Raleigh - India Expedition

Meanwhile at Fieldbase…

2012-02-21T00:26:00.000+05:30

If we can’t go to the “real India”, we let India come to us. For fort-holding reasons, Fieldbase staff does not have the privilege to live in rural Indian communities and wander around tea plantations every day. Hosting the 2012 Host Country Venturer Reunion was therefore a welcome diversion from our bubble. Each project of every Raleigh expedition is joined by Host Country Venturers (HCVs), offering brilliant insights into Indian culture and acting as friends, guides, teachers, translators, and negotiators.
Twenty of those former HCVs set up camp in our dormitories in the evening of Friday, 17 January, to spend two days of discussions, presentations, and games with each other. HCV co-ordinator Theja and country director Mark led through the programme. The sessions focused on ideas for improving the HCV recruitment process and fostering the activity of the three state representatives groups (in Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu), for example through networking over social projects and events. And it was of course an opportunity to share stories about their very own expedition, the friends they made, the skills they acquired, and the challenges they met.

The HCVs

Hennaing up the Fieldbase staff. Thanks so much!

Reggie's wildest dreams coming true.

However, for reasons a German can’t even begin to understand, the highlight seemed to be a three hour HCV/Fieldbase-bonding-session over a game the Commonwealth of Nations inhabitants call “Cricket”. Having had no preparation whatsoever, I was standing on the pitch, trying to figure out the rules and THE POINT of the game. Everyone else seemed to know the rules (and the point), but still kept standing around. And waiting. In the end one team won (apparently I was in it).

Cricket.

A REAL game.

Feeling slightly unsatisfied? Did you expect – or rather hoped for – class A sports reporting? You were right in doing so! As I would never let you down, dear reader, I handed over the task of fulfilling your every reading need to the extremely talented, yet shy and hence anonymous, Fieldbase sports department. Here you go:

As the morning sun began to rise over the Jayapura oval, the opening pair of the Sachin Scorchers strolled to the crease. Local spectators gathered and were not disappointed as the run rate charged forward at a blistering pace. Two overs down, the Scorchers had hit an impressive 36 and the winning feeling had begun to take hold.
Feeling the momentum turning away, the Ravi Rhinos started to find their rhythm and their bowlers began firing down unplayable deliveries with their fielders backing them up with some heroic catches in the deep. Four wickets down, and following a rather controversial decision by Umpire Jones, a well earned tea break of tepid water and freshly cooked spongecake was called. The teams then resumed their positions and in the increasingly arid conditions the innings came to a close with the Scorchers scoring a respectable 91 on a wicket that was fast becoming a bowler’s dream.
The Rhinos then took to the crease and - although hoping to find some early boundaries - had not expected the skilled bowling of medium paced Small Manju who expertly utilised the unique rock formations to produce some unpredictable turns. Following the fall of the openers, however, the middle order soon took control and holes in the previously waterproof defence of the Scorchers were soon being found.

Small Manju and Pavan getting their game on.

As 13 overs were up, the tantalising conclusion of this multicultural exhibition of sporting excellence was soon upon us. The Rhinos needing only 12 more runs with 2 wickets in hand and a pitch that contained India’s second highest peak. In the end the Rhinos prevailed with a masterclass of cut shots and slogs and we all descended back to Fieldbase, waiting for the inevitable calls from Duncan Fletcher and Andy Flower.

Looks like a winning team. Except it isn't.

That's a winning team.

I still have no idea what that is supposed to mean.

This is Delta listening out.

2012-02-18T23:04:00.000+05:30

The time has come! On 16 February our venturers and PMs boarded the buses that would take them to their new home… at least for the next three weeks that is! Leading up to this they had to go through the nerve-wracking procedure of allocation (there is a thin line between goodbye-Delta-group-pains and hello-Charlie/Echo/Tango-group-pleasures) and the sheer horror of packing not only your own belongings, but also camping stoves, hygiene goodies, and one week’s worth of food. To top it all off, attention for presentations on Monitoring & Evaluation and Communications was required. In the face of all this stress, we pulled out all the stops to keep them entertained: Music, glitter, boys in tight shirts, even our trump: dancing small Manju. But enough introductions, you want to know who goes where, right!? Well, I’ve prepared a couple of things for you:

First, more information about the respective projects can be found in this blog post.
Second, my long struggle with the often incompatible combination of northings, eastings, and Google Maps has not been in vain. Check out the map below to find out who is where, doing what, and with whom. The map will have its very own permanent spot on the right hand side column of the blog (in red colour).

View Raleigh 12C Expedition - Phase I in a larger map

Third, it’s picture time again! And as you will see, I DID learn all the names. The venturers have been reallocated to Charlie (community projects), Echo (environment projects), and Tango (trek) groups. If you would like to pass on a message, please forget about Delta, indicate name of venturer and the name of the new project group. (Please please please indicate the group. It does make life MUCH easier for me, and who wouldn’t want that.)

CHARLIE 1

Back row: Oliver, PM Stephen, James, Flora, William
Middle row: Caspar, Suresh, Natalia, Chaluva
Front row: Venetia, Aashna, PM Cate, Marjolein

CHARLIE 2

Back row: Haydn, Tom, Martha, Jules, Thejas
Front row: Victoria, Jonathan, Helen, Mandisa, Sophie, PM Izi, PM Emma, Shaveh

ECHO 3

Back row: Daniel, Alexandra, Christine, Charlie, Isabel, M&E Officer Joe
Front row: PM Harri, Suraj, Ramesh, Eline, Stephen, PM Natalie, Frances, Patrick

ECHO 4

Back row: Roosmarijn, Charlotte, James, Kris, Dominic
Middle row: Daniel, Abhishek, Abigail, Jude
Front row: PM Sammy, Joel, Chyna, PM Jenna, PM Chrissi

TANGO 5

Back row: Joost, Shaquille, Max, Jonathan
Middle row: Vishnu, PM Matt, PM Janet, Manjunath
Front row: Sally, Rebecca, Laura, Claire (not on picture: Sophia)

TANGO 6

Back row: Jan, Yashaswi, Grant, Vijay, James
Middle row: PM Amanda, Beatrice, Katherine (very right)
Front row: Nicole, Ursula, Wolde, Sofia
Group hugged by PM Barney

Next week, we will visit Tango 6, Charlie 1 and 2, as well as Echo 4 to deliver the latest FA Cup results and report about our overwhelming Cricket victory against the Host Country Venturer Alumni (which WILL happen tomorrow). I smell some project reporting, guest blogging, and messages to YOU, dear reader, so stay tuned.

Three guest blogs, two treks, and one lesson in Indian cuisine

2012-02-17T18:49:00.000+05:30

A big hello to family and friends of Dan Leigh, Kris Clayton, and Joel Saldanha! Those three musketeers managed to fit a blog writing session about their treks on 13 and 14 February into their busy venturer schedule. Read here about their experiences and be really, really proud. All the others: Enjoy the the firsthand accounts of our venturers' adventures.

Guest blog from Daniel Leigh – Delta 5
13 February was to be the first real taste of our Raleigh lives - the practice trek. Delta groups 1, 3 and 5 had the pleasure of embarking, whilst 2, 4 and 6 had to check their excitement and wait for next day. After waking up at the totally reasonable time of 4:30 am, we sped through breakfast, packed our bags and boarded the buses, ready for more death-defying motoring to take us to the start point.
The trek would be around 15km long, taking us through farmland, local villages and to a swimming site at a nearby river. What was particularly striking, right from the start, was just how different this environment was from anything I, and I’m sure many of my fellow venturers, had ever seen before. The excited villagers, overwhelmingly eager to see us and have their photos taken, the packed motorcycles, and honking tuk-tuks were only some of the things that were powerfully new and fascinating. The scenery was beautiful- a precursor to the stunning sights of Kerala, and even the heat was strangely welcoming (for those of us coming from the arctic wasteland of the UK at least).
The trek also included a short swimming aptitude test - a 200m swim in a local river. The term “swim” might be slightly too generous here, as we all discovered as we crawled, struggled and winced through the weeds, mud and rocks that filled the shallow waters. In spite of this, the interlude was mightily refreshing in the wake of the intense midday sun.
By about 4:00 pm all three groups had reached the campsite, but there was little time for slacking as the site had to be furnished with tents, kitchen areas and a toilet, the homely hole in the ground known affectionately as the “long drop” (don’t worry, there was a tarpaulin cubicle constructed around it to give the squatter some privacy!). As the sun went down and the head torches came on, the baffling ordeal of dinner faced all three groups, which included a demonstration of how to prepare a live chicken halal-style for cooking, an experience that affected us all in different ways I’m sure; for me, my carnivorism was seriously tested. Delta 5’s kitchen was completely communal, but planning had not really received due care and attention. Although the final concoction was pretty much everything that we had boiled up together (food that is), it was remarkably tasty. Who says that you can’t eat gourmet-style in the great outdoors?
Overall it was a very enjoyable and productive experience (I managed to use the long drop for the first time!), and it left us hungry to get out there and begin life on the projects.

Into the wild underwater world

D6 passed with flying colours (Photo by Sophia Knies)

Constructing privacy (note the "supervising" position of the three PMs in the background)

Constructing top notch three person bedrooms

Guest blog from Kristian Clayton – Delta 1
The 13th of February was what I would call the first time seeing ‘real India’. Fieldbase has already placed us in a Raleigh bubble and it was really nice to be able to be out on an adventure. We were completing a 15 km trek with an unusually early morning start for all venturers.
I was in Delta 1 group and after a short bus journey we were the first team to set off. Straight away what amazed everyone was the local people - how excited everyone was to see us Westerners - and it always made me laugh to be told that I’m now in India by many of them, as if I wasn’t already aware. Also their excitement at being photographed never wore out.
As the walk progressed everyone began to really feel the effect of the Indian weather. UK temperatures would do well to exceed 0 degrees before I left; now we were trekking in 30 degrees with 20kg packs on our backs. A lot of water was advised! The heat made everyone extremely excited about the swim test. A short 200 meters swim down the river was just what the doctor ordered; I just wish he could have made the water deeper! It was fascinating to see how the Indian people used the river: a man washing his cow and women doing the laundry for their families. No washing machines here I’m afraid.
After our swim it was a short walk to the campsite. A few new things we all learned were how to dig a hole for waste food, water and one for the toilet. Believe me when I say that the luxury of a toilet is one that should never be taken for granted. Another thing that should not be taken for granted is meat: The locals had a special food chain lesson in store for us: Three live chickens would be prepared to be our dinner. Having been a vegetarian when I was younger, this was very hard to watch, let alone try to do myself, as some other venturers did. However, with the way the daily vegetable curry has become quickly very boring, it was a welcome diversion, indeed.
The day ended nicely with everyone sitting around the campfire and completing the debriefing. All I can say is that if this is just a taster, then the projects to come are going to be amazing!


Author Kris early birding

Little Joe with puppy - Caution: Inside joke! (Photo by Sophia Knies)

Stephen sharing his vast long drop knowledge with Deltas 1, 3, and 5

Guest blog from Joel Saldanha – Delta 4
V-Day was D-Day for Delta teams 2, 4, and 6. After spending four days at the Raleigh Fieldbase, the craving to practice what I learnt had reached the ultimate stage. Ironically the day of our first trek happened to be Valentine’s Day. For all these years this day has called for chocolate, flowers, and probably a movie. However, I realised that chicken and “energy bombs” provide for more entertainment than I could ever imagine.
If not for the vivid landscape, the loud Kannada music on the bus on route to our drop point sure helped bring our senses to life. Being a member of Delta 4 sure has its perks; our three PMs to begin with. Jenna, Chrissi, and Sammy are angels with vibrant and colourful personalities. With regard to the venturers, I am clueless on whom to begin my words of lavish, praise, and respect I have for them.
After walking for 12.2 km it felt extremely amazing to cool ourselves off in the Kapila river. Others really enjoyed the coffee at the chai stand near Maddur. Another sight not be missed was the exchange of “Namaskaaras” (hello in Kannada) between villagers and venturers.
The pace of my team mates was excellent and although we gave Delta 2 a 20 minutes head start, we somehow managed to overtake them rather easily. Not like it was a contest; it was just nice to see my fellow venturers having their adrenaline pumping. Times got a little stressful upon arrival at campsite due to lack of water, but some sharing with our frenemies Delta 2 and 6 and the generous help of a local got even this problem solved.
Our dinner was preceded by a course in Indian food preparation by Manju - from the live chicken to the meal in our mess tins, including humane killing and plucking. I took the honour in doing it for my team and it has been an instructive lesson on where our food comes from.
Delta 6 teamleader Barney concluded the evening with a brilliant reflection session around the campfire; an adequate ending of a smooth Valentine’s Day.

Our favourite chai stand

Author Joel behind a motorcycle that has space for at least 4 more persons.

Some Delta 6, some more village kids, and one joker

Team Delta 4

Screening today: “School of Raleigh”, “Snakes on a Fieldbase”, and “Chariots of Water”

2012-02-14T16:50:00.002+05:30

During the two days the venturers have been here, we did our best to destroy them with vast amounts of knowledge and entertainment, but they have been holding up like aces. All the training sessions we have been covering in one week time (see this blog post), they got served in only two days: GPS-tracking, map reading, voice procedures including learning the phonetic alphabet (and it is still “U” for “unicorn”!), situational/incident/trip/medical reporting, casualty evacuation procedure, (gasp… are you still with me?) hygiene and medkits, medical emergencies, basic life support, and trauma. They also got a presentation of what we (and they) will be up to in Phase I, during which our PMs tried to lure them into their respective projects, promising elephant-dung reading, excrements-into-energy-transformations, and toilet humour.

Some recovery positioning

Some casevacing

The Manchester City stadium should be right here then...

I said "uniCORN"!

For all these efforts they received the special treat, which we never got (just like blog comments, my dear friends and family of PMs!): World famous Shyam brought snakes, style, and knowledge to our Fieldbase. Looking like an Indian Ringo Starr, Shyam is a snake rescuer and rehabilitator, wildlife conservationist, public educator, and all in all the first person to call if you find a snake in your house. If you want to see him in action, you can check out the BBC’s “Caroline Quentin - A Passage Through India” (Episode 3). Bringing his vast collection of non-venomous and venomous snakes into Fieldbase, he triggered a spectrum of emotions, from plain “I have to run”-fear (hissing cobras are not very popular) to adventurous “I have to open this box”-curiosity (truly excellent idea, if a Russell’s viper is in it). But more importantly: He shared his experiences with regard to snake identification, removal, and bites, as well as general wildlife safety measures with us, so we know what to watch out for and how to react.

Shyam the man

Not everybody's cup of tea

Do not pet; it's cute but venomous.

After a long day of brain-challenges, we got all athletic, as our Greek gods of war Izia, Mattos, and Rhysos staged Raleigh Olympics. The Deltas entered into a fierce competition over wheelbarrow racing, Indian style water bearing, and other proper Olympic disciplines. I have no idea who won, as things got seriously out of hand and we suddenly found ourselves in the middle of “Water Wars - The Venturer Strikes Back”.

Indian-style water bearing - Level 1

Indian-style water bearing - Level 2

How to start a water fight

How to end a water fight

On Monday (Teams 1, 3, and 5) and Tuesday (Teams 2, 4, and 6), our Deltas got their walking boots on early in the morning and left for a 15 km trek, including swimming, overnight camping, and loads of impressions of rural India. As I had to hold the Fieldbase-fort and stand ready for Charlie-Oscar-Mike-Mike-Sierra, the trek section will be covered through guest blogging by outrageously talented venturers. It may be your friend’s firsthand experience, so keep watching this space.

P.S.: A big THANK YOU to all the people that commented; it made the day of our venturers. Keep it coming!

Venturing it up

2012-02-11T21:18:00.000+05:30

The big moment has come! After 11 host country venturers (HCVs) arrived at Fieldbase yesterday (significantly improving the tunes around here; waking up to “Sunshine of your Love” is priceless), we just got flooded by another 65 venturers arriving from Bangalore airport.

During their five hour bus ride to Fieldbase, they were well taken care of by our project managers; Barney, Chrissi, Emma, Janet, Natalie, and Stephen; who made sure that sufficient amounts of indispensible items - like expedition information leaflets, toilet paper, and calm advice on how to deal with the extraordinary experience of Indian traffic - were available. They also got their batteries recharged with some delicious breakfast dosa and chai.

All the venturers went through our infamous and super effective Raleigh anti-jetlag procedure, kicked off by welcome speeches - delivered by our lovely and über-excited managers Mark, Simon and Petr - emphasising the superiority of Raleigh India over ALL other Raleigh expeditions. EVER. Excellent choice, my dearest venturers! And this was just the beginning: we had a Fieldbase tour, health and safety training, code of conduct, medical 1-2-1 ‘s, administration and photo sessions in store; of course complemented by energizers and name games.

