All change! All change!

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!