YEAR 8 TRIP TO DOÑANA - 2001

Year 8 travelled to the Parque Nacional de Doñana for a week with Mr Dunckley and Mrs Faris. They learnt a little about geography, the environment, different ecosystem, migratory birds and a lot about each other. They will never forget that mosquitos live near marshlands and we will never forget that a day on the beach or a trip to a disco with Year 8 is fun! Thank you 8's for a memorable week and thanks to Agustin, the coach owner who was so helpful. Mr Dunckley and Mrs Faris

‘Doñana was excellent but it did have its bad points but doesn’t every trip? I think it was a great experience. It taught me that you don’t need material things. When we were there, we met this old lady, her name was Antonia and she told us she had lived there all her life and had never been anywhere else. I found it amazing’. Joanne Hurley ‘One thing I will never forget about El Rocio is the church. On the outside it is a tall building with bells and candles. Inside there is a beautiful gold statue on the wall carved with 3D images of the Virgin Mary. Other colours like red, silver and green are included in this place. Candles are lit around a type of coffin and flowers surround the Virgin in worship’. Joseph Hurley ‘As I walked down the street of El Rocio, I heard the clippity-clatter of a horse’s hooves. I spun round and saw it. A man on a beautiful stallion. At that moment I thought of the Wild West, as the town was built in an olden-day style and there was sand on the floor instead of the usual tarmac. I could picture in my mind two men duelling in front of the bar and that’s how I will always remember El Rocio’. Wouter Takkenberg ‘Doñana is a marvellous place filled with life. We, as a class, did many things such as climbing up dunes, swimming on the beach and touring a jungle. We saw many animals and birds such as flamingoes, snakes, wild boar, deer roadrunners and a mongoose’. Yusef Bakhat ‘El Rocio is one of the strangest villages I ever saw. it looks like a ghost town, which stopped developing in the time of the cowboys. They use horses instead of cars, and have an over population of birds and a certain annoying winged insect - which is why I will never forget El Rocio! Kai Kamberger ‘El Rocio, with its way too big church for the little village! When you look at this village from a distance, it really looks like one of these old cowboy places ‘Wild West’. When you see these horses with their owners, it makes you think you’ve gone 100 years back in time. This place is very good if you want to study mosquitos and flies, you don’t have to go to them, they come to you. All the houses here are called Tio Juan or Abuelo Juan - the population of El Rocio is 400 - 500 but in the ‘Fiesta’ it increases to about 1.5 million’. Johan Franklin ‘We had to go up an enormous dune and these ones didn’t move from their place as they had a lot of vegetation. When we stood up there and saw all the beach, we didn’t want to move from there - and I liked the sand as well, it was soft. Carlota Martin Melia