, making the encounter even more remarkable.

The next day, we returned to Weru Weru Lodge, eagerly anticipating our visit to the Hot Springs, where we spent the following day immersed in the crystal-clear waters, which were unlike anything we had ever seen, with the naturally warm temperature of the springs enhancing the beauty of the location. Allocating part of our budget to this experience was undoubtedly the right decision, as everyone thoroughly enjoyed it and it allowed us to appreciate even more of Tanzania’s stunning natural beauty.

The Trekking Phase

After leaving Weru Weru Lodge for the final time, we went up into the Southern Pares mountains for our trekking phases. The place we were staying was vibrant with wildlife such as the monkeys and giant hornbills which surrounded our tents up in the trees. Down below our camp, there was a waterfall which the boys took as a place to have a natural shower as we had no running water at the time. Our first day’s trek took us first to a cave high up the steep hill where we all made our mark by writing the school's name on the wall with mud beneath two bats sleeping above our heads. Next, we ventured higher up the mountain before coming to a massive rock protruding out of it, and a few members of our group boldly scaled the sheer rock to take in the incredible views at the top, overlooking the entire valley. On the way down we were rewarded with a stop at a beautiful natural waterfall where we tucked into a well-earned lunch and enjoyed a reinvigorating dip in the freezing cold water. The second hike consisted of a much flatter walk to the other side of the mountain to take in views of the amazingly picturesque valley. Our third hike was much shorter, instead visiting a coffee plantation where we saw how the whole operation worked and enjoyed some fantastic coffee. For our final day of trekking, the group was split in two – those with slightly wearier legs went to do a cooking course where they baked a cake, using ingredients only from the farm around them, for our World Challenge guide, Shelby, whose birthday it was; the other half of the group embarked on the toughest hike yet, as they adventured for hours up the steep mountain until we reached a beautiful lake surrounded by mist and cloud, as well as a few grazing cows for company – a real highlight of the expedition for many, with a huge sense of achievement at having reached the peak of the mountain.

Rest and Relaxation in Zanzibar

For the final part of our expedition, we were lucky enough to travel to Zanzibar. After a somewhat rocky ferry journey to Stone Town, we arrived in the hustle and bustle of the capital of Zanzibar and quickly settled into our hostel in the centre of town. On the first day, we spent the morning exploring the town, with its plentiful shops, restaurants, and museums. In the afternoon, we decided to journey to the eastern side of the island to enjoy the crystal blue water on Paje Beach. On the second day, we enjoyed our snorkelling adventure. Just 15 minutes after hopping on the boat, we made our way towards the coral in the bright blue water. For a lot of us, it was our first experience snorkelling, and we really enjoyed it! Having the opportunity to see so much wildlife was incredible. In the evening, we all made our way to the night market, which was filled with local cuisine. We loved the snorkelling so much that we decided to go again the next day. With slightly rougher waters, snorkelling was a challenge, but we enjoyed it nonetheless. We also took the boat further to visit Prison Island which used to be used as a prison but is now a place to learn about its history and explore all its wildlife, such as the endangered Aldabra giant tortoises. On the last evening, we all got together as a group and spoke about the many highlights of the expedition - it was a really nice moment to reflect upon all we had experienced and achieved as well as the lifelong memories we had made together. After a bittersweet goodbye, we made our way back home, having learnt and developed so much as individuals.

We can all agree that our expedition was one of the best things we have ever done and would say yes to going on the expedition again in a heartbeat! A special thank you to Mr Galanis and Miss Pye for giving up three weeks of their summer holidays to accompany us on the expedition and to Shelby, our World Challenge guide – you all helped make it such a wonderful, once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Written by Campbell Begley-Jones, Leah Clarke, Charlotte Dargue and Hope Davies.