Thanks for making a mess.

Pete giving an eight minutes presentation.

Hmmmm...
Food it puts me in a good mood, it keeps me goin',
When under strains, ain't nothin worse than hunger pains.

Just before dinner, they had time to hang up their mosi-nets, unpack their sleeping mats, get homey in their dormitories, and then concluded their first exciting day with a session on cultural awareness delivered by Theja and Mark. And FINALLY they will get some of that well-deserved sleep, just to wake up to a sunny morning with temperatures at an enjoyable 25 degrees (jealous much?) and a fun day of hard skills training. Stay tuned for news!
Oh, and we got a special delivery: Richard Jones arrived with the venturers (applause please!). He is our new Fieldbase Medic, holding the fort when the others are out there constructing and trekking.

Doc Jones in fort holding position

P.S.: As managing 76 people is somewhat impossible, we allocated them to “Delta Groups” for the next five days, all taken care of by our PMs. So if you, the highly esteemed reader, would like to pass on a message to one of the venturers, please indicate name and group according to our elaborate scheme (So sorry... Names are not in order; But I can't possibly get to know 76 people in one day.):

Delta 1: Abigail, Chaluva, Christine, Frances, Grant, Isabel, James P., Jules, Kristian, Nicole and Suresh

Delta 2: Alexandra, Beatrice, Caspar, Charlie, Chyna, Jude, Max, Rebecca, Shaveh, and Thejas

Delta 3: Charlotte, Claire, Daniel W., James W., Jan, Katherine, Oliver, Ramesh, Sally, Sophie, and Suraj

Delta 4: Abhishek, Haydn, James H., Joel, Joost, Laura, Mandisa, Marjolein, Patrick, Sofia, Victoria, and William

Delta 5: Aashna, Daniel L., Eline, Flora, Jonathan D., Manjunath, Martha, Shaquille, Stephen, Ursula, and Vishnu

Delta 6: Dominic, Helen, Jonathan C., Natalia, Roonmarijn, Sophia, Thomas, Venetia, Vijay, Wolde, and Yashaswi

Be my guest...

2012-02-08T16:15:00.001+05:30

For two days, Fieldbase has been empty like Keralan riverbeds in dry season: Our PMs headed out to their project sites to conduct their project planning visits; time for the Fieldbase staff to fight loneliness with Comms (“Hello darling, this is zero. Over.”), get their cooking skills back up, and enjoy the actually sufficient number of chairs in the front porch office. Bored much? I thought so. And that’s why I pressured our PMs “out there” into a session of lovely guest blogging. Here we go:

Charlie 1 (written by Stephen)
Gandenahalli is a village two hours north of Mysore in an area of intensive paddy rice, sugarcane and banana growing, set behind trees as you approach it from the main road. It is a poor village and a handful of motor cycles are the only motorised transport. Ox carts are the preferred means of conveyance. We feel ever so slightly out of place as we bounce over the dusty rutted tracks that pass for streets in our gleaming, white 4X4.
Children descend upon us before we have stepped out of the car at the junior school, every one of them wanting to say “Hello” and ask us our names, testing their English before being swatted away by teachers. They are soon back, grinning, shaking our hands and following our every move.
We meet the village leader, the Grampanchayet President, a taciturn man who is happy that we are here to build 45 eco toilets in his village but shows no real enthusiasm to talk to us and seems a little bemused that we have turned up at his front door.
As we walk around the village we pass a house where the body of an 80-year-old man is laid out on a wooden cot under an awning in the middle of the road and are encouraged to approach the body. His widow wraps him in her arms while keeping up a constant keening in front of neighbours gathered about on chairs. We think we’re intruding but the widow stops her wailing long enough to nod her head as if to approve our presence. We convey our condolences to the two sons.
This village of 7,000 poor but hard working people will be our home for three weeks.

Charlie 2 (written by Izzy)
We had our first treat on the journey, spotting Ellies, baby monkeys, deer and wild pigs. Meeting the project partners at CTRD was inspiring. Since 1988 they have been working with tribal and rural communities to identify and meet their needs in a sustainable way, without damaging their cultural identity. The Paniya tribe who we will be helping to build 9 toilets and 85m of road greeted us warmly and within seconds we each had a child holding our hands. It struck us how lucky we are that the community are welcoming us into the hearts of their lives despite the disruption, games, noise and intrigue we will bring. So let it begin and the toilet humour flow!

Echo 3 (written by Olive Ridley, the turtle)
I’ve been watching the Echo 3 PM’s preparing to come and help my turtle family and friends with our nesting in Velas: and quite frankly I’m rather nervous...
The bashers were slightly wobbly, menus rather sketchy and music choices dubious.
However... my fears have turned to excitement as the bashers held up, the sausage mash and onion gravy looked inspired and first class entertainment was provided by one of the PM’s busting out all the moves to Craig David... We will have fun!!!
PS: Please don’t flash me when I’m nesting, I’ll get disorientated and may not lay my eggs.

Echo 4 (written by Jenna)
Following a spectacularly eye opening bus journey complete with wild elephants and peacocks, we arrived at the CTRD headquarters to be greeted by our project partner co-ordinator and all round expert Vijay. After a lowdown on their background and all the incredible work they do in the area, we got stuck in learning all about the bio gas project we would be undertaking in the village of Cheriyery.
Surrounded by vast tea plantations and the jungle of Tamil Nadu, Cheriyery couldn’t be in a more perfect setting. We were given the opportunity to meet the seven female beneficiaries we would be working alongside and after being greeted with such warmth and enthusiasm (and endless cups of Chai and biscuits!) it was hard not to fall in love there and then. At a past expedition village we also got to see the bio gas units working in their full glory. It was such a humbling experience knowing that with some elbow grease and bit of determination we are going to be able to make a change to some exceptional people’s lives. Bring on the venturers!

Tango 5 and Tango 6 (written by Amanda)
Adventure trek leaders, Barney and Matt, were joined by fellow Project Managers, Janet and Amanda, to recce the MuddyBoots Trek in stunning Kerala state, four hours drive from Fieldbase. With a leisurely 8 am start, our aim was to meet the MuddyBoots staff and ask all the necessary questions we needed to know as PMs to make the trek a safe, challenging, and well-organised expedition. After a rare elephant sighting and some much-needed meaty curry (so far it’s been veggies galore) we drove up through the villages and past curious faces to start our mini hike up to the first campsite along some top-class off-road tracks. The next day, a 12km walk lay ahead of us and the four of us practised with our laden packs, convinced we would be smug in knowing that we carried everything we needed – from bulging medical kits to Chana Masala spices to meet the flavouring taste buds we all seem to have developed already. Following a much needed swim in Asia’s second largest dam (of course we’d already put up our tents!), we hunkered down for the evening with a roaring fire, reviewing the day’s highs and lows. We know that we will all find the trek a huge challenge at different times and all felt the experience of walking in the heat (and knowing how essential it is to leave camp early for the cooler part of the day) was great in understanding a bit of team banter and motivation to allow every single person to complete the challenging trek in a remote and gorgeous part of the world.

P.S.: My must-have items for staying cool and looking hot during trek: your Dad’s wide-brimmed sunhat; factor 50; if you are a contact lens wearer usually, get involved with some prescription sunnies; walking boots with great ankle support; light scarves are perfect for turbans and covering your head, as well as glamming your trekking outfit (clearly essential).

All sorted out

2012-02-03T23:13:00.000+05:30

Boy, I am glad I read Harry Potter (or rather let Stephen Fry read it to me). Otherwise the events of 1 February would have been somewhat peculiar to me.
In the evening, the fieldbase of witchcraft and wizardry’s roof terrace became the centre of magic decision making, as our management team solemnly conjured the Sorting Hat, which was to allocate our PMs to their respective Phase I projects. This phase will start on 16 February and PMs and Venturers will be back to fieldbase for their changeover on 5 March.
These are the choices the Sorting Hat announced *drumroll*:

Community Project Charlie 1 - Eco-sanitation - Stephen, Cate (M [this means Medic])
Stephen and Cate (and the soon to arrive Venturers, of course) will help poorer families in the village of Gandenahalli to construct their own eco-sanitation facility. The project will improve community health through access to safe drinking water by reducing pollution of the local water sources. Moreover, the units will provide sustainable rich compost every 12 months; a great basis for growing nutritious crops, which, in turn, provide a source of income. Our project partner MYKAPS and the village’s Self Help Group leaders selected the 45 beneficiary families.

Community Project Charlie 2 - Sanitation - Emma, Izi (M)
Emma, Izi and the Venturers will assist 38 beneficiaries in Kayuni and two neighbouring communities to build individual sanitation units for their family. Not only will the units improve the drinking water quality, but they will reduce the risks particularly for women and children in going into the adjacent forest to satisfy their sanitation needs and risking attack by wild animals including snakes. Our project partner CTRD Trust focuses on tribal and scheduled caste communities with their in the Integrated Tribal Development Programme (ITDP).

Environmental Project Echo 3 - Turtle conservation - Natalie, Harriet (M), and M&E Officer Joe
Natalie, Harriet, Joe and the Venturers will help communities on the Maharashtra coast, where growing populations of Olive Ridley Turtles nest between November and March, to develop their economy around eco-tourism. Based in the coastal village of Velas, the group will undertake work to construct a pathway from the village to the beach, so tourists can witness release of turtle hatchlings. They will also patrol the beach at night to prevent poaching and to identify new nests for relocation into the safe hatchery. Project partner SNM has been working towards the conservation of marine turtles since 2002.

Environmental Project Echo 4 - Bio-gas - Jenna, Sammy, and Chris (M)
The team of three PMs and Venturers will help to construct bio-gas units for seven recipient families in the very marginalised community of Cheriyery. The units will provide them with free gas for cooking and an alternative livelihood from the sale of dairy produce and organic fertilizer both produced as a bi-product of the biogas production and reduce the environmental impact of firewood consumption. The beneficiaries were selected by our project partner CTRD, according to their knowledge of animal husbandry and the size of their land.

Adventure Project / Trek Tango 5 - Janet, Matt
Janet and Matt will lead the Venturers during their 19-day adventure phase in Kerala. The 200km journey takes place in the Western Ghats Mountains, incorporating trekking in the forest, across savannah grasslands and rice paddies, off-road mountain-biking, and river rafting. Physical challenges will easily be rewarded by breathtaking scenery, including indigenous wildlife (cross fingers for elephants!). The trek is guided by our adventure partner MuddyBoots.

Adventure Project / Trek Tango 6 - Amanda, Barney, and Photographer Bob
Amanda and Barney will lead the 17-day trek in Kerala. During the 200km journey, the Venturers will summit the second highest mountain in south India (2600m) and undertake a 24hr survival challenge including river rafting. This section of the Western Ghats Mountains is renowned for its beauty and diverse terrain, as well as for plentiful opportunities to sample Kerala’s special foods and of course the tea! The trek is guided by our adventure partner Kalypso Adventures.

After the Sorting Hat had spoken, Mark Malfoy, Simon Snape, and Pete Potter decided to provoke some antagonism between the newly formed teams by letting them Ready-Steady-Cook against each other. After fierce competition with partially illegal methods, Team Fieldbase and Team Echo 3 topped the list in terms of taste, creativity, presentation, and X-factor. After a penalty shoot-out - involving classic dance, oriental dance, and water - the panel announced douze points for Team Fieldbase, proving that the central management of this expedition is incredibly well taken care of.

Competition faces

The judges

The glorious Fieldbase team and Hogwarts' headmasters

Today, after having worked through folders of essential information about their projects, the PMs headed to their project sites to conduct a Project Planning Visit. They will meet the partner organisations, learn about the project and why it is necessary, meet the local community and assess potential risks on site. They promised me to bring back first-hand information for you, so prepare for a thrilling session of guest blogging.

More people = more activities = wayyy more words

2012-02-02T23:55:00.002+05:30

You wonder why you didn’t receive any news from Raleigh India fieldbase in the usual timely manner...? There are two reasons:

1. Individual reason

The already mentioned bunch of just-arrived project managers invaded my front porch office and turned it into their personal entertainment centre. Once a temple of zen, concentration, and creativity, the fieldbase’s cozy outdoor area now resembles London Waterloo Railway station. Talking, browsing, writing, and knitting project managers wiggle their heads (an Indian specialty) over the well-known phenomenon of “What, I have been here for ONLY four days!!?”, a statement that leads us straight to:

2. Collective reason

Apparently, those four days must have had 48 hours each, as otherwise I do not see any possibility to pack such an overwhelming amount of activities into them. After being lured into our upstairs community area under the false pretext of getting lunch and playing some simple name games, the newly arrived PMs were drowned in an ocean of introductory information and administration forms. “Any questions?” – “When can we go for a nap?” – “No off-topic questions, please.” The cherry on top was served by Country Director Mark, who gave an informative overview of those six projects our PMs will be allocated to. Who exactly will go where is to be figured out in the days to come; Mark, Simon and Petr are very secretive about it. (They love surprises! No, actually they just love the power position of knowing more than anyone else.)
Day #2 saw fieldbase transformed into a hard skills boot camp, which – judging by the tired but knowledgeable faces around me – is still ongoing. Lessons learned (skills acquired):

There IS a hipster version of Easter egg hunting (GPS-tracking).
Some minutes have 1000 seconds and Westings and Southings do not exist (Map reading).
The code word for the letter “U” is not “unicorn”, much to the regret of certain fully grown men (Phonetic alphabet).
“Over and out” only exists in Hotel Oscar Lima Lima Yankee Whiskey Oscar Oscar Delta (Voice procedures).
Even in the face of life threatening injuries, the British consider making a cup of tea to be indispensable (Casualty evacuation procedure).
The standard procedure for communicating gossip from project sites to fieldbase is called “Situational Report” (Situational, incident, trip, and medical reporting).
Insufficient handwashing is the root of all evil (Hygiene and Medkits).
Snakes are the root of all evil (Medical emergencies).
DR ABC is not easy as one two three (Basic life support).
Everything and everyone can be a splint (Trauma).

Casual casuality evacuation

The sheer length of the list above may give you an idea about the information overload during the last few days and our current dazzling level of intelligence. But - believe it or not - that was not everything!
Slightly dissatisfied with our mind-body balance, we also managed to squeeze a 15 Kilometres trek, including swim test and overnight camping, into our busy schedule. Powered by a sweet and sticky morning delight called “energy bombs”, Team India I left fieldbase at 7:30 in the morning, closely followed by Team II. The trek led us through rural villages with happily greeting locals, where we could not only witness a procession (opinions on its nature range from wedding to funeral), but were also treated like A-list celebrities during school breaks. After a long and hot trek, the PM’s swim test was a welcome opportunity to cool down, follow up on those blisters, and recharge our batteries for the second trek section towards the camping site. Having arrived there, the advanced fieldbase team initiated its “knowledge transfer process” with regard to long drops, camp fires and tents also known as “relaxing and letting the new PMs do all the work”. What then followed was a shining example of creative cooking and intense campfire bonding, leading into a late night, followed by a very early morning, followed by the long awaited reward: warm showers at fieldbase and finally some culture plus a top notch dinner in Mysore.

Stay tuned for news about the upcoming whereabouts of our PMs! Phase I allocations are due and soon you will find out who exactly will be responsible for installing toilets, constructing bio-gas units, leading treks and other exciting projects.

A taste of India I: Trying to figure out the shortcut.

A taste of India II: Rhys, Izi, Sammy, Matt, Emma, Pete

India II swim test: Jenna, Emma, Harriet, Matt, Izi

Camp group picture - From left to right:
Front row: Amanda, Reggie, Izi, Janet, Cate
Second Row: Bob, Barney, Chris, Harriet, our driver small Manju, Rhys, Stephen
Third row: Simon, our driver Prashanth, Matt, Joe, Pete
Last row: Sam, Natalie, Jenna, Emma, Sammy, Christiane

Our Project Managers are here!

2012-01-28T21:46:00.000+05:30

These people

are very very happy to welcome these people

to the fieldbase.

Fun just doubled. And double-fun-videos will follow.

Short swims and long drops

2012-01-27T20:41:00.000+05:30

On 25 January we left fieldbase for a day of trekking, swimming, and camping. Destination #1: Kapila River. Our trek to the river led us through fields and small villages, where smiling locals were greeting and waving at us. The people in this area seem to have a particularly sweet tooth, as little children, as well as grown up men, asked whether we would have any chocolate or similar delights.
The river itself is a quiet place. Seasonally receding water levels provide for a very diverse flora and fauna; our photographers were particularly keen on getting close to the many different bird species. A very different flora could also be found within the river, where underwater plants make sure that

A swim test of 200 meters is not the piece of cake you think it would be.
You will look like Poseidon himself when you get out of the water, with long strings of vegetation hanging from your hands and other body parts.

