Gwent sixth-former Sam Williams took a trip of a lifetime to Kenya...

THIS will not be a holiday – that was the first thing Andy Hunt said to us as he introduced us to the Africamp trip in September 2011.

A group of sixth form students sat in a classroom, eager for information about a chance of a lifetime.

Andy told us that the Africamp trips had been set-up in partnership with the Moving Mountains and students from many schools would all merge to form the Welsh Africamp, staying a month in Kenya to help the charity construct a classroom, along with time spent climbing Mount Kenya and going on safari.

We were then faced with the prospect of raising £2,500 for the trip, a frightening idea. In the six months leading up to the trip, my life was full of bag-packing at supermarkets, selling off my games, DVDs and raffles I eventually managed to raise the money I needed.

On July 13, I awoke to the sound of Jambo Bwana being blasted out by my dad. My family and girlfriend came to see me off on my trip.

After the eight-hour flight we arrived at our home for the next two weeks, Tigithi Primary School, living in the shadow of Mount Kenya.

We would be running a summer school during that two weeks, looking after 40 Kenyan children while we also helped the charity workers to finish construction of a classroom that was going to be a part of the villages’ new primary school, built in commemoration of Chris Morone, a participant from a previous camp.

We were all split into four groups which were all named in Swahili for animals; Twiga, Pumba, Duma and Simba.

In these groups, we had to play with the kids and help with the cooking.

We also did many activities with them and each group got to visit the kids’ houses, and how they lived was shocking. It came time to leave them and while it was hard to say good bye, we knew they wouldn’t forget us, and they wouldn’t forget them.

My team was climbing first as Africamp split in to two groups and as we walked through the National Park gates, I don’t think we knew how gruelling the mountain would be.

Our mountain guide Patrick led us up through the Gallery Forest, named due to the thousands of different trees it holds. We got higher and the trees vanished as the weather got colder, so we were very grateful to arrive at our base camp, Old Moses.

As we neared Shipton’s, our summit camp, the Heavens opened and we were hit with every type of weather imaginable.

With hail, rain and snow as we neared camp, and thunder and lightning on our acclimatisation day, I don’t think anyone had high hopes for the weather as we summited. I’m glad we were wrong.

We woke up at 1am on our fourth day on the mountain to summit, so we could reach the top in time for sunrise.

It was a clear night, but absolutely freezing as we climbed and got harder the further up we went, but when we reached the summit it was all worth it.

The sun was rising as we got to the top and that sunrise looked like someone had painted it across the sky. We walked all the way back to Old Moses that day, 17 hours of walking through non-stop raining, but I don’t think anyone will forget the view.

We left the park and set off for our three-day safari in Samburu National Park.

We saw herds of elephants, plus a mother and her calf; a cheetah; a leopard; lionesses hunting warthog and a couple of crocodile. Also there were what seemed to be hundreds of gazelle, antelope, birds and monkeys.

In the last week we did loads of things, like a boat safari and playing the charity’s football team, the Black Cats, who our ragtag football team lost to 6 – 2.

Looking back over the month, I can definitely say that it was the best experience of my life and I know I will never forget the people I met, or the beautiful places I saw.

The staff that looked after us out there became our family and were there to celebrate all the highs and to help during the lows, so thank you doesn’t cover how grateful I am to those people.

Also, the leaders who were with us every step of the way, from fundraising to standing on top of Mount Kenya, words don’t describe how just utterly brilliant you are.

You all changed my life forever.