Gold in France

After months, almost a year in the “making”, the day had finally arrived for the group of Gold participants from the Open Award Centre, to leave the Rock for their Gold Qualifying Adventurous Journey.

At 6am on Saturday, July 6, everyone met at the frontier and soon after it was time to bid farewell to the assembled parents. The group, comprising ten participants and three adult leaders, then travelled by coach to Malaga railway station and from there took two separate train journeys to arrive in Nimes, France, at about 8:30pm. A night spent in Nimes and, the following morning, a chance for the participants to buy all the food they would need for their Adventurous Journey. Then a 2-hour coach ride to the village of Altier in the Cévennes National Park where they set up camp in the local campsite.

The campsite at Altier was to be the participants’ base for the first night and this permitted them the opportunity to prepare all their equipment ready for the days of hiking which would follow. Whilst there, they were visited by Brian Evans, their Assessor, who briefed them on safety procedures and specific requirements of the area. Brian’s role, together with Alison Evans, was to ensure that the Award’s requirements in relation to a Gold Adventurous Journey would be met in order to classify the venture as having been successfully completed.

The Gold Adventurous Journey entails a team of participants, maximum seven in a team, travelling approximately 80 kilometres by foot over four days with three nights spent under canvas. The participants are expected to carry all their food, tents, stoves, fuel and other equipment in their rucksacks for these four days as they must be self-sufficient during the venture. They are expected to do this in unfamiliar country and do so by navigating their way along a pre-planned route. The Award requires that participants have a Team Goal, "a journey with a purpose", and to this end they need to, after the venture, produce and deliver a presentation to the Assessor. The Team Goal is of their choosing and needs to be relevant to the area they are visiting and sees the teams collecting information during their four days of hiking.

On Monday the participants, working in two separate teams, took down and packed their tents and, after some breakfast, set off for a short familiarisation hike. The short hike, of approximately 12 kilometres, which did not from part of the qualifying venture, offered the participants a taster of what to expect over the actual Journey which would follow. The hike, although short, tested their navigation and stamina and was to prove a wake-up call as the weather was quite hot and the hills did not make things easier.

The familiarisation hike took the teams to Cubières, another small village, where they arrived in high spirits, set up camp and made final preparations for the Adventurous Journey proper which would commence on the Tuesday morning.

At the crack of dawn on Tuesday morning, the participants woke up and set about the business of having breakfast, taking down their tents, packing all their equipment and topping off with water prior to setting off on their hike. This was to be the routine every morning for the four days of the qualifying venture. One team started hiking at 7am with the second team leaving about 40 minutes later. As both teams would be following the same route, the staggered departure times was to ensure the teams stayed away from each other, both working independently, a critical Award requirement.

For the next four days, the two teams made their way along the pre-planned routes. Both teams would have covered a distance of approximately 80 kilometres along differing types of terrain. The participants navigated the routes, using maps and compasses, putting into practice the skills acquired in training. During this time the participants, who were carrying all their food and equipment, only needed to be replenished with drinking water; which they did at various points in villages along the route.

Generally, the weather was tending to be hot but fortunately there was a cooling breeze most of the time. That is not to say that this made the hiking any easier since the overall distance still had to be covered on foot. However, the teams had the option of waking up really early, to make a start on hiking at the crack of dawn, and thus avoid the bulk of the heat.

It is difficult to comment on the feelings and experiences of the participants during the Journey since, of necessity, they were on their own for most of the time and each person was affected in different ways. The supervisors and assessors managed to get some idea when they occasionally met up at checkpoints or at the end of the day at the campsites.

However, it was clear that over the four days the participants met the challenges of heat, hills, blisters, heavy packs, rain, thunder and lightning head on. All had a positive mental attitude which ensured they remained in high spirits throughout and enjoyed the whole experience.

In the words of Anna, one of the participants: “I thoroughly enjoyed my Adventurous Journey. It taught me many skills such as teamwork, leadership, and resilience, and most importantly, it allowed me to create long-lasting friendships with those in my team and the other group. Completing this allowed all of us to learn essential life skills that will be influential in our lives, while also allowing us to learn about ourselves and each other. All in all, I am very happy that despite the challenges of staying committed to completing this Award, I chose to ‘stick it out’ as, without it, I would not have been able to go through this experience and meet such wonderful people along the way.”

On Friday, the fourth and final day of the Adventurous Journey, both teams hiked back to their base camp at Altier once again. On arrival they were greeted by the adult leaders who congratulated them on a job well done. Later that evening, participants and leaders were treated to the traditional “end of Journey” BBQ served up by Alison and Brian.

The following morning a coach trip back to Nimes where there was a chance for some sightseeing and a relaxed and enjoyable dinner ahead of returning to Gibraltar on the Sunday.

As always, the Adventurous Journeys do not just “happen” and there is much hard work put in by many including the participants who do all the hard work. Congratulations on a job well done to:

Akash Manghnani
Alex Sanchez-Soiza
Anna Birnboeck
Charlotte Scott
Emily Moir
Isabella Debenham
Jesse Olivero
Nayan Jeffries
Olivia Bellingan
Param Nagrani

A big thank you to the adult leaders who have helped out throughout the year giving up their time voluntarily to attend the training sessions and practice journeys in Spain; with special thanks to Romany Vinent, Gaby Grech and Michael Pizzarello for accompanying the participants on the trip to France and Alison and Brian Evans, the Assessors for their support and friendship.

Thanks from the participants and leaders to the parents for their financial and moral support.

For more information about the Open Award Centre, please contact the Chairperson, Mouetaz Ziani on oacdukeschair@gmail.com or for more information about the Award in Gibraltar and how to get involved, please contact National Director Michael Pizzarello on michael.pizzarello@thedukes.gi

The Award is an exciting youth development programme open to young people between the ages of 14 and 25.