The swim test was preceded by some area risk assessment and rescue training; important knowledge we will pass on to the soon-to-arrive project managers and venturers.

The wanderers.

What?

Going through who-knows-what to get to the water.

Having cooled off we were ready for the second part of the trek, leading us to destination #2 Kolli Thota camp site, where we would stay for the night. Joined by Country Director Mark Ashby, we set up tents, kitchen, fireplace and the infamous long drop. Our success was significantly hampered by soil as hard as European winters (not that we know anything about that anymore), but constant digging wore away the stone. Sitting around a fire in the beautiful middle of nowhere, munching well-deserved pasta out of mess tins, we concluded the day with a not-very-trust-building game of Mafia.

Romancin' it up

Dig this.

Tomorrow the project managers will arrive. We are very much looking forward to their arrival and – on that occasion - polished fieldbase to a grade of non-recognition. Let the games begin...

P.S: For any inquiries about who or what a long drop is, please refer to Mark Ashby.

Counts and palaces

2012-01-25T12:12:00.000+05:30

Fieldbase is homey; we know fieldbase inside and out. Why? – Because we counted and listed every single thing visible. It’s inventory time! Especially our Logs guys Reggie and Rhys and our Medics Cate and Izi can be found buried under mountains of high-visibility vests, tents, wound dressings, and pills. All equipment to go with the projects needs to be prepared and these guys make sure, that there will be enough well-working and up-to-date stuff available for everyone.

However, it’s not all work and no play. Grocery shopping, re-stocking, and meetings with pharmacists and print specialists also gave us the chance to spend some time in Mysore. The town of 983,000 inhabitants is only a half an hour drive away from our fieldbase. Strolling through streets and lively markets, zipping Chai and coconut water, we had the chance to stock up on all the necessary and very very unnecessary things we forgot at home, such as flutes, scents, and multicoloured face paints. Some of us even received “surprise-blessings” by accidentally walking into a temple. Important lessons learnt: The art of refusing offers and crossing lively streets like a boss.

Mysore is home to Amba Vilas Palace, one of India’s most famous monuments, which is surrounded by a large garden. The palace complex also includes twelve Hindu temples, dating from the 14th century until 1953. In the evening, we had the chance to witness the spectacular illumination ceremony (we are talking about ca. 100000 light bulbs here...), accompanied by surprisingly Viennese-style music.

And food of course! FOOD! Mysore has a range of great restaurants and we are not only becoming experts in Indian cuisine, but also increasingly aware of the fact that eating needs some counterbalancing. And that’s why we put trekking and swimming on our menu for today. We’ll be back with stories and photos about us sporting it up.

Count this!

And count that!

Probably the most colourful country in the world.

Mysore Palace by night with Izi, Petr, Rhys, Simon, Reggie, Christiane, Sam, Cate and Joseph

And here one of the rare pictures that show our photographer Bob.

True story: Mysore was rated the second cleanest city in India in 2010 and the cleanest in Karnataka State.

A magic dwells in each beginning...

2012-01-24T01:35:00.002+05:30

The advanced fieldbase team arrived at Bangalore airport on 21 January at 3 am after what felt like days of travelling. Torn between overfatigue and excitement - the coming adventure, first impressions of India and its traffic insanity, the music choices of our lovely drivers small Manju and big Manju - we made it through a three hours drive to Raleigh fieldbase near Mysore – our new home. There was only one thing on our minds: SLEEP!

But no rest for the wicked! Getting-to-know-each-other-games (wait, what was your name again?), a closer look into our respective roles, and an introduction to the fieldbase facilities with Simon (Country Expedition Manager), Petr (Deputy Programme Manager) and Theja (Host Country Venturer co-ordinator) were on the menu. Also on the menu was our first taste of delicious Indian food, which does an excellent job of making strangers become friends in just one day. Exhausted, but with the happy sense of a new home, new friends, new knowledge and new adventures, we fell into our beds.

Fun fact: India is five AND A HALF HOURS ahead of Greenwich Mean Time. WHO COMES UP WITH THINGS LIKE THAT?

Very special festival cows

It may not look like hard work, but it is!

Please allow us to introduce ourselves...

2012-01-24T01:30:00.002+05:30

Namaskaara to our blog about Raleigh India 12 C expedition! For the next three exciting months this page will serve as your one stop shop for all the news and updates from our project sites, treks and from fieldbase. We hope that our little stories, pictures and videos will give you a better impression on what life on expedition - and life in India - is like.

As you may know, though: communication is a not a one way street, so we are hoping for your very active participation! Don’t be shy to forward any comments or questions you may have to us.

The blog is also a tool to keep in touch with your beloved ones while they are being “out there” in rural communities, natural reserves and on trek and, thus, cut off from the amenities of modern communication. Here is how it works:

Any comments posted by family and friends will be printed out and taken to the respective volunteers on the project sites. Please make sure you indicate name of volunteer and name of project in your correspondence.
We will also put messages from the volunteers to their family and friends on the blog.
This said, we kindly ask you to keep in mind that this is a public blog. More personal messages can be posted via letter or email, which we will deliver personally.

Any questions? Let me know! My name is Christiane and I will be writing and managing this blog. I am not an English native speaker so please bear with me :o)

We are looking forward to a lively exchange of lovely messages!

The end. Well for 11J anyway.

2011-12-17T14:03:00.000+05:30

So the Venturers have gone and now it’s the turn of the Field Base staff and VMs.

The last few days have been spent making sure that we leave Field Base looking spick and span for the next group, so out came the marigolds and with a final burst of energy and elbow grease we cleaned, we scrubbed, we mopped, we dusted, we picked up litter and it’s almost like we’ve gone back in time to late September when we all arrived. Well almost!

In between all the hard work we have obviously found time to relax and celebrate the success of the expedition, culminating in yesterday's Awards Night, where VMs and Field Base staff were asked to propose awards for their peers and these were collected and the best three were chosen. Andy dressed up as Santa and had Hannah as his little elf helper to deliver the awards and much hilarity ensued as everyone tried to guess the recipients before they were announced based on the title of the award. And most were right! So the awards were obviously deserved!

And so we come to today. Lee cooked up an awesome fry-up this morning (sans bacon and sausage sadly) which went down a treat and then it was packing and tent cleaning. The group will now travel to Young Island (just outside Mysore) for the night on their way to Bangalore airport. We have our staff party tonight and then final farewells tomorrow as some are staying on to enjoy more of India’s amazing scenery and hospitality.

I’m sure I speak on behalf of all those left here when I say it’s been an amazing journey and one which we are all glad to have taken together. Thanks for reading and for your support and please spread the word about Raleigh so that your friends and family can find out more about the organisation and how they can get involved in the good work we do and join the ever-growing family of alumni who have been on expedition.

This is Field Base listening out...

The middle of the end...

2011-12-14T20:31:00.000+05:30

Fieldbase resembles something of a ghost town once more as the volunteer manager team bid a fond farewell to all the Venturers earlier today. They were finally shepherded onto their buses – despite some desperate attempts to remain – and will be winging their way to either Bangalore (to catch the recommended flight tomorrow or a different flight that they have arranged themselves) or Mysore (for those few who have alternative travel plans).

But first an update on how they spent their final few hours under a Raleigh roof – and also an update for those who were worried about the missing E4 group...

E4 safe and sound

We are pleased to announce that E4 returned safely – albeit a little the worse for wear – at the crack of dawn yesterday. Their marathon journey, which started with a four hour bus ride to Chiplun, followed by a five hour delayed train to Mangalore (which was where the trouble all started), then continued with an eight hour night train to Mysore, a three hour wait on the bus for daylight and then the final leg, a positively lightning half an hour drive to fieldbase.

They were met at fieldbase by Helen, Hannah and what at first looked like a nurse fresh from the operating theatre but turned out to be Carolyn in her rather fetching pyjamas. The group then proceeded to wake up the rest of fieldbase who were overjoyed to know that their fellow Venturers were back in one piece.

The final day

So what activities lay in store for the Venturers for their final full day? Well other than packing up their belongings it was a pretty fun day for all, with the following all taking place:

Total Wipeout – a series of fun, wet and very messy games to provide a team challenge that was eventually won by Charlie 1. It was a hard fought competition as hot showers were the prize for the victorious group!!!

Tango 5 at Fun Station 5!

Tango 6 getting competitive

Echo 4 getting their team through the spiders-web at Fun Station 3!

The Winners - Charlie 1 - After the assault course at Fun Station 1!

Christmas Dinner – the dining room was decked out in lights and tinsel and was the perfect setting for the final evening meal, which was topped off with a lovely speech by Helen.

11J's End of Expedition Meal

Hannah, Helen and Carolyn dressed up for the occasion!

Slide Show – Hannah produced a slideshow of photographs from the entire expedition which she put to music and received deservedly rapturous applause.

Disco – yes despite the Dutch Venturers dislike of the concept of music and dancing we had a disco. That’s D.I.S.C.O my friends. Give me a ‘D’...

The end...well for the Venturers at least

And so we come to the final day at fieldbase for our intrepid Venturers, which kicked off in customary style with some wholesome, tasty porridge. This was followed by more packing before the groups were reunited with their Project Managers and went through a final review where they discussed their personal highs and lows for the expedition.

Once the remaining paperwork had been filled out there was time for lunch and some tidying and cleaning around fieldbase before the siren sounded to announce departure time.

There were hugs, handshakes and quite a few misty eyes (but no tears – they are a strong bunch!) as final farewells with the fieldbase team took place. Then they were off to the big city to either return home to tell their loved ones of their great adventure or continue the journey elsewhere.

11J

On behalf of all at fieldbase we wish them a safe flight and onward journey and would like to thank them for taking part in a great expedition. For those of us still here there are a few days in which to complete the cleaning and perhaps toast the completion of a successful journey.

Thanks for reading and for your messages. They are very much appreciated by all. Until the next time...

The Beginning of the end......

2011-12-12T13:38:00.001+05:30

Although it only felt like a few short moments ago that the 11J expedition began, the end is now in sight.

The groups started arriving back in this morning from the project sites and spent the morning greeting what now seem like old friends, reviewing the last phase and sorting out all the equipment that has been used to do all the hard work of the past 10 weeks.

The fieldbase team have been working hard to ensure that the last few days of expedition are packed full of fun! Tonight we have the skits so the groups can show us what they have all been up to and usually this has a large comedy element then tomorrow we have prepared some Fun Stations for the groups to go round before we have our final slideshow and meal together and dance the night away!

For followers of the Echo 4 group, don't worry - they are on their way back but have been slightly delayed due to a late running train, they will be with us soon though!

Keep a look out for the last blog and photo's of all our final fun which will be coming soon.....

Carolyn

Off to the beach!

2011-12-09T20:05:00.000+05:30

Guest bloggers Lee and Hannah here.

We have just got back from our trip up to Velas visiting Echo 4.

Our journey started with an overnight stay in Bangalore with an early flight up to Mumbai. After a 7 hour journey from Mumbai we arrived with Echo 4 feeling a little tired but ready to get stuck in.

Echo 4 are at a beautiful campsite contained in a small cluster of pine trees on the edge of the beach. The group made us feel welcome by preparing our ‘beds’ for us and making us dinner. The menu was chips and omelette which went down a treat. Following dinner we sat around a bonfire on the beach and did a quick shift on turtle watch. Unfortunately we didn’t see any turtles but we haven’t given up hope.

The following day after a good night’s sleep we were awoken with pancakes and the prospect of a hard mornings work. We set out to work carrying bricks and cement for the building of two gates along the path to the beach. The group had built a stretcher to make carrying the 30kg bricks a lot easier as Anna took her place as cement mixer.

After lunch the group took us on a brief tour of what we were missing out on by being nowhere near a beach in Mysore. We went to a nearby rock pool and relaxed before the group set up a slip ‘n’ slide down the beach. The slip ‘n’ slide consisted of some plastic sheeting with some soapy water poured on it and was aimed into the sea. It was amazing. We also managed to fit in a game of cricket followed by a game of football with the locals.

On the menu in the evening was chicken with cheesy potatoes and cauliflower. This was followed by a review and then an unsuccessful search for turtles before bed.

We left Echo 4 at 7:00 and began the 7 hour drive back to Mumbai. We both really enjoyed our time at Echo 4 and have massive envy towards their camp.

We have a blog message from Lisa:

To Nan, Pap’s, Bernie, Jo, Kate, Mel, Tina and Stephen. Thanks for the messages guys, miss you all loads. Having a good time out here but can’t wait to come back and tell you all the random stories. I will be home in a week, Thursday 15^th, see you all soon. Love Lisa xxx.

Out of Field Base and into The Loop

2011-12-05T18:30:00.000+05:30

Hannah FB medic here.

I had the good luck to join Helen on the last loop of 11J visiting Tango 5, Echo 3 and Charlie 1.

Helen in Top Gun attire working hard in the office before heading out on loop

Please find below, in true Raleigh review style, the highs (and very few lows) we experienced on the way....

Tango 5

Highs

Johnny and Lavinia singing Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly" - amused by hearing that Johnny strums team sing-a-longs along whilst trekking
Charlie's chuffed-ness after her request for binoculars to spot the wildlife from FB was fulfilled

Lavinia's camp cooking - of course it wouldn't have been half as good without Jake's chopping and Steph's stirring!
Ambience generated by team spirit - made me feel fuzzy inside.
Sinterklaas parcel from Esmee's mum including a packet of pepernoten for all trekkers and loop members - thank you! Confused? See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinterklaas
Another parcel - this time for Lavinia from home with birthday goodies
Pamper evening for loop members including beautiful henna hand-painting.

Esmee showing the loop how to draw beautiful henna designs

Lows

Leaving Tango 5 - I miss trekking with Muddy Boots!

Tango 5, Helen, Hannah and the guitar!

Echo 3

Highs

Awesome campsite! Two-tiered amphitheatre built from bamboo around the campfire. Brilliant.

Blind Date hosted by Robyn and Victor with the loop members doing the choosing from 3 screened-off venturers - answers a little too risque for the blog but suffice to say the first dates went well.
Food - sweet and sour one evening, followed by banoffee pie with dessicated coconut. Next evening treated to egg noodles with a delicious satay sauce. Innovative use of Raleigh food!
Music - 80s cheese and Mumford and Sons
Escaping without head lice
Again great team atmosphere in a homely environment

Lows

The Safety game - yuk - Andy has a lot to answer for!
The long drop - yuk yuk.

Charlie 1

Highs

Tangible hard graft had been done by the team in the first half of the phase with all 10 toilets nearing completion - good work guys!

Shafi's chicken curry, fish fry and parothas - outstanding. The hours he spent in the kitchen were much appreciated.

Playing "In The Box" and the team putting up with my being a stickler for the rules

Wandering through Maligali and soaking up village life - seeing the process at the dairy whereby locals brought along their pails of milk, it would be assessed and weighed, a receipt for volume given and decanted into churns to be taken to town for sale

The team having an arts and crafts session with the local kids during which they made an advent calendar

Lows

Charlie 1 being the end of the loop and heading back to Fieldbase for the end of expedition!!

Hannah, Fieldbase Medic

Here are some of the messages we picked up from some of the venturers on the loop. Apologies if the Dutch is wrong, I tried my best to type it up. Helen

Blog Message from Elizabeth Gattrell – Tango 5

Dear the Gattrells!

Hi Everyone! Sorry I haven’t been in touch much. I am trekking in the jungle, it is really hard and I still can’t believe I am doing it. You would be shocked at the things I am doing and my manly attire. Can’t wait to come home for xmas and see you all, especially your outstanding progress mum, am really proud of you and thankful to all the family for taking care of you so well. I miss you all dearly. Met some wonderful people here, we all help each other through the hard times but sometimes you just want your family. Know what I mean! Anyway off to do some raft building and then onto the lake with the help of the FIT Indian guide lad!

