Training Day 1
The first Poland 2008 leader and venturer training day was held on Sunday 24th Feb at Lindean village hall. We were again fortunate with the weather, and Charis has prepared a report for the day. Read on to find out more....
"It was a cool, fresh morning when we first arrived at Lindean Village Hall.Little did we know what was in store for us...
First of all, we were all introduced to Claire, a Leader on the Zambiaexpedition, who taught us a few icebreaker games. You wouldn't have thoughtcatching a ball was half as difficult as we made it out to be. However, wedid manage to untangle ourselves from a 14-person knot. Maybe just a bitmore agile than coordinated!
Next, we had Pat put us through our paces with a circuit involvingactivities such as step-ups, cross-running and skipping. I hope I'm notalone in saying the one-legged ball manoeuvring was a lot harder than itlooked.
Rob taught us about all the various pieces of equipment we'd need on ourexpedition and took us through the 2 season vs 3 season, roll mat vsthermarest conundrums. I hope there's a packing masterclass in our future, Ihave a feeling us Venturers will need it.
After lunch, (tasty soup Dan!) we each shouldered our rucksacks and set off,with more than a little trepidation. As BEG events usually involve a lot of mud, a lot of water or a lot of both and Jim had happily given out a fewbuoyancy aids, you can understand our worry. Turned out we needn't havefretted...that much. Our task was to get an injured Jono back safely on ahome-made stretcher. Everything was going fine until we came across anelectrified barrier, surrounded on three sides by lasers, (they do like tomake it easy for us, don't they?). Apart from the stretcher almost goingvertical at one point, we all made it across successfully and headed back tothe hall.
Aimee and Rachel (lifesavers!) ran on ahead and put the kettle on so we allhad time to enjoy a cup of tea before starting to put up our tents. Thesewere the ones we will be using when we're in Poland so it was good tofamiliarise ourselves with them.
Finally came the planning of our expedition, allocating people to activitiesand pulling up a rough sketch of the timetable. It looks amazing, anafternoon in Berlin, canoeing in the north-east, working near Warsaw,visiting Auschwitz and the famous salt mines near Krakow, hiking in themountains to the south... For me, the summer can't come quickly enough!
Charis Wallum"
We also decided that a few more venturers would help improve the group dynamic so some active recruitment is being carried out this week for up to 4 more venturers, so that by the first full training weekend on 18th - 20th April we'll have the whole team assembled.
And probably the most exciting bit of news... the ferry has been booked for our outward travel! and we can add additional places as our number expands. This definitely makes it feel a lot more real, and I hope everyone else is as excited as me!
Cheers - photos and venturer profiles to appear shortly on the site
Ruth
"It was a cool, fresh morning when we first arrived at Lindean Village Hall.Little did we know what was in store for us...
First of all, we were all introduced to Claire, a Leader on the Zambiaexpedition, who taught us a few icebreaker games. You wouldn't have thoughtcatching a ball was half as difficult as we made it out to be. However, wedid manage to untangle ourselves from a 14-person knot. Maybe just a bitmore agile than coordinated!
Next, we had Pat put us through our paces with a circuit involvingactivities such as step-ups, cross-running and skipping. I hope I'm notalone in saying the one-legged ball manoeuvring was a lot harder than itlooked.
Rob taught us about all the various pieces of equipment we'd need on ourexpedition and took us through the 2 season vs 3 season, roll mat vsthermarest conundrums. I hope there's a packing masterclass in our future, Ihave a feeling us Venturers will need it.
After lunch, (tasty soup Dan!) we each shouldered our rucksacks and set off,with more than a little trepidation. As BEG events usually involve a lot of mud, a lot of water or a lot of both and Jim had happily given out a fewbuoyancy aids, you can understand our worry. Turned out we needn't havefretted...that much. Our task was to get an injured Jono back safely on ahome-made stretcher. Everything was going fine until we came across anelectrified barrier, surrounded on three sides by lasers, (they do like tomake it easy for us, don't they?). Apart from the stretcher almost goingvertical at one point, we all made it across successfully and headed back tothe hall.
Aimee and Rachel (lifesavers!) ran on ahead and put the kettle on so we allhad time to enjoy a cup of tea before starting to put up our tents. Thesewere the ones we will be using when we're in Poland so it was good tofamiliarise ourselves with them.
Finally came the planning of our expedition, allocating people to activitiesand pulling up a rough sketch of the timetable. It looks amazing, anafternoon in Berlin, canoeing in the north-east, working near Warsaw,visiting Auschwitz and the famous salt mines near Krakow, hiking in themountains to the south... For me, the summer can't come quickly enough!
Charis Wallum"
We also decided that a few more venturers would help improve the group dynamic so some active recruitment is being carried out this week for up to 4 more venturers, so that by the first full training weekend on 18th - 20th April we'll have the whole team assembled.
And probably the most exciting bit of news... the ferry has been booked for our outward travel! and we can add additional places as our number expands. This definitely makes it feel a lot more real, and I hope everyone else is as excited as me!
Cheers - photos and venturer profiles to appear shortly on the site
Ruth
posted by Ruth Norman at
10:19
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