Meeting all of the instructors was great. They were all really enthusiastic, friendly and helpful. It was refreshing to meet so many people with the same view point as myself in terms of my research. I was paired off with two girls, Loz and Steph, for the week long expedition. Nicky had chosen these girls as they had a strong environmental education background which they brought to the outdoor education programmes and she thought I would gain the greatest benefit of working with and observing these two in action.
The children weren’t arriving until 12.30pm which gave us enough time to organise the programme, food and equipment. At Explorus, the kids aren’t ever on site and so the management staff operate a food and water drop system to the group's camp sites. Water drops are daily, whilst food drops are every couple of days. This means that the children are responsible for not only carrying their daily water, but their food as well. Our first site would be inaccessible by vehicles and so the children had to carry their wood and water resources required until the following night.When the children arrived they were introduced as a group to the instructors and to the principle of ‘challenge by choice’. This system allows the children the opportunity to not take part in the activities such as abseiling and caving. Instead they are allowed to challenge themselves to their own personal limits and go above and beyond them only when they want to, however, theyare reminded that by opting out they may be missing their only opportunity. Trekking and camping are clearly not part of the challenge by choice system.
The first trek was fairly brief at around only 4km. It started in another burnt area of trees – still having the same eerie affect on me as the previous day – and continued into thicker wooded areas with sandy paths which finally lead onto sand dunes on the edge of the beach. These were to be our camp for the night.
By the time we started setting up our tents the wind and rain was horrendous – much worse than Scotland’s seen in a while for sure! I knew I would be glad later be glad of my thermals anyway!
Explorus follow the policy that the boys fend for themselves – by that I mean they are responsible for navigating, cooking, cleaning up etc. The staff are there as guides and informants, rather than to ‘look after’ the boys. I think this is great as, for most boys visiting Explorus, this will be the first time they have to do anything for themselves – a great way to build independence and self-confidence. After setting up their tents for the first time, the boys next challenge was to cook dinner – spaghetti bolognaise. This took 3 hours! – but, true to their word, the Explorus staff never stepped in and instead let the boys realise that the longer it took, the hungrier they would get.
Bed (sleeping bag) was a welcome greeting after the cold. Sleep was infrequent however as I spent the majority of the night listening to the overhead storm and the responding angry waves. I enjoyed every second of it!