Love and miss your kangaroo mum, all my love always, in all ways,

Lizzie xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Mum,

Just wanted to say how happy I am to hear you are doing so well. I really can’t wait to see all of your progress in action and to finally see you settled at home. I am missing you so much here but will have lots of funny stories for you to make even funnier. Have sent another letter home but I may get there before it. So just to tell you I’m fine and that I love you! Your braveness is living on in me throughout this, anyway i’ll be seeing you very soon, Lots of love

Jungle Lizzie xxxxx

Blog message from Emma Christopher, Tango 5

Hi Mum, Dad and Freddie,

Thank you for your blog message, it’s so good to hear from you and it was delivered to us on a day when I really needed a pick me up! I’m glad to hear everyone is well at home. I’m missing you all so much but not feeling homesick as there is so much going on here. It’s not long until I come home so I ‘m going to enjoy every day I have left. We are well into our trek now... it’s killing me! No , really! It’s such a physical challenge but the mental challenge is even harder. I have never felt so gross in my life, I stink! But so does everyone else so all is good! I cannot wait to see you all soon, lots of love Emma xxxxx

Blog message from Esmee, Tango 5

Ome Ab & Tante Nel,

Lieve ome Ab en tante Nel, Huub & Meckel,

De loop bracht vandaag onze post en bericht jes en daar zat een kaartje wan jullie by!Heel erg lenk bin wat van jullie te horen en bedankt voor het kaartje. Hier jchat alles prima, neg 7 weken en dan ben in alweer Heins :) Dikke kus Esmee

Lieve pam,

Ik heb miet veel tjd wu. Maar heel erg bedankt voor je lenke terberichtje Tim een vriendin, dat was een verrassing! Haha! Wel heel erg lenk. Graetje dan de fam en een dikke kus, Esmee

Lieve mama, papa & Lieke,

De pepernoten en het godicht zyn aangekomln heer! De gruep heeft ervar genoven. Ih wilde je een rief sturen maar die ben ik vergeten. Das die krijj je Vals in terzeg ben. Ook die van lieke is kwijt. Is die oor papa al gearriveerd? Ik sturr welee brief voor de meiden via jullie. Er zitten foto’s bij, dus dan kumnen jullie die bekjken! Ook een klein cadeanje voor fiek zik erbij. Alles eped hier. Na 2 dagen rash, want Stef kar niet verder en heeft even tydnodig I om bj te komen. Hert is eigenligh neit nwaar, meevalle dus, haha! Otja, kurinen jullie pepernoten mix bewaren, biodat ik die kan bakken als ik terug komi? Hopeligh gaat daar ook alles good , maar daar twigfel ik eigenlijk wief aan! Heel veel liefts en kassen! Esmee

Lieve Elien & Nienke, & nateuertjk de andere meiden,

Jullie kaartjes vyn helaas (neg) niet aangekoman (voor eline en Nienke) Ik ben nu 7 dagen op trek en het is echt heel erg leik. Ooh een dag gefitsk. Bergopwaards en dan racen naar beneden. Beetje eng wel, haha! Over 2 weekjes al weer henis, kan niet wachten on jullie allemaal weer te zien. Eline, is net gelukt met kaartje voor rauw & lauw? :)

Ik heb jeen tyd meer schatten! Dikke kus Es.

Ps eln nieuwe brief & foto’s is onderweg.

Blog message from Robyn Brooks, Echo 3

To Mum and Pops,

Hiya! Was so nice to get blog messages off you all last night, really good to know that you are all okay! Miss you both millions! Was thinking the other day about how nice it will be to come out of the Airport and see you all, I cannot wait! Hope your arranging my homecoming party;) Although, when you pick me up, no matter how far or close it is, we are stopping at McDonalds! Honestly cannot wait to see you, have so much to tell you all! Tell fat head I got his blog message, it’s taken him this long to write that one sentence! Some things never change, HaHa! Send Grandma and Bob my love, tell them I got the millions of messages and letters and I cannot wait to see them! Give Lucas and Lilah a HUGE kiss from me and I will see you all in 14 days! GET EXCITED! Love you all so much Bobbin xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Blog messages from Lucy Shipp, Echo 3

To Mum,

Hello! Sad not to hear from you on the blog, but thank you for the mini birthday parcel. Am being very restrained and saving the post until tomorrow – it’s quite hard, they are snuggled away under my pillow! Having a lovely time by the reservoir; lots of swimming, a little yoga and massive amounts of digging. It’s nice to have a bit of personal space after the school in Malligalli. Our camp is really incredible – we even have a swing. Hope things are going will at home, not long now until I’m back – we already have Christmas decorations in the camp! Miss you lots, Lucy xxx

To Ekta,

I was so happy and surprised to see that little envelope from you! I’m being really disciplined and not opening anything until my birthday tomorrow – I’m so excited to read what you’ve been up to! I’m also hoping that tomorrow might be my first hot and sunny birthday – wahoo. Went swimming in the lake today and bobbled like a mushroom should. Miss your face xxx

To Alice,

So excited for your new dance moves, I’ve been inventing some too. Loved hearing from you, missing your killer sneezes and happiness lots, but London not so much. Really happy to be here. Looking forward to seeing you in the soon-ish New Year. Love xx

To Sarah,

Ahh! 2 parcels from you at last changeover – so good. We have pimped our camp and decced it for Christmas, with a lot of help from the advent calender. Fantastic. So much to tell, cannot wait to get back and plan some more adventures. Hope home is not as frustrating as it sounds, I’m sure you are remembering to have lots of fun too – look forward to hearing all about it lovely. Love xxx

For Julie Scheer’s Fam. Echo 3

Allerliefsle Fam,

Wat heerlyk jullie berichten en qedichten (mam) le ontuangen. Ons kamp hier is AMAZING! We hebben onze eigen chillroom gemazkt: I banken haha, so fyn. Ons bad her is in enorm lake, wat helaz ook ‘t bad is van de koeien, re wordt hier letterlyk nooit schoco. India is noq steeds waanzinnig, masr allos is zil redelys nokmaal wen it worden: koeien ipu auto ‘s Ryst, Smbar and porridge, Regenbuien die rivieren veroorzaken en de zon die meet zoeken, ‘t slepen in een hangmat onder in klamb de, engels and NI door elkaar (praat Englesin min slaap) muziek zu/7. Pieverds meet it kori howden, mzzr mail julie zondag.

Dikke x u jullie nzzns wit India.

Charlie One

2011-12-05T13:10:00.000+05:30

Guest blogger Lee again, this time reporting from Charlie One.

I have just got back from a ten day stint with Charlie One building Eco-Sanitation toilets and am here to keep you updated.

When we arrived we set up our camp, the venturers slept in a classroom in the school while the PM’s were banished to tents outside. After we had set up camp we played a quick game of cricket and then had a tour around the village to look at the work of the competition to see what we were up against.

After cricket we met our cook Galesh. As we were a community phase we had the pleasure of not having to cook for ourselves 99% of the time which was a welcome break from noodles for some of the venturers.

During the day we would build the toilets. We were helped by several experienced masons who were always on hand to correct a wonky brick or a bodged plastering attempt. We finished the structure of ten toilets whilst I was on Charlie One

On one of the days we were lucky enough to get invited to a wedding that was happening in the village. So we rocked up, covered in cement and dirt and hijacked the service. We posed for photographs and acted like the minor celebrities that we knew we were born to be.

After probably ruining the couples day, although they seemed very pleased we were there, we went back to work and continued to make the toilets for the village.

Friday was a special day in camp; it was Gemma’s 18^th birthday. We wanted to make the day special for her so we took it off work and went into the local town and spent the day relaxing and sari shopping. Back at camp the group had prepared a surprise cake for Gemma to celebrate her birthday. She didn’t cry but I could tell at points she was close, it was beautiful.

We had an extra member of the group from time to time, a puppy called either ‘Charlie’ ‘Manni’ or ‘Dog’. The group decided to buy him for 100INR only to find out that the dog was free at heart and left our camp soon after we introduced him to his new home

None of the locals knew me by my name in the village; I was ‘John Cena – WWE Superstar, World Champion’. I think that I will leave you to be the judge of similarities.

Lee

John Cena

That is all from me.

Tango 6 Trekkers

2011-12-02T20:20:00.003+05:30

Guest blogger Andy Damant here! I’m just back from a weeks trekking with the ever so lucky to have me Tango 6, here’s a run down of what we got up to:

Day one

We left field base at 06.00 for the two-day journey south into Kerala. Of course, we made regular chai, cake and ice cream stops and spent the night in Munnar to break the journey up.

Day two

Day two meant more travel by bus to reach the Silent Valley base camp aka the start of the Misapulimala Trek.

The moment we stepped off the bus the rain began! Spirits remained high though and we completed the 4km walk to camp in just over an hour. With darkness fast approaching we set about erecting tents as the guides made a huge fire for us to huddle round and dry off. Unfortunately, during the night one of the ladies tents gave up against the wind and rain and was swiftly abandoned for hard cover!

Day three

The day started as the last had ended, heavy rain and even stronger winds! We set off at 05.30 to conquer Misapulimala herself; in English this translates to Tiger Moustache Mountain due to the shape of the ridgeline.

At 2638 meters high (8654ft), Misapulimala is southern India’s second highest peak, the scenery is staggering. As we descended, we passed through the worlds highest organic tea plantations and of course, we stopped for chai! We were so cold we ordered 36 cups between the 12 of us!

Day four

The group learnt to fend for themselves on what turned out to be a brilliant survival day. They learnt how to get drinking water from their own urine and how to make cold water from a water bottle and a sock for use in hot climates. Then with Suthakar on cooking duty the group ate like kings and queens, the menu was veg and chicken curry topped off with a sponge cake, yum yum.

Day five

The first dry day and a very welcome blue sky as we headed down to the lake for a spot of rafting. The rafts took about 2 hours to put together and thankfully kept us afloat! Once on the far side we cut the rafts apart and trekked on to our lakeside campsite, talk about room with a view.

Day six

Another great day trekking through cardamom, tea and coffee plantations with some stunning views of Shantanpara.

Day seven

Sadly I had to say goodbye to Tango 6 and head back to field base to take care of logistics. The group were excitedly preparing for another long climb, safe in the knowledge that day 8 was a scheduled rest day!

That’s all from me, I really enjoyed my time with Tango 6... Stay tuned for more updates from the other groups.

Andy.

Monitoring and Evaluation of Bio-gas and Eco-sanitation Projects

2011-11-30T14:53:00.001+05:30

During the 11J expedition, Louise and I, along with a handful of Venturers went out to 3 bio-gas and 4 eco-sanitation projects that Raleigh had done in the past to look at the long term impact of our projects on the communities at hand. It was a hugely rewarding experience for the Venturers who were able to engage on a deeper level with the work that they were doing, whilst enhancing their learning experience about sustainable development in the process. I would like to express a huge thank-you to Alex Rolfe, Claire Doeveren, Dan Rose, Esmee Augustijn, Jamie Manson, Lukas Klautke, Maya Obstfeld, Shafeeque Rahman, Steph Beaumont, Suthakar Munusamy and Zoe Coles for contributing to these efforts. By conducting household questionnaires, surveys and leading community focus group meetings, we found out more about how Raleigh was helping the different communities across India. Below are our findings from these visits…

Eco-sanitation Projects

The venturers saw for themselves how the composting toilets had changed the lives of its users, both socially and economically. Out of the 115 toilets inspected, most had produced organic fertiliser, which not only reduced the amount spent by beneficiaries on expensive chemical fertiliser, but also improved crop quality and yield. Venturers learnt about how the toilets increased personal safety, particularly for the women, and found that the level of health and hygiene had risen as a result.

Bio-gas Projects

Venturers found the visits to be really encouraging as they discovered that 9 bio-gas units were still functioning and being used years later. It was motivating for venturers to see that wood consumption had reduced due to this new renewable source of energy and the cows provided by Raleigh were producing milk which was then being sold to make an income.

Once again, a huge thank-you for your hard work and involvement in moving monitoring and evaluation forward in India.

Marian Sue, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer

New Arrival and Return to Little Doctors

2011-11-28T21:01:00.000+05:30

Yesterday Fieldbase welcomed Carolyn, Raleigh Head Office Operations Manager, who has come to take the reins from Mark until the end of the expedition. Mark will be heading back to the UK in 2 days' time for a Country Director pow-wow. But not before he turns 40 tomorrow - woop woop!

Today Carolyn and I headed to the local school to educate the Little Doctors about eye and ear care. We started off with an anatomy review - their knowledge was impressive!

It was nice to be able to give them some practical fun with the use of an otoscope and ophthalmascope so that they could peer into the ears and eyes. The teachers were just as interested to see what the ear drum and retina look like in real life!

I will return next week as they've asked for some teaching on hair and skin care, and the treatment of some common ailments. It's a great programme to be involved with.

On Wednesday Helen and I will be heading out on the loop to visit Charlie 1, Echo 3 and Tango 5. So if you have any blog messages for these projects please post them as soon as possible (before Wednesday) and we will take them out to the projects - they are much appreciated!

Hannah, Fieldbase Medic

They’re off again!

2011-11-25T16:20:00.000+05:30

After a superb extended changeover, the groups left bright and early yesterday for their third and final phases. Seriously, where’s the time going?!

By 5am field base was a hive of activity with last minute packing, gobbling breakfast and making the place spick and span. You could feel the excitement in the air as everyone said their temporary goodbyes and loaded their rucksacks on to the coaches.

Tango 5 and Tango 6 were the first groups to leave at 6am, and by 8am field base was deserted… think I just saw a ball of tumbleweed blow past the office…

As well as the venturers returning to Fieldbase for changeover, we were also treated to a visit by Raleigh’s Head of Operations, Tony Willetts. Tony visits each country every year to touch base with operations on the ground, and he gave a good speech to the venturers about the importance of Raleigh India to Raleigh overall, and thanked venturers for all their hard work.

Tony Willetts, Head of Operations, and the Fieldbase team

As always, we’ve been listening out on the radios and all the groups have arrived at their locations safe and sound, leaving us with a chance to practice our cricket skills.

We look forward to keeping you updated on all the latest phase 3 goss!

Final phase!

2011-11-23T14:01:00.000+05:30

They’re back, they’re brown and boy are they excited! Two phases done and one to go...it’s exciting times at Raleigh India Fieldbase that’s for sure!

Echo 3 was first off the bus, followed closely by Charlie 1. Tango 5 was next, with Charlie 2 hot on their tail. Echo 4 had the furthest to come so arrived (looking rather tired) just in time for supper.

Like the last change-over, everyone was straight into cleaning their kit and sorting everything out, before jumping on the bus and enjoying some down-time in Mysore for the afternoon. They all got back late afternoon and settled down for an evening of skits, loop competition winners and the world premier of the 11J Raleigh music video.

Welcome home!

This change over, I was one of the judges for the skits and I have to say they brought tears to my eyes, they were absolutely hilarious and everyone had put so much effort into them. Tango 5 decided to include a few videos in their skit in an “I’m a celebrity get me out of trek” style. Sleeping bag leech attacks, Claire and Ali’s mud fight and some excellent dance moves set a pretty high standard for the rest of the groups. Echo 4 followed with some very creative turtle outfits and a medley of songs describing their time in Velas. Echo 3 also put their time on project to song, while Charlie 2 and showed us how to chat up girls ‘Indian style.’ It was a tough call, but the winners were Charlie 1, who put together a massive mega-mix and told us all about Mallagalli through a mixture of rap and song.

After the skits, Echo 3 was crowned the winner of the loop – with their fantastic hospitality and delicious cooking winning it for them. Next it was time for the music video! Armed with popcorn, our beautiful Fieldbase usherettes, made sure everyone was comfortable before, Hannah, pressed play. Laughter filled Fieldbase as everyone saw themselves releasing their inner pop star to ‘When the going gets tough.’

Charlie 1 with their winning skit

The next day the graduates had the chance to shine as they took the reins and took over Fieldbase to put on ‘Grad Day.’ It was a relaxing start to the day, with Jenni leading a yoga session after breakfast. The grads (with a bit of help from Fieldbase) had arranged two beauty therapists to come in for the day. They set up their pampering rooms on the roof and everyone queued up for a massage, pedicure, manicure, head massage or facial. The boys weren’t left out and the barber from Jaypura came down to give them a shave, hair cut or head massage.

Elsewhere in Fieldbase, the school had been set up as a chill out room for everyone to relax, catch up and listen to music. The caterers also came in to give everyone a lesson in making parotta (Indian bread) and a delicious vegetable curry for lunch. After lunch, there were some more beauty treatments and chilling out continued, before we had an epic BBQ, with chicken, lamb, lots of yummy salads and pretty much anything else you could think of. Everyone helped out with the salads and Andy and Ali did a fantastic job of manning the BBQ. And of course, you couldn’t have a BBQ with pudding, so after the boys had done, the girls took over and filled the BBQ with nutella filled bananas – the perfect end to a yummy meal!

Starting the day with yoga

Preparing a salad for the BBQ

Tucking in to a delicious BBQ

With full tummies and contented smiles, everyone settled down in the chill out room to watch their film of choice, Superbad, before heading to bed to have a good nights sleep after a lovely, chilled out day.

Chilling out

Movie night!

The next day everyone finally found out where they were going for their third and final phase. So...For the last time, here are the phase three allocations.

