It's Not Over Yet...

It's not over yet! All the groups have arrived safely back to Fieldbase and after an excited re-union telling eachother about their 3rd and final phase on 08i they've put pen to paper to tell all of you at home too!

Alpha Three

Phase 3 Alpha 3 was simply the best. Our trek was jam packed full of adventure from the beginning to the end. Trekking up to 30 km a day was hard enough with the added challenge of leech infested forests, fire torch processions to campsites through elephant territories and paths washed away by torrential rain all of which didn’t stop us.

We had a beautiful rest day on the banks of a river in the middle of a tea plantation, nothing for kilometers around – well except for a local chai shop! The morning after which we woke up to discover a note from our project managers saying they had gone on a head as we were such a great team we didn’t need them – little did we know they were right behind us watching us as we went, we got our own back as they had to sit and wait on us having a special lunch of beef and fish curry, watching us while hiding outside behind a wall.

Our final days on phase were a different challenge of building and navigating our bamboo rafts down a river to our final campsites. One of which we used tarpaulins to construct a shelter and slept out under the full moon.
All in all through all the blisters, aching backs and tired legs we sang, laughed and cried our way up and down the mountains.


Alpha Two
Alpha Two, full of expectations we headed off to N. Begur for our final phase. However on our arrival it was not as expected! Unlike the other two phases where the groups stayed in Inspection Bungalow’s we were accommodated in some old staff quarters within the compound of the range officers small community.

An inspirational visit from CPM Mark gave us the motivation we needed to make our old accommodation a new and improved dream home! With a few coats of paint, buckets of soap and water, and a lot of elbow grease we had a side project that had us busy and bonding together.

The Anti Poaching Camp that we built was in the dense forest and we made excellent progress allowing us the appreciate our surroundings and our regular visitors – elephants!!

There was much to celebrate throughout the phase with three birthdays and loop visits and a beautiful trip to a waterfall.

As the phase drew to a close the final touch’s applied to the accommodation and the APC, an inauguration was held. Mark Ashby from Raleigh and Dr Raju from the Forestry department attended and were very impressed with the work we had done. To celebrate a job well done the group were treated to a jeep safari in the dense jungle of Bandipur National Park where we saw amazing wildlife.

To sum up the phase in one word would be impossible!

Alpha One

Alpha One have had a fantastic time in Kebepura where we successfully finished the project constructing the final 15 eco-sanitation units.

Over the duration of the phase we built up a really good rapport with the masons and the villagers, earning their respect and trust, a development which in itself was extremely fulfilling.

Living in the local school with the children really topped our phase

on Community off, making it an experience that we will never forget.

One of the highlights of the phase though was a walking

safari in the National Park to Kalkere, an elephant sanctuary

where we were visited by a group of “naughty” elephants who drank out of our three bowl system!!!