Recently, while touring Botswana on horseback, a group from Sweet Briar College paused for a pick-up game of rugby with their guides. Trouble is there aren’t a lot of rugby balls in the African bush.

“We used elephant dung,” SBC riding instructor Jon Conyers said, adding that they quickly got over any icky feelings about the improvised sports equipment. “It was dry.”

Riders and guides play pick-up rugby.The impromptu game was organized by the group’s African guides, West and Festus. “They knew how to play,” Conyers said. “They kind of taught us what the general concept was, what we could and couldn’t do. It was touch rugby on a very small field, in the sand.”

When they weren’t instructing the riders on the fundamentals of rugby, West and Festus were guiding the group through Tuli Game Reserve in eastern Botswana. The area, which resembles the American Southwest with its desert terrain and scrubby foliage, was replete with wildlife.

“Overall the riding was amazing,” Jenny Walkiewicz, a rising junior from Tigard, Ore., said. “We covered all kinds of ground, such as rocky mountains, river beds and flat plains. … We saw elephants, giraffes, zebra, warthogs and way too many impala.”

A baobab tree in BotswanaMade up mostly of students in Sweet Briar’s riding program, the riders spent May 20 through 27 exploring the African bush on horseback, followed by a few days of sightseeing in Cape Town, South Africa. They returned to the States on June 2.

Those on the trip included Conyers, Walkiewicz, Lauren Stephens ’09, Erin Peabody ’10, Emily Wiley ’07, Chrissy Serio ’07 and Serio’s mother, Louise. Sweet Briar campus safety officer Kerry Scott also went along but did not participate in the riding. His company, Narrow Gate Trekking, organized the expedition.

Although it was Conyers’ first trip to Africa, Scott had been there more than 10 times with his trekking business and previous jobs in the Army. Narrowgate Trekking organizes hiking, riding and even golfing trips to various African locations.

Scott says he designs the excursions to be “adventurous but not dangerous,” but just in case, “participants had to prove a certain level of riding ability … as they may need to take precautionary gallops out of the way of wildlife.”

Erin Peabody jumps a downed tree.Prior to the trip all had to qualify as “junior jumpers” or “junior hunters.” According to Conyers, the designations mean a rider can handle jumps of 2 feet, 6 inches or higher, among other things.

These skills came in handy one day when the group was charged by a female elephant. “The matriarch … was leading a group by and we were kind of watching them go by,” Conyers said. “She got the whole group by and she came back … and started trumpeting and flapping her ears, and she kind of came after us.

“We didn’t have to go far because [the guide] stayed and cracked the whip, which acted like a gunshot, so that kind of took care of her, but we went ahead and got out of the way. … She was moving pretty fast, too. … So, that was pretty exciting.”

Walkiewicz agreed. “Getting charged by an elephant was scary in the moment but now it’s just really fun to talk about,” she said.

Because it was late fall south of the equator, the group had expected temperatures in the 40s and packed accordingly. Accommodations consisted of tents or sleeping bags under the stars, which made for chilly 5 a.m. wake-up calls when temperatures dipped into the 30s.

“It was cold, it was cold, it was cold,” Conyers said, adding that showers were often outdoors, too.

Penguins on the South African coastWhile touring South Africa the group visited Table Mountain and the Cape of Good Hope, among other sites. “The water is just unbelievable,” Conyers said of the Cape. “The sky — it’s hard to believe that it’s that blue.”

They also visited Robben Island, where former South African President Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for many years.

“Robben Island was a great addition to the trip and it was really educational to be there,” Walkiewicz said. “It’s a place you hear about but because we live so far away you can’t really imagine.”

The prison also made an impression on Conyers. “Going [to Robben Island] made me want to read more about Mandela, so I bought his book, ‘Long Walk to Freedom,” and read that and another book about some other prisoners that were there,” he said. “I just found it very interesting.”

Although they’ve been back for just a few weeks, Conyers and Walkiewicz are already thinking about going back to Africa. “I would love to live in the Bush for a while,” Walkiewicz said. “But I certainly learned to appreciate hot water, electricity and heat while I was there!”

Conyers agreed. “It was a really good trip,” he said. “For me, it just did enough to whet the appetite to want to go back.”

For more on the riders’ experiences, visit the Facebook profile, “Vixens in Africa.”

— By Suzanne Ramsey, SBC staff writer

More photos:

Riders and guides pause for a photo before hitting the trail.

(Left to right) Lauren Stephens, Erin Peabody, Jenny Walkiewicz, Chrissy Serio and Emily Wiley at the Cape of Good Hope.

Elephants in the Tuli Game Reserve in Botswana

A herd of zebras in Botswana