Charlie 1 – Malligalli, community

Kath, Rachel and special guest PM Lee

Gemma, Veerle, Valerie, Will, Victoria, Dan, Shafeeque and Hannah

Echo 3 – Gandathur, environmental

Anthony and Ali

Alex, Lucy S, Robyn, Megan, Victor, Claire and Julie

Echo 4 – Velas, environmental

Maggie, Jon and Claire

Anna, Aaron, Matt, Anne, Lisa, Maya and Harriet

Tango 5 – Demon Mountain Trek

Charlie and Johnny

Emma, Steph, Esmee, Jake, Lizzie G, Jamie, Lavina, Leticia and Shruti

Tango 6 – Misspulimala Trek

Ed, Sian – joined by Andy for the first few days

Lucy C, Lukas, Jenni, Kate, Lizzie H, Sterre, Albertine, Stewart and Suthakar

And our Fieldbase medic for phase three is Hannah

After finding out their allocations it was all hands to the decks as, for the last time, bags were packed, kits were checked and the busses were filled with everything they would need to make their last phase the best phase ever!

It’s my last day in Fieldbase today as, unfortunately, I have to head back to the UK early. So, it’s goodbye from me, it’s been lovely writing the blog and keeping you all updated with what everyone’s been up to. But don’t worry, my lovely fellow Fieldbasers will be looking after the blog and letting you know all the gossip from 11J!

Loop goes to Charlie 2 and Echo 3

2011-11-19T20:16:00.000+05:30

Hannah, Lou and Maz on loop to Charlie 2 and Echo 3…

After an exciting journey through national parks and having a tiger run in front of the Bravo (!), we arrived to find Charlie 2 enjoying a day off in the neighbouring village. We joined in for a cup of chai and then followed a convoy of tuk-tuks back to camp. We were given a tour of the beautiful camp at the home of one of the beneficiaries, which was set on a hill with amazing views over banana plantations.After a delicious home cooked dinner from the family, we settled into a pretty tense game of ‘mafia’. After porridge the next day, Maz and Lou took Maya and Steph to visit a previous biogas project, and I went to work the rest of the group at biogas site two.

It was a hot morning of carrying sand and cement, sifting the sand and laying bricks for the cowshed. It was hard work, but helped with several chai breaks and the family joining in. Later that day, I joined Lisa and the boys (Andy, Aaron and Matt) who showed me the huge hole they had started, and how to dig!

That evening we were treated to an amazing three course meal cooked by the group then it was off to our tents. The next day we woke bright and early to go to the local church (at the end of the path) It was a packed service. Everyone was very welcoming and it was interesting to get an insight into a different aspect of the culture.

Echo 3

It was a long hot drive to Echo 3, but we were rewarded by a friendly welcome by the group, and a lovely refreshing swim in the reservoir. Later, we were treated to a delicious meal cooked by Lavinia, and then I got to experience sleeping under the stars in a basha!

Waking the next morning to a breath-taking view of mist over the water and the sun breaking through the trees was a great start to day. Lou and Maz left early with Lukas and Jamie for some M&E, while I joined the others for some biogas work. The 20min walk to site was stunning, and along the way plenty of children ran out to say hi, and I got to meet the group’s adopted puppy that lives with a local family.

Work at the biogas site was in really good progress. We practiced our ‘Raleigh chain’ to move bricks, helped along by the family’s children and lots of singing from Lavinia and Veerie. After an hour or so of work we got given an amazing (second) breakfast of dosa and coconut chutney cooked up by the family, then it was back to work. The boys arrived back in the afternoon, and we all helped at the next site, where the dome of the biogas unit was being lined with bricks and cement and a dome was being constructed out of bamboo.

Back at camp there was just time for a quick dip before PMs Rachel and Jonny cooked up a wonderful dinner and, as a special treat, Hannah and Tita had prepared an amazing banoffi pie.

It turned out there were more surprises in store for us, as Lukas and Jamie led us down to the banks of the reservoir in the dark, and produced handmade coconut shell candle boats to float in the water, while the group then huddled together and sang us a song.

Back at camp the group taught us a new exciting game before we spent our last night under the stars. Waking early the next day for our journey back to fieldbase, we all agreed what a lovely loop it had been.

The latest from Charlie 1

2011-11-17T16:55:00.001+05:30

Hannah and I have just got back from a whirlwind tour of Charlie 1 and, as ever, I’m pleased to report that the group are all doing well.

We arrived in Malligalli just after lunch on Tuesday and found everyone chilling out in the sun after a delicious lunch. The monsoon is certainly over in Malligalli as there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and, looking at everyone’s tans, it seemed to have been that way for a while!

Charlie 1 chilling at camp

After a quick cup of tea, everyone went back to work, while Kim and Lucy gave us a tour of the village and the eco-sanitation units the group had been building. Charlie 1 had been hard at it so they just had three more to complete before they got to the fun part of painting them.

Everyone hard at work!

We then popped into one of the local families home to say hello and have a cup chai, before heading back to camp to find some special surprise decorations put up to celebrate Kim’s third wedding anniversary!

Celebrations for Kim's anniversary

Next stop was to a house in the village where the group have supper. They’re cooked for by local chef, Ganesh, and we were treated to a special anniversary supper of potato curry, chicken, chapattis and popadoms which was delicious.

We then headed back to camp where Charlie 1 had invited the local band and some villagers for a special party to celebrate Kim’s anniversary! She was in shock when she arrived and saw that pretty much all the village had turned out to help celebrate with us and was delighted when Charlie brought out the chocolate cake that Hannah and I had bought with us for the celebrations. After lots of dancing everyone went home and left us to sit around the fire and enjoy an evening of star gazing.

Surprise anniversary cake

Fire dancing

The next morning, Hannah and I cooked porridge for the group and then waved them all off to work. As ever we had to head back to Fieldbase earlier than we would have liked, so spent a few hours with the groups at work before jumping back in the Bravo to head home.

Back at Fieldbase we’ve been busy preparing for change over and can’t quite believe how quickly phase two is going – everyone’s back on Monday! Yikes! We’re planning lots of exciting things to keep everyone entertained and very much looking forward to the premier of the music video!

Make sure you keep your blog comments and post coming as everyone loves getting them and we’ll be handing them out to everyone on Monday.

In the meantime, here are a few replies to some of the messages you’ve sent:

From Lukas – Echo 3

Hi Mama and Papa,

Mir geht es gut. Ich habe eure Nachricht en behommen. Nachste Woche ist Phase 2 schon zu Ende und wir gehen wardern. Das Wetter ist super und wir sehen die besten sonnen aufgange. Ich hoffe es geht euch gut.

Lukas.

From Steph – Charlie 2

Famalams, how art thou? Thanks for all the messages. They’ve kept me entertained. Tony dude, stop getting sucked into her game. By the sounds of things she’s playing a very good one, (smh). Did you get the carmex? Have you chilled out? And Caz, well done to Broy. He’s growing up so fast. Give him a big kiss from me. Also, tell my Godson to hang on a while longer. I’ll be back soon, so ease up on the spicy food. And to Sab, thanks for the message. I don’t remember 4shire, but I’ll be sure to catch up when I’m back. Loll Kim K? Shocker! Shocker! So predictable.

Look after each other, love and miss you all, Steph xxx

From Lisa Marshall, Charlie 2

Hi Bernie it’s Lisa,

Miss you loads and can’t wait to come home and catch up, only five weeks now. Can’t believe how much Robyn’s doing now, give her a big hug and kiss off me xxx. I’m going to wait till I get your letter and then will write back to you and tell you about everything. Xxxxxxxx

From Lucy Coleman, Charlie 1

To Mom, Dad, Clea, Greta, Marina, Nick, Mary, Stu and Sissy,

I miss you all so much! Everything is going well and time is just flying by. I can’t wait to see you all at Christmas time! Keep reading the blog and sending messages, they make me smile. Love you all so much, can’t wait to hear what’s going on at home. All my love, Lucy

From Anne Schouten, Charlie 1

Message to Melanie Verdam

Lieve mellie, wat leuk am van je te horen! How zijn je tamens gegaran? Over 6 dagen ben ik klaar met de eco-sanitation en ga ik aan m’n laatste project beginnen, het is hirecht super maar mis je wel hoor! Hoop data alles goes gaat! Dikke kus.

Messages to Familie Schouten

Lieve papa, mama en Robin,

Super bedankt voor al het nievlus en lekkers van thuis! Ben nu nog bezig met het eco-sanitation project maar over ongeveer een week ga ik aan de laatste fase beginnen. Hoop dat alles goed gaat thuis. Love you, dike kus Anne

From Charlotte Ali, Charlie 1

Message for Mariah

Hiya sis, thanks for your blog message. Glad you’re getting your kitchen; I’m so excited to see Travis when I get back. Well sis, it’s 8.15am and it’s boiling hot. Just gonna get ready for work after a session of yoga. We’ve got three more toilets to plaster and then that’s all ten done – then it’s a bit of painting. The Charlie 1 group are great we work hard and play hard. We had a fire last night and did dancing around the fire with the community. It’s an amazing village and community. Anyway sis, I’ll give you a ring when I’m back at Fieldbase – love you loads, your twiny twin twin J

Message for John Nicholson

WATP? How’s it going? Hope you’re well, suppose, you’ve been following the blog – Phase 2’s going well. Charlie 1 is a great group, lots of banta going on. We have three more toilets to plaster then all ten are done, we just have to paint them. Sat with me are these boys from the village who are playing a gambling game – it’s great out here! Anyways, chat soon. Love you loads, Charlie

Message for the family

Mum, Dad, Fran, Al, Jenny and gang, Leanne and gang, Gareth and gang and anyone else reading. All good with me, the second phase is going great. Build all ten eco-sanitation units with Charlie 1. The group is amazing, some good banta going on. I’m off on Demon Trek next – wish me luck! Been doing some yoga – Jenny would love it. I hope everything is good at home and I don’t miss the snow. Hope Buster’s OK and you’re not feeding him too much – well Hilda lol.

Love you all and miss you sooo much, doing it for the Ali family. Got to go an elephant’s just come into camp.

Charlie Ali xxxx

From Kim Sparks, Charlie 1

Happy Anniversary Morgan! Please call Raleigh Fieldbase. Kim xxx

From Lizzy Haywood, Charlie 1

To Mum and Dad,

Thanks for my messages, more please and care packages! Having an awesome time and made lots of new friends. Can’t wait until Christmas, I’m going to stuff my face with all the food and drink I’ve been missing. Looking forward to seeing you at the airport and showing off my tan. Please me warm clothes, I’ll try to call over change-over.

Love Lizzy

To Megan Purdie,

Thanks for keeping me updated. I despair for the state of the flat when I return. Excited about Christmas now, I’ve started to sing Christmas songs already and have taken great pleasure in teaching people the lyrics to Fairytale in New York. See you soon, Lizzy.

To Alex Beer

I miss my wife! There is a whole lot of offensive nature here – enjoying it though!

Love, Beefy

From Jenni Codd, Charlie 1

To everyone

Hello everyone! Thanks again for your messages, I am getting them slowly but surely so keep them coming! Glad you’re having a good time Sarah, woop woop! And can’t wait to come to Bournemouth. Mummy Codd; am really involved with the community and learnt a bit more of the language. To everyone else, I’m on community phase in Malligalli. Sleeping in a school and building eco-sanitation units. So much work, but having an awesome time. They have parties at the temple and have been dancing so much dancing to the drums. Temple rave! Love it. Never want this experience to end. Met the most amazing people out here. Love you all xxx

From Kate Holmes, Charlie 1

Hi everyone, thank you for your blog messages, they brightened my day! Dad and Granddad your letters have reached me (finally!) It was great hearing how things are back home. Weather is beautiful; I’m going to have a fab Christmas tan. I am so happy here; don’t want this experience to end. Sending you all my love hugs and smiles.

Kate x

From Lucy Shipp, Charlie 1

To Mum,

Really excited to see your letter arrive last night when the loop brought it round. Glad to hear everything is OK back home and Reuben is still up to his mischievous tricks. Only have 6 days left on Charlie 1, has gone very quickly! Just a bit of plastering to finish, lots of painting which I’m looking forward to. I’ve already painted one with three of the other girls. Been having a great time in the village, playing games and drawing henna on the children (once you start they all want some). Missing you lots now I have more time than on trek, especially spending so much time with the families in Maligalli. Please send love to Emily, hope I hear from her soon! Have sent an ‘earthmail’ and will write another soon. Lots of love x

To Sarah Ward

Made me smile so much when I saw your letter after coming back from trek. I keep the grey London postcard in my journal and the kids make a funny disgusted face when they see it (I’ve been letting them run wild with paints in my journal and on everyone’s faces). Hope Brighton is bringing you great things. Xxx

Ps I’ve forgotten if I’ve written to you already, but will write again soon

To Ekta Patel

India is amazing, having lots of fun hanging around with families in the village and drinking lots of chai. Haven’t had a shower for ages, and some part of me misses lugging a bag around on trek. Strange. Love you xx

To Grace, Lesley and CQP gang,

Hope you’re keeping the spirit alive with lots of pub visits and Christmas party planning is going well. I’m living in a village where we are cooked for everyday by a man called Ganesh who bears an incredible likeness to Dan. Perhaps we can start a fund to send him to the Christmas party. Hope London isn’t too grey. Love, Lucy

To Alice, Jane and Martin

Seems like forever ago we were partying down in London. Hope all is going well, India is full of amazing colours. Looking forward to talking about ideas and photos when I get back. Missing all your music and singing. xx

Little Doctors

2011-11-15T08:57:00.000+05:30

A wee guest blog from fieldbase Medic Maggie!

Raleigh has been making regular visits to the local school in Jayapura for just over a year. We’ve been recruiting and teaching ‘Little Doctors’ about health and hygiene skills. The ‘Little Doctors’ can then pass on their new skills to their classmates and family.

Lou and Maggie off to find some Little Doctors

Louise, Hannah and I visited the school earlier this week and were met by an enthusiastic Maths teacher, who had been at the same school for 20 years and involved in Little Doctors from the start. We started off the session with a bit of a recap and quickly discovered that, thanks to previous teaching sessions, the children were all experts already at the seven stages of effective hand washing, teeth brushing and how bacteria can cause disease.

Maggie teaching about hand washing

Lots of eager students

After our revision session, we went outside and introduced the children to some famous Raleigh energiser games. They then taught us a few new games to add to our extending repertoire!

A few games

During the second half of the teaching session, I taught the children how to treat cuts, scrapes and burns and how to keep an eye out for signs of infection. At the end, we had a little question and answer session about general medical problems, what we did at Raleigh and what life was like in the UK.

We then gave out a toothbrush and some toothpaste to each ‘little doctor’. We left the school really impressed at how bright the kids were, and looking forward to returning later in the phase with some new and exciting material!

Maggie

Oh we do like to be beside the seaside...

2011-11-12T10:59:00.002+05:30

Helen and I have just got back from visiting Echo 4 at their idyllic beach front campsite. We left on Sunday and flew to Mumbai and then jumped in a taxi. Seven hours later we arrived at the sea-side town of Velas, in Maharashtra state.

The group took a different route to us and had a long two and an half days of travelling to get to Velas. They got a bus for eight hours from Fieldbase, and then picked up a overnight train, before jumping onto another bus for the remainder of the journey. Train travel is India is like nothing you will have of experienced anywhere else. The train lines connect the whole of India and, according to the Lonely Planet, a staggering 18 million people travel by train everyday – so what better way for Echo 4 to see the real India!

The group spent their first couple of nights staying with local families in the village. They were cooked some delicious meals, which apparently were very different to the curries they had been eating further South. Everyone loved staying with the families and getting to know the village they would be staying in for a couple of weeks.

On Sunday they moved into their campsite, and what a campsite it is! Echo 4 had made their camp right on the beach front where they will be working. They had strung up their bashas from the trees at the side of the beach, and already started to settle into their new home. We arrived just as the sun set over the beach and, I have to say, it was truly breath taking.

Sun set

Echo 4's beach-side campsite

As Helen and I were this Phase’s loop, Echo 4 were keen to impress and cooked us an amazing vegetable and rice stew for supper and…wait for it…banana and nutella pancakes! Yes, in the case of the loop competition, bribery will get you everywhere…and when nutella is involved it’s sure to be a winner!

After supper they gave us a run-down of what they’d been up to since they had got to Velas. The local villagers had visited their campsite and officially welcomed them to the village with flowers; they had met with the project partners and agreed the work for the phase. They’re going to be building a hatchery, so they can move the turtle eggs to a safe place to hatch, doing a litter pick to clean up the beach, repairing some steps to the beach to help access and, of course, doing their nightly patrol for turtles!

