Tales from the ten weekers

In true Raleigh style, Alpha 1 took to opportunity to dress up by hosting a horror night to welcome Sophie, Denise and Susie from Fieldbase. Apparently our Deputy Expedition Leader’s outfit was suitably scary, but she was still beaten in the costume stakes by Gavin who brought his own Scream costume from home (as you do!). They have also had an interesting time with the local animals as they had to evict a mouse from their food tent and Caz had to chase down a local cow that ran off wearing one of the group’s safety helmets. The rest of us obviously would have paid a lot of money to have seen this! They are also making great progress putting the roof on the school, and are four days ahead of the schedule set by the last expedition, not that it’s a competition of course!

Alpha 2 is continuing to beat all of the other Alpha groups hands down in the day trip stakes, having been to the beach at Alexander Bay with their rubber rings and buckets and spades, and into Oranjemund for showers and shopping. Worryingly, in the five hours they had for showers the whole group didn’t manage to take their turn (just how dirty were they??) so they had to go back the following day. Thankfully they are all clean now and also becoming rather well educated, having attended several talks by the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, who continue to wax lyrical about the quality of this group’s work. Project Managers Tom and Matt are now considering a future as Butlins Redcoats.

Trek group Alpha 3 was clearly quite desperate for treats last week, as when Jim took out the mobile shop, he managed to sell the last packet of crisps to the highest bidder for $30! They are all feeling much better now after their one and only shower this week and tucking into Melvin’s birthday cake on Wednesday. The visit from the herd of elephants was undoubtedly the high point of the week and Laura would also like it known that she has been at the front of the trek group every day!

Alpha 4 has also had a rest day on their trek and everyone was able to have a shower for the first time since deploying. Trek Leaders Tim and Dave are clearly going for holiday rep status by organising trips to local caves and viewpoints as well as ascents of hills and mountains in the vicinity of their camps each afternoon. Trekking up to 20km every day obviously isn’t enough for this superfit group! They also had an exciting few nights on lion watch, ably assisted by local guide Jonny and trek support Hendrick. However the lions chose to stay away, perhaps because it was before the shower stop!