This year’s I.A has truly been an amazing experience I will never forget. I think that all of the members of the award got to know each other and became closer as a whole. During the practice, we realised there were a few changes we needed to make for our route planning to become more efficient such as putting more land marks on our route card in case we get lost or making sure we didn’t get confused between a path and a field boundary when planning our route. We also realised that if we did not want to get to the campsite when all the other group were finishing there dinner, we should probably not mess around so much and make sure that we have set breaks and that we needed warmer clothes because it got colder than we expected at night. It was also one of the best birthdays I have had so far, especially when people asked if we were just hiking for my birthday party!
When it was time for the assessed hike, we were prepared and ready to go and even though the weather was not the best, we did not get too soaked except for our shoes which were flooded because our route was right along the river and path was basically like a small stream. At the campsite, we set up and had dinner quite quickly and then we were off to bed. The second day was more adventurous but we made many memories that none of us will forget.
The hikes brought us closer and we learnt a lot about each other that we couldn’t have if it had been a normal school day. Even though we didn’t always have smiles on, in the end we felt good about what we had achieved (especially when we reached the train station in Orbe and people stared at us while we were waiting for the bus).
It was an amazing experience and I cannot wait for the silver. Thank you to everyone for making it happen!:)