The night patrols are split into five shifts; 10pm to 11pm, 11pm to 12pm, 1am to 2am, 2am to 3am and 4am to 5am. The group will do each shift in pairs and patrol up and down the 2km of beach. If they spot a turtle laying its eggs, they will wait until the turtle has gone back into the sea and then, very carefully, move the eggs to the hatchery. This will keep the eggs safe from being washed away by high tides and also protect them from any poachers and dogs. Another very important part of the project is to raise awareness of turtle conservation within the village. By showing how turtle conservation is done, the aim is for the villagers to follow suit.

The next day we were up early to start work on the hatchery. Despite the intense sun everyone got down to business and worked hard to make a safe place for the turtles’ eggs. To make the hatchery, they had to clear a large, square of sand and take away the top layer of dirty sand to reveal the fresh sand that the turtles like to lay their eggs in. The hatchery should take them about four days and then it will be straight on to working on the steps for the rest of their phase.

First job, clear the vegetation on the top layer of the hatchery

Digging out some tricky roots

A work site with a view!

After a hard day’s work it was time for a treat and a dip in Echo 4’s beautiful swimming lake. It felt a bit like a hair commercial as we all washed our hair in the pool while trying to avoid the jumping fish! All in all, it was a lovely way to end a great day. As ever, Echo 4 came up trumps with supper, cooking us a Raleigh style spaghetti Bolognese, and then it was another early night for all ready for a hard day’s digging and, of course, the turtle night patrols!

The washing lake

Helen and I left early the next day so waved a fond goodbye to Echo 4 and jumped in the car ready for our long journey back to Mumbai. We arrived in Mumbai late afternoon and were lucky enough to be able to have look around; we visited the famous Gateway of India and even managed to squeeze in some shopping! Another early flight back the following day and before we knew it we were back at Fieldbase.

The Gateway of India in Mumbai

Hannah, Lou and Maz left yesterday afternoon on the second part of the loop. They’ll be visiting Charlie 2 and Echo 3 and will be updating the blog with their news early next week. So far however, all the reports from the groups have been good and, as ever, everyone seems to be having a fantastic time – which is just what we like to hear at Fieldbase (and I’m sure what you all like to hear as well!).

And here are a couple of blog messages from Echo 4 for you:

From Albertine Potter Van Loon:

Hee Mams en paps,

Een brief is onderweg! Kyk uit naac de volgende blogberichten; houdt me op de hoogle wil verder (nog) niets verlerlappen vanwege de brief!

Laat Eric ook eens bloggen! Liefs!!

From Emma Christopher:

Hello Miss Michaela!

I was given your blog message today (the 5^th Nov) from the girls at Fieldbase who have come to visit the project site, thank you! It cheered me up and was really needed after a hard morning digging sand. I hope you are ok; I can’t wait to see you at Christmas. Lots of love, xxx

Tango 5

2011-11-10T11:37:00.000+05:30

Guest blogger Lee here!

I have just got back from an amazing six days with tango five trekking in Kerala. This blog is an update for you all.

Day one:

We all got up bright and early and after eating some bread wrapped in omelette for breakfast and left field base on our four hour journey into Kerala. After a quick stop at one of the coffee shops along the way we arrived at our destination around 11:00 ready to begin trekking. We had a brief introduction from the Muddy Boots guys and then embarked on our first day of trekking.

The trek was 6km through a tea plantation where we got to see some amazing views and eat our lunch undercover in a locals’ shed. We arrived at camp shortly after lunch and put up our tents, made our group shelter and then prepared dinner; tuna, pasta with sweet corn. Due to the rain and not being used to trekking we hit the sack quite early.

Day two:

Today was our first proper morning of trek. We woke up early and set off on a 7km trek through some more tea plantations and arrived at our camp just in time for lunch. Our camp for the night was a watch tower used by the forestry agency, it had all the mod cons; western toilet, western shower... that was about it. After lunch we walked a further 2.2km to a heart shaped lake. After the walking was leech care time. I managed to pull 13 of them out of one sock! We stayed in a watch tower for the night and crammed 8 people into one room whilst the PM’s and Dan slept in tents up on the roof.

A double rainbow!

Day three:

We got a bit of a lie in this morning as there were only two tents to pack away; 6:30. After a good night’s sleep at the watch tower we set off on an 11.8km trek. The trek wasn’t too hard and we were rewarded with a chai stop at the end of the day. We had our first really good campsite as well, we got to set up our group shelter properly, wash in the river and pitch out tents with a bit of space! The weather turned in the evening and a couple of people were woken up by the thunder.

Day four:

Early start this morning! We had a 14km trek to get through! It was really good seeing the team pull together to help each other out on our first long day of trekking. Again, we were treated to some amazing views and waved on by a number of locals as we walked through their villages. Our campsite was in a coffee plantation where we pitched our tents on concrete rather than grass. There was an elephant nearby and a chance for chai.

Day five:

We had a massive lie in this morning and were joined by Hannah for rafting. The group had to build their own rafts and then float down the river with the guides steering them. All in all a relaxing day! The weather held up so we all got to work on our tans. Probably the best thing about the day was lunch. It was from a restaurant! Everyone agreed it was much better than rice bags. The afternoon was pretty chilled and consisted of chai and sorting out the next five days food.

Day six:

My last day with tango 5! Today was the groups first cycling day – they had 40km to cover during the day over mixed terrain. Everyone was kitted out with a good bike and helmet and we were followed by a tuk tuk and a jeep which held our water. The cycling was really good and it was another day where the group really mucked in to help each other out on the challenging bits. Unfortunately I had to leave at midday to be back at field base before dark but when I got back I heard that they had all completed the cycling!!

That’s it from me. Keep checking the blog for updates for the other groups.

Lee

And they’re off!

2011-11-03T10:55:00.000+05:30

Phase two has officially begun! Everyone’s packed, on the bus and off! We’ve just done a quick sweep around Fieldbase to make sure no-one got left behind, and I’m happy to say everyone is in their new groups and off to start their new adventure.

Back at Fieldbase we’re settling back into life around here. Maggie and Jon are learning the ropes and being shown how to man the operations room, where everything is and most importantly, how everyone likes their tea and coffee! Tim is teaching Jon how the logs team work and Maggie is getting her head around the Fieldbase medic role.

Time for a cuppa!

It’s always pretty quiet after the craziness of change-over so we’re enjoying catching up on work and getting ourselves organised for the next phase. I might even treat the team to my culinary skills and attempt to whip up a peach crumble later...we’ll see!

During change-over one of the venturers (Megan Hounsome) gave me a poem that she had written with her group during the training weekend they all went to in the UK before coming out here. I thought it was rather lovely and worthy of a blog post...so here it is:

“To India we are going, where the curry will be flowing, so we thought we’d write a poem.

These are India’s highlights, the food, the people and sights.

We’ll do some Bollywood dancing, see cows and elephants prancing.

We’re all afraid of D and V and washing our hands will be the key.

To see a new culture is our mission, experience diversity and religion.

To sum it up it’s gonna be great.

Raleigh International – we can’t wait!”

We’re happy to say, that if phase one is anything to go by, the poem is certainly living up to expectations!

Here are a few messages from the venturers for friends and families back home. We handed out all the blog messages and post over change-over and everyone was really excited to get them...so keeping them coming!

From Matt Bell to Anthony

Mate,

Just got your message. 1^st November, so your flight is in a few hours. Good luck mater, feeling excited for you J Probs won’t get it for a few weeks but keep me up to date with how they go. Just remember the Europe combo 4 when the reg ain’t watching nut, nut double nut. Getting the sypmtons in mate, but cheers for you writing and I’ll see you at Christmas.

From Emma Christopher Echo 4

Hi Mum, Dad (and Freddie!)

Thank you for your message, it was nice to hear from you so soon! Glad to know you’re not celebrating in my absence. We were told our projects today and I am working on an environmental project working with turtles! I would tell you about it but the message would last forever, so keep an eye on the blog to see what we’re doing.

I hope everyone at home is good. Lots of love, xxx

From Dan Rose

Yo yo Mum, Dad and Robyn and whoever else reads this. I’m so excited as out of here tomorrow. I’m off on the Demon trek which apparently isn’t as treacherous as it sounds. I’m really happy to be doing a trek as I really want the change in experience that I’m going to get after working so heavily in the community on my last phase. It’s going to be awesome climbing some summits and ride a bike on some crazy Indian roads overlooking some beautiful sites. Apart from that everything else out here is wicked apart from my camera breaking. Anyway, I love you all and are missing you tonnes. Rob, stay strong buddy, I love you.xxx

Gemma Bennet – Tango 5

Hi guys,

I just got your letters and cards; it was so good to hear from you! Happy Birthday mum, this is the soonest I could get a message on. And also congrats to Dave! So, so proud of you for passing your first aid course! And yeah, you could have loved the thunderstorm! But now I’m going on trek, woop, so I’ll hopefully hear from you when I get back.

Love to all,

Gemma xxx

All change! All change!

2011-11-02T12:01:00.000+05:30

Everyone’s back, in one piece and after three weeks of digging, cementing and trekking, they’re finally clean! Fieldbase has been a whirlwind of activity for the last couple of days, with all the groups arriving back early on Tuesday morning.

Echo 1 was first off the bus, followed by Tango 6, Charlie 1, Tango 5 and Charlie 2. As soon as the buses rolled into Fieldbase, Helen and Lee from logs jumped on them to give everyone a warm welcome and tell them the plan for the next couple of days.

Tango 6 arrive back at Fieldbase

Helen and Lee welcoming everyone back and giving them their instructions for the day

Lots of excited reunions

After some excited hellos, everyone got straight into cleaning and sorting their Raleigh kit. They then headed off into Mysore to relax for the afternoon. We have a sneaky suspicion that everyone’s idea of relaxing involved pizza, internet cafes and probably a lot of ice-cream (well that’s what I would do!)

Everyone had a lovely time in Mysore. As well as pizza, some of groups went to Mysore Palace, others explored the markets and the trekkers headed straight to the beauty salon for a well deserved foot massage and pedicure!

Lots of cleaning and sorting out kit

After supper the venturers entertained us with a night of skits. Charlie 1 showed us what a typical day was like at their camp, while Charlie 2 gave us a ‘Big Brother’ style run-down of what life had been like for them. They also gave us a wonderful rendition of their digging song.

Echo 3 taught us all about long drop etiquette and treated us to a bespoke rendition of the ‘diarrhoea song.’ Tango 5 reminisced about the highs and lows on their trek, while Tango 6 sung a catchy little number that had helped them get up and down the rolling hills of Kerala. All the skits were very amusing and it was a tough decision for our three judges, Lee, Maz and Clare. The two Tango groups tied first place, with the winner being decided by a game of rock, paper, scissors. It was a tense finale, but after ‘best of three’, Tango 5 won fair and square and took their prize of a giant bar of chocolate away with glee.

Charlie 2 with a guest appearance from Tim

Some tough judges!

A tense finale!

Helen and Tim also revealed the winners of the loop competition and crowned Charlie 2 the loop champions! They too rushed away to enjoy their giant chocolate prize!

After the skits, the venturers enjoyed swapping stories over a few poppadoms and the PMs escaped into the office for a quiet night and to catch up on all of the gossip from the other projects.

Despite all the groups getting up at the crack of dawn to travel back to Fieldbase it certainly wasn’t an early night for our venturers, as they swapped stories and caught up with each other into the early hours of the morning. The hot topic on everyone’s lips was...where’s next!

They didn’t have long to wait to find out where their Raleigh Expedition would take them next as Helen told everyone their new groups and project allocations after breakfast on Wednesday.

So... (Drum roll please)...introducing phase two!

Charlie 1; Charlie and Kim

Lucy C, Jenni, Victor, Jake, Lucy S, Robyn, Kate, Lizzie H and Anne.

Charlie 1 will be heading back to Mallagali to work on 15 new eco-sanitation units for the village. They’ll be living in the school and enjoying lots of delicious home-cooked curry and, of course, lots of cups of chai!

Charlie 2; Anthony and Andy

Aaron, Claire, Megan, Matt, Lisa, Maya, Steph and Harriet

The group will be going back to Mangode to get stuck into the last four biogas units. They’ll be camping in the garden of a local family and also taste the delights of traditional Indian food.

Echo 3; Kath, Rachel and Jonny

Lukas, Veerie, Lucy J, Lavinia, Leticia, Jamie, Suthakar and Hannah

Our other biogas group will working in Gandathur and returning to the beautiful reservoir side campsite. They’ve got four units to complete this phase and, like the previous group, we’re sure will get involved in other activities around the village.

And the brand, spanking new Echo 4...Sian, Ed and Hannah

Esmee, Albertine, Stewart, Sterre, Lizzie G, Will, Victoria, Emma and Shruti

Echo 4 is a new project that we’re running with a small NGO, called Sahyadri Nisarga Mitra (SNM), who work on sustainable environmental projects in South India. This project will see our venturers help to preserve the Olive Ridley turtle population in the costal village of Velas in Maharashtra state. At the moment there is a big problem in the area with turtle eggs being poached. Our group will be helping to make a pathway from the local village to the beach where the turtles live, so that tourists can visit the beach, and see where the turtles lay and hatch their eggs. They will also be on night-watch to see where the turtles lay their eggs so they can be taken to a safe place to hatch. By bringing tourists to the area the villagers will be able to benefit from the money they bring in and not need to illegally sell the eggs.

The groups have to travel for two and a half days to get to their project and will be going on an overnight sleeper train which will be very exciting. As it’s an environmental phase, the group will be living in bashas, making shelters and cooking for themselves – all on the beach. It sounds amazing, Helen and I are going to visit on Sunday and we can’t wait!

There’s just one trek this time, as we’ve got another environmental project, so the lucky Tango 5 venturers going on the Demon Mountain trek are...Ali and Claire, Amelia, Zoe, Gemma, Alexander, Anna, Valerie, Dan, Shafeeque and Julie .

Our new Fieldbase medic is Maggie and Jon is also joining the Fieldbase massive and helping Lee out in logs as our lovely Tim will be heading home next week L.

After finding out their new allocations all new groups were straight into getting to know each other and getting their kit ready for their next phase of adventures. They’ve got an early start tomorrow to head off to their projects groups so today everyone’s packing, cleaning, sorting and getting very, very excited!

New faces and ending phases...

2011-10-31T15:34:00.000+05:30

Hannah and I have just got back from visiting Charlie 2 and Echo 3 and finding out what they’ve been up to. It was great to see the groups and see how they’re all doing.

We’ve also got a few new faces around Fieldbase, of both the human and cow variety!

Emma and Lucy arrived on Sunday and they’ll be joining the groups for Phase 2 and 3. After a good night’s sleep they’ve settled into Fieldbase and are being brought up to speed on all the training they’ll need on expedition.

We’ve also been joined by another PM, Ali Parry, who will be going on both treks in Phase 2 and 3. Ali is also part of the Borneo massive and has led three treks over there and can’t wait to get out into the Indian jungle!

Oh, and Majie has had her baby calf! Who is incredibly cute and we’re sure will be a big hit with the venturers when they return.

Welcome to Ali, Emma and Lucy

Our new arrival!

Apart from welcoming our new faces, we’re all running around Fieldbase and getting it ready for change-over. We’re really looking forward to seeing everyone and finding out how the last few days of their projects have been.

So back to Charlie 2 and Echo 3.

Hannah and I drove to Tamil Nadu to visit Charlie 2 on their community phase. They’ve been working in Mangode for the past couple of weeks, which is a beautiful village on the borders of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. It’s nestled on the side of a mountain, surrounded by coconut and banana trees, and lots of tea plantations. The families who live in the village are all tribal, with a lot of them relocating from Sri Lanka. The village is very poor, with the majority of the families living in mud huts. What they lack in wealth, however, they certainly make up with in smiles and it was lovely to see how the community had welcomed Charlie 2 into their village.

Despite being slowed down by lots of rain earlier on in their phase, Charlie 2 had done really well with their project and we arrived just in time to help them finish their last biogas hole. So, with work gloves on and mampti' (Indian spades) primed, we got stuck in and helped to finish their last ‘hell hole’! Luckily, we arrived a couple of days after Diwali, so were treated to lots of leftover sweets, as well as chai, which definitely helped fuel our digging!

Charlie 2 with the family they're staying with

Fun in the hole! Getting ready for filming their music video!

A cow shed with a view

One of the perks of the community phase is that you get cooked for by the local community, so after a morning of chai and sweets it was back to the campsite for a delicious home-cooked curry. Apparently, spice levels in the food have been increasing during Charlie 2’s stay in Mangode, but so was everyone’s tolerance and I was amazed how easily everyone dealt with the spice (I was quietly crying over a rather large chilli in the corner!) After lunch, PMs Sian and Kath, took us on a tour of the village and then it was back in the hole to finish it off. Sadly we had to leave early doors the next day to head off to Echo 3, so we waved goodbye and jumped back in the Bravo.

