Memories of school geography trips traditionally involve soggy sandwiches and counting pebbles on a rainy beach in Wales.

But a group of lucky pupils from Archway came home from their excursion with tales of baboons and rhinos, panning for gold and shopping in an African market. Sam Bond reports.

STUDYING the Savannah habitat and the Rift Valley might seem a bit dry in the classroom but Archway pupils found the subject really captured their imagination on a recent field trip to Kenya.

The Year 9 group spent their February half-term soaking up the sights and atmosphere on the African adventure.

But although the enthusiastic students were bubbling over with excited stories of their time in the sun they seemed most taken by the friendliness of the locals.

"There was a little nursery school near where we were staying and in the morning we would hear them singing and clapping," said Naomi Hughes. "It was really sweet."

All the Archway students described how the people had made them feel welcome and how open they had been.

They visited a school where pupils had lessons outside in the shade of huge trees.

The Kenyan children were so keen to get a proper education some of them turned up to study even though there were not enough teachers to give them proper lessons.

The Stroud students learned how the current government had put a lot of emphasis on education and had promised free primary school learning to all the country's children but the pledge was taking time to filter through to rural areas.

The party also learned about African agriculture and visited an irrigation plant. But one of the highlights was going to a market where the local people were trading their wares.

"It was quite intimidating, everyone was staring at us," said Alice Butler. "But it was really interesting. "All the women used market day to show off their best clothes."

The youngsters were also shown how to pan for gold and the practical geography lessons they learned each day were reinforced by a fun quiz each evening.

No African adventure would be complete though without going on safari and the students saw a wide variety of animals including rhino, gazelle and buffalo at the Lake Nakuru game park.

They were even mugged by baboons who stole their biscuits. "It was weird seeing the animals in their natural habitat," said Keiran Hodgkin.

The pupils were disappointed not to see any elephants during the safari but teacher Marion Cramp explained it had been too dry for them and they had moved on in search of lusher vegetation.

The trip was not without a few problems, however, and four of the students fell foul of thieves.

"While we were at breakfast one day someone got into our hotel room and all our money and passports were stolen," said Alice Butler. "We had to go to the British Embassy in Nairobi to get it sorted out."

But the students did not let the incident mar their trip. "It was a bit disappointing at first but we knew we couldn't do anything about it so we just carried on," said Alice.

The students who had been robbed may have missed out on part of the trip but they did get to visit a giraffe sanctuary where almost-tame warthogs and giraffes ate from their hands.