When parting is such sweet sorrow...

(Above, from left: Raleigh India 09C single-phase explorers Fiona, Annabelle and Lucy enjoy their last supper at the Fieldbase. They will fly back to the UK tomorrow and were tearfully farewelled by the Venturers who deployed for Phase 2 this morning.)

The Raleigh 09C cohort came, saw and went in a whirlwind this weekend.

The Alpha 1 trekkers returned from the southern State of Kerala after 12 days of hard walking and two of rafting, with all members successfully completing the task.

(Below, the new Alpha 1 trekking group with project managers Paul and Joey in the front seats deployed early this morning. For a full list of phase 2 allocations, see side panel on the right)

For Alpha 2, they finished 14 eco-sanitation units in their village in rural Karnataka and had made such good friends with community members there were tears upon departure.

Over at Alpha 3, the tribal houses at Kappikadu are coming along nicely after the tough work of digging foundations was finished and this project is scheduled for completion this phase.

And for Alpha 4, their work on the solar-powered elephant-proof fence has meant the villagers of Anaikatty have already been able to irrigate their fields without fear of damage from wild animals.

The Venturers returned to Fieldbase on Saturday and had a barbecue that night, swapping stories over sausages before being given their new allocations for Phase 2 on Sunday (yesterday.)

The venturer group also brought back some creative genius, painting up two murals for the bare Fieldbase walls and uploading some "frame" photographs.

(above: Rosanna, Edmee, Emily W, Annabelle, Rebecca, Fiona, Roo and Ella start on one of the murals using a traditional Indian hue of orange. Below: Holly Gottleib using a slow-exposure shot to create a frame)
(pictures left: Zoe Hamersley's "frame" through flowers at Kappikadu, Emily J and Hamish paint up a bench for the Raleigh Fieldbase mess hall.)

The "Frame" task is a challenge for venturers to find a creative way to make a photographic frame for themselves. Holly Gottleib took the light art idea and made this image with a headtorch.

Today was a particularly sad day for our explorers Fiona, Lucy and Annabelle who are travelling on after their single-phase taster of the Raleigh India experience. They were tearfully bid farewell by their peers as the remainder of the group boarded buses and headed out for their next adventure.

We all wish them the best with their future endeavours, and also welcome Alexander (and his Australian accent...) and Juliette to the group for the next two phases.

Over the next few days, we will be posting full accounts of the Phase 1 adventures complete with photographs from individual projects, as well as updates on how the new phases are getting on.

(Below: The Raleigh 09C cohort nervously gathered to find out their new project allocations yesterday)

In the meantime, please do keep posting as the next loop vehicle will leave, complete with all the new blog comments, late this week.

From the PR officer Peta, I'd like to thank Dr Andy for taking up the blog while I was away visiting the trekking group and I hope you enjoyed reading his updates!

Stay tuned.