We had a long and beautiful journey to Echo 3. We were lucky enough to see a family of wild elephants having a wash and playing in the river which was amazing and certainly made the hours of sitting in the Bravo worth it!

We arrived at Echo 3 around 5ish, so just had enough time before dark to see the beautiful scenery surrounding their campsite. As I’m sure you’re all aware from previous blogs, Echo 3’s campsite is right on the edge of a stunning reservoir. The environment was very different from Charlie 2’s and, although there were still a lot of banana and coconut trees around, everything was a lot flatter, with soft, rolling hills surrounding us. Being right next to such a large expanse of water also added an element of serenity to the area and I found it a very relaxing and calming place to be.

Echo 3 showing off their digging muscles!

Chilling at camp

We got to camp just as Echo 3 was chilling out and it was lovely to see them as a group enjoying their down time. We bumped into Charlie and Jake just as they were finishing painting the local school and they gave us a quick tour of the village - Gandathur.

Some of the lovely paintings done by Echo 3 at their local school

Back at the campsite, the cooks were preparing a rather unique, but nontheless delicious supper of boiled eggs and potatoes. As the rain set in, we all bundled off to bed, ready for a 6pm start in the morning. Waking up to see sunrise over the reservoir was amazing, and the group headed down to the bank for a couple of early morning energisers. At 7.30am it was off to work to finish their fourth (and final) biogas hole.

An early morning energiser

The last hole!

Gemma and Shafeeque kindly gave us a tour of the other three biogas holes the group had been working on and introduced us to the families who would be using them when they’re finished. Sadly, we had to leave Echo 3 early so we waved them goodbye and headed back to Fieldbase.

Back at Fieldbase the preparations for everyone coming back are in full swing. The venturers and PMs find out their new groups and projects on Wednesday and, as ever, I’ll be updating the blog with where everyone’s going for their next adventure!

When the going gets tough, the loop gets going!

2011-10-29T10:05:00.000+05:30

Helen and I set off for our first visit of four groups; Tango 5, Charlie 2, Echo 3 and Charlie 1; and weren’t disappointed. All groups are over half way through their first phase and were eager to read all your blog comments and post.

Tango 5

First up were the trekkers in Wayanad who had just completed an arduous trek in Meenmutti. When we met them (the campsite was at the top of their last hill of the day) understandably some were not in the greatest of spirits! But once tents had been erected and the egg-fried noodles (ps amazing!) cooked then everyone perked up.

Tango 5 arrive at camp and make sure their tents go up quickly

Harriet and Will show the loop how to make a cordon-bleu meal on a Trangia (no mean feat!)

On our third attempt the reluctant fire was lit and we chatted away, mesmerised by the flames. Harriet led an excellent review of the day from the beginning to the end in minute-by-minute detail. Hannah (PM) remembered serving porridge while hopping around in the rain, Matt & Will remembered an ever-increasing distance when they asked the guide "how much further", Andy had seen some elephants and Anne had some leech bites as proof of the struggle.

We bid the trekkers farewell the next morning. They have continued on well and we can report that today (Day 15) they are completing one of the last hard days in their programme but one which, if the weather holds, should offer superb views of Karnataka and Kerala!

Tango 5, Tim and Helen ready to face a day of trekking

Charlie 2

We rocked up to our hosts a little bit earlier than expected, so cleaning efforts on site were halted mid flow. But being unfashionably early meant we were just in time for a gorgeous lunch, cooked by the beneficiaries of one of the biogas units the group was building. The warm welcome, washing of our mess tins and offers of drinks made us feel like proper guests too.

The loop arrive at Charlie 2

Straight after lunch we rolled up our sleeves, donned our gloves and work boots and joined the work groups on the digging of Biogas dome hole #2 (affectionately named "The Hell Hole"). Now I can partly understand the name, as the graft was tough going. However we quite enjoyed ourselves: from time-to-time our work was broken by the beneficiary of hole #2 who plied us with quenching chai; Helen also led singing efforts in the hole and we started reliving our teenage years to such great tunes as "Grease Lightning" and Steps!

Sian and Kath (Charlie 2's PMs) and Helen and Tim (the Loop) get to work at Charlie 2

Stewart, Zoe and Shruti take a welcome break from digging (due to the rain) and a great excuse for a chai at a local house

After just a day-and-a-half of the work, it really made us appreciate how much of Charlie 2's sweat and effort had gone in already. Luckily for the loop they had enough energy to entertain us with a Big Brother episode Charlie 2 style.

Evening entertainment by Charlie 2

Since we have left Charlie 2 have taken a pause in their work for day trips to the nearby village in Ayyankoli and have just returned from the hill station at Ooty, where they celebrated Diwali and the birthdays of Roz and Lizzie.

Echo 3

After two nights we travelled onwards to Echo 3, picking up some fresh fruit and veg on the way that made us especially popular when we arrived! Our Bravo arrived just as Jake, Shafeeque, Kate and Lizzy were returning with full jerrycans from the local water pump. We followed them down the path to a beautiful vista of their basha beds with a lake backdrop.

Echo 3's absolutely stunning campsite, with (luckily) rain-resistant yellow group shelter

Kate cooked up some yummy baked beans and then the sky thundered. This was our bonding session with Echo 3 as when the lightning flashed and thunder grew closer we huddled up closer and closer inside the group shelter. The rain stopped and gave us all a window to retreat to our bashas for bed.

The next day we had a tour by Gemma of all the biogas sites that Echo 3 are working on and were greeted by silent smiles of the villagers. On our trip from house-to-house Shafeeque pointed out the different plants and their ayurvedic properties to us.

Echo 3 building a bio-gas unit at one of their four sites

Now in India you have to learn to go with the rough and the smooth of delays on construction sites. There’s no point getting frustrated when something scuppers your plans. It turned out that not as many people were needed that day on site and so Echo 3 found other positive things to do instead. The group decided to finish off some unfinished tasks at camp, some completed a raft Gemma was working on and others got ready for the evening’s festivities.

While the boys played cricket with the locals in the school, the girls chaperoned Kate who was chosen to be dressed from head-to-foot in Indian dress. A local family styled her hair, loaned a saree and showed her how to wear it. It drew attention from inquisitive locals who thought Kate may be on her way to her wedding!

Kate all dressed up!

The locals helped us to kick off Divali celebrations with some home-cooked lentil curry that even my spice-averse mum would love! Nearly 50 of us: Echo 3, locals and their children crowded underneath the group shelter and when the evening rain came the cooks shielded the open fire with a tarpaulin. The meal was cooked and we got out our mess tins, were served and started eating – however we noticed the locals were still waiting. We found out that the banana leaves they normally eat off hadn’t been brought so we offered clean mess tins to them so they could also get the delicious tucker. Shafeeque became self-appointed feeder and made sure that everyone was well fed with firsts, seconds and thirds!

Charlie being given a chai making lesson

Charlie 1

Last but not least was the eco-sanitation project in Malligali – Charlie 1. We turned up at the school where they were staying and only saw half the group, where was everyone else? Jules and Anna promptly showed us on a tour that took in the many toilet sites they were working on around the town, all within 5 minutes walk.

The loop being shown an almost completed eco-sanitation unit where Jamie and Suthakar took a break for a photo

The toilets have entered the plastering stage when the cement is made up, transported to the toilet and then thrown on and smoothed out. The pace of work has slowed to everyone’s relief: they pulled out the stops in the early days of foundation digging and transporting the materials. Now everybody has more time to interact with the locals and get all the riches a community project in India has to offer.

Just before 7 we got our mess tins and headed down to the cook’s house for a tasty curry with poppadums. We were so surprised with how friendly the locals were and enjoyed a chai afterwards in a neighbour’s house. He introduced us to his family and a beautiful saree that interested the female PMs no end! As a result the female members of Charlie 1 bought some sarees yesterday and are having them fitted today.

The PMs returned to the school for a surprise production of “Charlie 1” by Charlie 1 Productions. Lavinia got Ed’s accent to a tea and highlighted his tendency to comment on the good quality of the porridge EVERY morning! Anna wore a wig to match Johnnie’s dreds. We all whooped and shouted “Encore!”. We’re hoping they’ll be able to incorporate it into their skit when they return at changeover.

Charlie 1 by Charlie 1 Productions

What about Tango 6?

If you were wondering how Tango 6 are getting on, they're doing fine. As Tango 6 is a few days away we were unable to make a second visit to them this phase. You can find out what Hannah and Sarahgot up to with them at the start of their trek. Despite day in and day out of heavy rain they are battling on through. Day Leader on Thursday, Maya, was upbeat and found creative ways to dry clothes in their evening shelter.

We're looking forward to seeing the groups back on Tuesday 1st when one group will be crowned Loop Champions of Phase One. And that makes this blog title make sense too, as Hannah, our Videographer, will start work on the editing of the groups' music video to Billy Ocean's "When the going gets tough". Watch this space for the final cut!

Tim and Helen.

A big hello from Charlie 1

2011-10-27T12:33:00.001+05:30

We’ve just been to visit Charlie 1 to see how they’ve been doing in Malligalli. It was lovely to see them and find out how they’ve been getting on. Today’s blog comes from the whole team!

“A big hello from Charlie 1, all the way from Malligalli, somewhere in the middle of South India.

“Malligalli is a sleepy little town with friendly locals, but with atrocious timekeeping! We have a sweet deal here, we’re currently staying in the local school and being catered for by the talented Ganesh, he struggles with variety in his food, but it tastes amazing nonetheless. Our staple diet consists of porridge, rice, vegetable curry, chai...and that’s it. Occasionally we cook for ourselves, imitating the food we get at home with modest success. Our best creation so far, mac and (soy) cheese.

Charlie 1 outside their new home

Making breakfast - fruit salad for a treat!

“After our morning porridge, we’re collected by the infamous Mr. Puterage. A man who typifies the Indian mentality, we affectionately call him ‘boss’. He escorts us to our separate building sites, where we learn the craftsmanship of building eco-sanitation units. This includes laying bricks, mixing cement and plastering. We work under the supervision of local builders. Our communication with them is improving daily, from the occasional shout of “brick” “brick” and “fast” “fast” to discussions about family, culture and, of course, relationships.

“At the moment we’re all proudly sporting the farmers tan. Working in 35 degrees without shade is a challenge. However, as we found out yesterday, working in the torrential rain is even harder.

Working hard

Carrying cement

Taking a break

Teamwork!

Mixing cement

“We have discovered the builder’s passion for music, which they blast constantly through their phones. A particular favourite is ‘rickshavala’ which we can now all sing along to. The builders turned into real party animals outside work hours and entertained us with their crazy dancing during a trip to Malligalli’s world famous waterfalls. During the day, they introduced us to some typical Indian music and a Bollywood film, featuring an Indian styled Zoro in blue camouflage. They also tried to make us feel at home by buying us an Akon CD and playing it at full volume, in our pimped up bus, which even came with its own blue disco light!

“During our stay, we have had many other interesting experiences and visits. The most bizarre was a surprise visit from the Minister of Agriculture with police escorts and accompanied by, what felt like, the whole village. The Minister unexpectedly popped by for no more than five minutes to express his gratitude and wish us the best of luck.

“At the moment, we are putting the finishing touches to our eco-sanitation units and preparing for the opening ceremony. We are also really excited about the festival of Diwalli and have been invited to the generous Mr Lingerage’s house for celebrations. The locals have already started their preparations and it has been a challenge dodging their frequent firework frenzies.

“Anything can happen in Malligalli – we can’t wait to see what’s round the corner and looking forward to Phase Two!”

Messages from the loop!

2011-10-27T11:45:00.002+05:30

Here are a few messages from the projects that Helen and Tim picked up while they were on the loop. We'll be handing out more messages when everyone is back on Tuesday so keep them coming - they really do make everyone's day!

From Julie Scheek

Lief gezin enzo: India is geweldig en wolledig bizer teqelgk. Alles is zo endeis en waag, wat redelyk waak tot hilarische situzties leidt: als re eon pakje voekjes wilt kopan. Vlyg re gelyk zo bananen in re handen gedrukt. Verder gaat het goed met me en heb ‘t gezellig met een paar wit myn greep. Mis jullre wel super weel.

Julie. P.S: Myn favour diacht is sokken in sandalen.

Maggie – PM/Medic

Happy Birthday Oli! Xx

Lavinia de Haseth Mother.

Lieve iedereen in Nederland, hier gaat het top met de Jezus sandalen en de afrits broek. Elke dug doe ik de bouuvakkers outfit aan (zonder decoll ete) en probeerelke avond een douch te nemen (niet dat dat lukt). Super-gezelliga met wat mensen vit de groep. Maar ik mis Julie echt heel veel. Alvast gefeliciteerd. Helga, ik how heel veel van je. Hoop dat het feest superlevkis. Vast wel!

Ameila Ayliffe

Hi all,

Thanks for the messages, it makes me so happy to read them so please write more. I miss you all so much. Mum, Dad, Jelly, Harrie and Joy. I have written you all a couple of letters but it may take a while for them to reach you. I would write letters to everyone but I forgot to note down addresses. Everything is good and they are feeding me loads so don’t worry! I am going to get my phone when I get back to Fieldbase so I will hopefully speak to you then.

Joy – say hi to little Chris for me.

Harrymoo – stay out of my room!

Lish – ayooo

Ali – keep planning Australia, I am getting excited!

Can’t wait to tell you all my stories.

Lots of love, Amelia xxx

P.S Joy, I literally lost my glasses

Hi all,

Thank you for my lovely messages. Just to say I’m really enjoying it in India. I’ve managed the 12km trek training with no problems, which is amazing! I was quite chuffed about it...hehehe! We had plenty of rain in the first week but also lots of sunshine. Hope everyone is well and hope to hear from you soon! Oh, I also would like to say Happy Birthday to my Dad, Auntie Ruth and my Cousin Carey!

Take care, Meg xxxx

To all,

Thank you for the messages. They help loads! All is good, and the usual unlucky things has happened to me – but they are just adding to my funny stories...Plus I can sort of officially brick lay and make cement! That does not mean I’m good at it! Basically I look like a tramp, seem to have the most bites and random reactions and get the dirtiest after work. The universe is still against me in India. Hah!

Much love, Anna Roberts xxx

Lukas Klauthe,

Hi Mama und Papa,

Hoffenlich geht es euch all en gut. Wir haben tolles Wetter, gutes Essen und viel spass. Wir haben schon fast alle eco-toillen fertis gestellt und in 6 tagen reisen wir zue Fieldbase.

Viele grusse an alle,

Lukas

Albertine Potter van Loon

Hee Man en pap, Hopelyk gaat Jullie alles goed meir gexone en aan het werk en natuurlyk ook zp nu en dan een tripje en vaak veel gelach. Jk heb samen met een paar team leden de blog geschreven en nodig Jullie vooral mit die te lezen! Dikke kus en kruffel aan Eric en veel liefs voor Jullie en de rest van de familie en net thusifront.

Albertientje xxx

Dearest famalams,

Having a fabulous time, I’m experiencing some truly great things and working seriously hard. I miss you all and love you all and hope to hear from you soon. Look after each other. All of my love, Steph xxx

And to Miche, Happy 25^th birthday! Have an amazing time in Amsterdam xxx

Lot of love, Steph (Echo 3)

Alrite Jon, all’s good. The environmental phase is fabulous, the reservoir is out of this world and the biogas domes are nearly completed. Oh yeah, my bet came in for New Zealand. Canny wait till the surprise holiday in December, it best be sunny and hot! Love you lots like chocolate drops but not as much as vodka shots (5 lira haha)

Alrite Mam, Leanne, Jenny, Maria, Gareth, Dad and the rest of the Waltons. Having a fabulous time on the environmental project. Mam you would be scared of this thunder and lightning, however the reservoir is absolutely beautiful. The biogas project is almost completed so we will have a go at painting the school. Hope you are keeping up with the blog, will send another message soon.

Love you loads, Charlie (Ali)

Hey guys,

Just a quickie to let you know everything is going great down here. The work is hard but the locals and the fellow venturers are AWESOME! Missing you all hugely. Rob and mum and dad, expect letters in around two weeks and they shall tell you more about my time out here. But yeah, missing you all massively and I love you all hugely, some more than others (Rob) hehehe. Talk soon, byeeee! Xxx

Dan Rose

Hi all,

Kate here (Echo 3). Having an amazing time, India is breathtakingly beautiful and the people are really welcoming. I’m so happy to be here. It’s great getting your comments and I look forward to your letters. Love and smiles x

Message to everyone from Jenni Codd (Echo 3)

Thank you everyone for your messages. Ayla and Isaac; miss you all and hope that the boys are OK. Katie love and miss you, thank you for your message. I am having the time of my life. Truly the most amazing place I have ever been to. Mummy; have been leading yoga lessons by the resevior where we are sleeping and cooking lots for everyone one! Jake, miss you and I am so excited for when you come out and have sent you a letter. India is truly incredible. Have been so busy so can’t send many messages but will try to get to a computer soon to send emails. Sat Nam, Jenni x

Gemma Bennet (Echo 3)

Hey guys, thanks for the blog messages, who wrote the first one? It’s really good out here, I miss you all, love to all. Gem x

Valerie (Echo 3)

He pop, mam, Q! Miss Julie heel elg! Maor het is hier suger leuk. Ben net klaer met al het graven was heel vetnoerend maer ben er doorheen gekonan doordat ik hele leuke groep hets en hele leuke vroenchinneys zaterdag begonnen met cement en steneen bouusen was super lack was de enige von de grupe die mocht helpen net de locals zondog naar grotte stad geweest super leuk. Tuk tuk gezefen en leuke drgetjes gekocht. Den alleen vondacy zrek 38 degrees koats en last net adenen maer ze helpen ne heel good dus komt vast goed (teen is genezen!) Ly miss you lad (je I nav of 2 Nov)

Valerie

The M&E team hit the road…

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Guest bloggers Marian and Louise here!

Throughout this expedition, we’ll be looking after the Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) of past Raleigh India projects, looking in particular at bio-gas and eco-sanitation. The information we collect will help us understand the impact that our projects are having on communities. It will also give some of the venturers the opportunity to meet local beneficiaries and see first-hand how their efforts will affect peoples’ lives long after they’ve returned home.

With that in mind, our first stop was Echo 3 to collect eager venturers, Dan and Shafeeque, who had both kindly volunteered to get involved with the data collection. Our first evaluation visit was to Kandegala village, where Raleigh had installed 16 eco-san units in 2008. After picking up our MYKAPS project partner, Mr. Mahadevaiah, who doubled up as our guide and translator, we went straight into a community focus group meeting on the floor of the village nursery!

The group was made up of agricultural workers and we caught them just before they left for a hard days graft working the land. It was interesting to hear how their lives had changed since the installation of the composting toilets and how the fertiliser had made a positive impact on the quality of their crops.

Once the session had finished, we visited each household, where the venturers went through our questionnaires with the locals. Again this was very informative, we heard all about the feelings and perceptions of the villagers towards their eco sanitation toilets, and we also got to see the toilets for ourselves.

But it wasn’t all work for the M&E team, we drank lots of chai, indulged in some tasty traditional nibbles and socialised with the locals along the way!

Hot off the press from Echo 3

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Today’s blog comes from Echo 3 thanks to Valerie, our lovely project communications officer.

Our guest blogger Valerie

“Echo 3 has been in our village for over a week and the time has flown by. Just one week ago we arrived on an empty grassy land.

“Our campsite has a beautiful view of the reservoir and in only two days we have built a shelter, toilets, slops pit, shower and 11 amazing bashas. Sadly the heavy rain came on the first day so we were only able to build two bashas then. However, this didn’t dampen Echo 3’s spirits as we were able to sleep in the local school. Since then we have given our campsite a lot of homely touches and, with the local children playing on site, we have created a lovely home.

“Once the camp was finished we started on digging lots of holes and dug non-stop for five days. Yesterday was our last day of digging. We have completed a circle with a radius of 11ft, 4ft down at all four houses. Sometimes if felt like it was 6ft down!

“On Friday, the engineers told us that the holes needed an extra box on the side and, in the centre, it needed to go down an extra 1 ½ ft. Although the digging started to annoy people, Shafeeque’s songs and Dan’s stories kept us going.

Lots of digging!

“The families where we are building the biogas are amazing. They give us the best rice dishes in India for lunch and also get us awake in the morning with their spicy rice breakfast. During the day they keep our energy up by giving us lots of chai. All the food they give us comes from their land and animals. We get milk from their cows, eggs from the chickens and fish from the reservoir.

Some of the local children

“Back at camp we have a regular visitor called Dewi. She is about 4ft tall and very sweet and always offers us chai. Earlier this week she helped me with my washing and I helped her with hers.

“A lot of women from the village wash their clothes in the reservoir in front of our camp so they pass by us with huge pots of clothes on their heads and their beautiful saris. The children from the village love to play cricket with us and watch us have our daily swim in our life jackets.

“Echo 3 has lots of fun in the evening. We make delicious meals, play games and have long chats around the fire. We have a great vibe in the group and a weird sense of humour we are all enjoy. Yesterday we had a Pooja to bless our camp, with flowers, incense and candles.”

So what’s everyone been up to?

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Helen and Tim are off on loop today to visit all of the projects. They’ll be taking the shop with them, so everyone can stock up on chocolate and other goodies, as well with all your lovely blog messages!

They’ll be back on Wednesday 26^th October and updating the blog with what everyone’s been up to and, of course, lots of pictures.

In the meantime, here’s a quick rundown of what's been going on at the projects in the last few days.

Charlie 1

Everyone is doing really well and they’ve settled into their new home in Malligalli. They’re staying in the local school and have made it nice and cosy already. They’re cracking on with their work and already have laid the foundations on seven eco-sanitation units, which is pretty impressive! But it’s not all work and no play, the group have been to visit a local coconut farm and on Sunday are having a day off to visit some nearby waterfalls.

Charlie 2

Elephants, scorpions and chocolate biscuits seem to be the main news from Charlie 2! The guys saw four elephants on their way to their project, which they were very excited about. They’ve made great progress with their work, and so far have finished the foundations for a cow shed, finished digging the first hole, and started digging the second. They’ve also visited their local town, Ayyankolly, to buy chocolate biscuits and spotted a scorpion near their campsite!

Echo 3

Echo 3 has enjoyed the best weather so far, with lovely hot and sunny days. They’ve finished their campsite and dug two holes. They’ve had lunch with the locals and had a visit from our Monitoring and Evaluation girls, Lou and Maz. Lou brought a touch of luxury to their campsite and cooked chips for everyone which went down very well! The group have also been enjoying their local environment and been for plenty of dips in the reservoir. Oh yes, and they’ve been drinking lots of chai and even had chai making lessons from the locals!

Tango 5

The Demon trek guys are also having a great time. They haven’t had as much rain as Tango 6 and have been doing a lot of trekking – 36km in fact! They climbed to Heaven Lake and also had a great day mountain biking, covering 20km! As well as this they’ve been rafting and swimming in a lake. At the moment they’re looking forward to the loop visit and planning some exciting entertainment to keep Helen and Tim amused.

Back at Fieldbase we’ve been pretty busy as well. Tim and Lee have been busy in Logs getting all the food ready for Echo 4. As the turtle project is so remote we have to send up all the food and kit they’ll need for both phases on a truck.

The Logs boys making sure everything is ready for Echo 4

The most exciting news from us, however, is that we’ve got a cow! Majie arrived today and we welcomed her with a traditional Pooja blessing ceremony.

Majie will be living in a cow shed behind Fieldbase and, hopefully, giving us lots of milk. She’s also pregnant and due next week. We’re all very excited to have her and I have a feeling both mother and calf may be the most spoilt cows in India!

Our new Fieldbase pet

A tale of Tango 6

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Hannah and I are back at Fieldbase after joining Tango 6 on the beginning of their trek and we’ve got lots of stories for you. We were lucky enough to spend the first three days with them and now I know why the treks are called the Adventure phase!

We all left Fieldbase at 6am last Friday, and settled in for a day and a half drive down to Kerala, where the trek started. The drive took us through three states: Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

Each state was absolutely beautiful but also increasingly different. The further south we travelled, the lusher the scenery got; with the greens of the countryside getting brighter and richer the closer we got to Kerala. As we travelled down the dusty roads, the vegetation became more tropical with the palm trees and banana groves becoming more common than we were used to around Mysore.

We drove through national parks on our journey and saw lots of monkeys which everyone loved - although we did all get a bit concerned when they climbed onto the roof of the bus!

We stayed the night in a small town called Udumalpetti and then continued our journey to the Silent Valley Tea Estate to begin our trek.

We started the trek in a beautiful mountain village. As we walked past the huts the locals where playing music, which soon became our trek soundtrack! After a quick lunch stop, and of course a cup of chai, our packs were on our backs and we were ready to start. And then it happened, the heavens opened and we started our trek in a complete monsoon! Apparently, this time of year, Kerala gets a second monsoon – which would probably account for all the lush green vegetation surrounding us!

Along with the rain came a chorus of leeches, all rearing their heads and trying to jump onto us with every step. The village music was still playing in the background and it seemed as if they were all singing along with it...as they crawled up our legs! After a few squeals, mainly from me, we all had our ‘finger flicking’ action perfected and it was heads down, fingers ready and a quick march for 4km until we reached our camp for the night.

Tango 6 starting out

Now, although they’re pretty gross, leeches can’t actually hurt you; so after we had all got used to the fact that, whatever we did, we were pretty certain to get leeched, everyone started to see the funny side. I think quote of the day had to go to Aaron who started the leech songs with ‘I want to have sex with a leech’ (a 90’s pop classic). This started the ball rolling with all manner of bad puns coming out...everyone agreed however that ‘Can you feel the leech tonight’ was not something we aspired to!

When we reached our camp for the night, our lovely guides set about making us a fire. The boys did the manly thing and battled with the elements to put the tents up, while the girls set about making a delicious supper of pasta, baked beans and tinned cheese – just what we needed!

After a couple of hours, the rain subsided and we were all able to venture out from our shelter and see where we were spending the night -it was breathtaking.

We were nestled on the side of a mountain surrounded by peaks wrapped in swirling mists. The mountain tops looked like the white cotton candy machines you get at fairs, surrounding each peak with a delicate mist. The campsite had a lilly pond and crystal clear waterfall to gentle lull you to sleep – it was stunning.

After supper, and a lot of sock drying around the fire, it was an early night for all in preparation for our 5am start the next morning.

Warming up by the fire

The view from the first campsite

Sunday was our big day. We were going to climb Misapullimala Peak, South India’s second highest peak at 2,637m. One thing was for sure, it was definitely going to be a challenge!

Fuelled by energy bombs, Tango 6 started out on what was to be their toughest day of trek. We were told by our guides that we had three ‘hills’ to climb before we reached the top. Now, I’m quite a fan of mountain climbing but these ‘hills’ were certainly not the sort of hills you might take a stroll up after a big Sunday lunch...in my view, they were mountains in their own right!

We trekked through open fields surrounded by mountains, across make-shift bridges and up some pretty steep paths!

Helping hands across the river crossings

After our second ‘hill’ we stopped for a rest and then we saw it... Misapullimala Peak. Everyone was feeling pretty shattered by then, but seeing the top gave us all the spurt of energy we needed to keep going.

After a quick break and a few snacks, it was rucksacks on and best foot forward. We could see the top and we were going to get there, every single one of us, as Tango 6!

Before we knew it we were in the cotton candy that we were looking at the night before. The mist surrounded us, sometimes it was so thick that we could barely see in front of us, sometimes it cleared and we got a peak of what was around us. It was like the mountain was showing us a window into the world; we were literally on top of South India.

Almost at the top

The last 200m to the top was along a narrow ridge. By this time the mist was so thick we couldn’t see either side. It felt like if you took one wrong step you would fall into a never-ending abyss. Now trek isn’t called an ‘Adventure challenge’ for nothing and this bit was certainly a challenge! Some of the group loved it, spurred on by the adrenaline rush of being up in the sky. The rest of the group, me included, were petrified! However, we all did it – the group came together, encouraged each other, gave words of support and offered welcoming hands to help people up over the tricky bits.

Soon enough we were all at the top. For many, it wasn’t just the mountain they’d conquered, but their fears as well. They had proved to themselves just what they could do when they put their mind to it – just the way Raleigh likes it!

Made it! Tango 6 - at the top of the world!

As they say, what goes up must come down and in our case it was time to get going. Next stop was the Silent Valley Tea factory for a very much needed cup of chai. As we headed down the mountain, the scenery changed from the rolling green hills that we saw on the way up, to perfectly manicured tea plantations. I’d never seen tea grow and was surprised at how flat the plants were – they looked like Bonsai trees.

Starting the descent

We can see you Tango 6!

Almost there...just as the rain set in!

Battling through the jungle!

Finally at the tea plantation!

As we got to the final stretch the heavens opened again and it was a quick march through the tea plantations to our final stop. The Silent Valley Tea Estate is the highest organic tea plantation in the world and proved the perfect end to our trek. As I’m sure you can imagine, the tea was delicious, especially as by this stage we were all soaked to the skin! After warming ourselves up with multiple cups of tea, we jumped into some jeeps which took us to our campsite for the night.

Huddled around the fire, spirits were lifted as we had a much-needed meal of noodles, sweetcorn and tuna (a Raleigh special). Everyone agreed that although it had been a very tough day, the highs definitely outweighed the lows and, as we curled up in our sleeping bags with full tummies, there were smiles all around (and a few sore feet!).

The next morning the rain subsided and we were treated to some more spectacular views before heading off to our next camp for survival day! Just as we got to the campsite we saw Little Manju waiting in the Bravo to take Hannah and me back to Fieldbase so, unfortunately, we left this part of the trek. However, I can tell you that Tango 6 were about to have all their kit taken away from them and, under the watchful eye of the guide, were going to be taught how to survive a night in the mountains without any of their kit! Exciting!

View from the second campsite

Off to survival day!

After a long journey back to Fieldbase, I’m happy to report that Tango 6 survived their night on the mountain and had a fantastic time, building shelters, fires and even having a shower in the rain! For the next part of their trek they’ll be building bamboo rafts so they can cross the Anaerangal Lake to continue through the Western Ghats.

One thing’s for sure for Tango 6 – no day will be the same!

Back at Fieldbase, I’m catching up on what the other groups have been up to while I’ve been away, and will be posting a blog tomorrow letting you all know how they’re doing. So far everyone seems to be having a great time and making great progress with all their projects...more to come tomorrow!

And just in case you miss us...

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Here’s a link to a slide show that Hannah put together showing the venturers' first few days in India.

Looking back it at it we can't believe that they’ve been here for just five days!

Hope you enjoy it and we’ll be back soon with lots of updates and pictures.

http://tinyurl.com/11JVENTURERSINDUCTION

Almost there!

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Well, it’s almost time for everyone to head out on their projects. Fieldbase is a hive of activity with everyone checking their kit, making sure it’s dry from trek training, cleaning their boots, and, most importantly, making sure they’ve got enough food and treats to keep them going!

Porridge to keep everyone going for a full day of packing

Tango 5 and 6, are splitting the kit between their groups, to make sure all the weight is distributed between them fairly. As they’re going on trek, they need to carry all their kit and enough food for five days. There’ll be a food drop for them at certain points on the trek, so they don’t need to carry everything they need for the whole time.

Echo 3, are going through the bamboo poles and checking they have enough to make their bashas, and shelters for their camp. They’ll be cooking their own food on their project, so there’s also a lot of Trainger scrubbing going on!

Charlie 1 and 2 are putting up all their tents and making sure they’re all spick and span. They’ll be enjoying food cooked by the locals, so they’re making sure their mess tins and cutlery are nice and clean!

Counting the food rations

Last night, we had a cook off at Fieldbase, with our groups doing ‘Ready Steady Cook’ Raleigh style.

Each group were given a selection of sweet ingredients, including condensed milk, peanut butter, chocolate biscuits and tinned fruit. They were given 30 minutes to come up with some fantastic treats.

Our Fieldbase judges, Lou, Hannah and Lee, marked the groups on taste, imagination and presentation. It was a tough decision but after a lot of deliberation the winner was...Tango 5 with their fruit tower called ‘Seabu on the table’ (Seabu is apple in Hindu) and Tango 6 with their heat-shaped pudding, ‘Love Generation’.

Our judges tuck in

Tango 5 and their winning pudding!

A close up of the winner - yum!

Tango 6...a close second

'Love Generation'

In other news, Fieldbase has finally got its last member of the team. Maz arrived yesterday and is another Borneo veteran. She’s already busy getting to grips with her role and will be working on Monitoring and Evaluation while she’s here. She’ll be working with Lou and they’ll be going back to old Raleigh projects to see how they’re doing and take any learnings onto the next project.

Welcome to Maz! The latest addition to our Fieldbase family

Hannah and I are leaving early tomorrow morning with Tango 6 to join them on the first part of their trek. We’ll be back next week, full of exciting news for the blog.