It is currently 5:50am and we are waiting for Taxi’s to take us to the coast, No morei nternet access for a while, once at the coast we move onto project.
Well we now have eights hours in a bus,
See you soon.
It is currently 5:50am and we are waiting for Taxi’s to take us to the coast, No morei nternet access for a while, once at the coast we move onto project.
Well we now have eights hours in a bus,
See you soon.
Hi all,
as you have probably guessed, internet access has been very rare in Ecuador, the last couple of days have given us access and I am pretty sure that all challlengers have email home, ( Well they have spent a lot of time online). At the moment no one has asked to update the site so I thought I would try to upload some photo’s since we are now half way through, however the system would not let m,e only the project and the rest of the R & R to go.
Hi all,
we are now in Quito, Got put on a earlier flight, got delayed, got to madrid, got delayed, go to Quito and 5 bags arrived. The rest ?????????
yes one was Agi´s & Ruby´s
Hi all,
it is now five to tweleve near the end of build up day, challengers have packed, unpacked, repacked. Sorted out group kit, complained it will not all fit in the bags, to then find it does all fit in bags. Have set the ground rules for the month, have set our roles & responsilbilites. Then been for a swim, and eaten copious amounts of pizza and drank what seems like gallons of pop.
With only hours till we depart for the airport, the top comment of the day was
“Do we need waterproofs on the plane?” (Katie H)
Next update should be when we get into Quito, See you all in a month.
Expedition to Ecuador leaves in days, two years in the planning, are the students ready?
Send your answers on a postcard to
Are the challengers ready competition.
Great Cornard Upper School
Winner will be announced at the end of the expedition once we have found out, keep an eye on here for photo’s, comments and possibly pictures of staff looking very stressed.
The Main trek has now been completeted, after five days of walking up and down mountains, getting to the next hut and beefy falling asleep for the evening we have finianlly completeted the Giants Cup Trail. We are one of the few teams that have completed the trail and we completed it as a team, even though beefy was ready to pack it in after day 2, and one of the team was carrying an injury.
In total we have walked 58-60km depending on which signs you believe, there was a lot of nice scenery, the only problem was that most of the team were walking with their heads down. so there are very few photo’s.
A couple of days R + R and then one to phase 3 the project. So far there has been copious amounts of snacks, chocolate and food eaten once the trek was completed as the food was miscalculated as on evening 4 dinner was eaten as was half of day 5′s lunch.
See you all soon, not too sure when we will have access to a comptuter next so watch this space for more information.
Hey hey hey happy followers, hope all is well at home with you guys. Thanks for the comments, keep them coming the kids are loving them.
Just thought I’d give you a quick update.
Day 10 already – is this going quickly for you lot? Currently on ‘R & R’ (rest and relaxation) after the acclimatisation trek where the group really started to gel together, seems to be at it’s best when there are no other distractions. Almost all have had the opportunity to lead for the day – yes they are actually having to make decisions and boss people around (some are naturals others are finding it more challenging) but all are doing really well. They also have additional responsibilities like the catering, budget, travel and accomodation to name but a few. A good example of a challenge they faced today in pairs was to plan the menu for 8 days – 8 breakfasts 8 lunches, 8 main meals drinks and snacks. Not such an easy task when they needed to consider food needed to be purchased in one visit to the local market and food for over half of the meals will be carried by the group for 5 days so must not be perrishable or too heavy (good luck to them).
Despite the rise in cost of living out here they have managed to stick to the budget. I’m not sure how well they are managing their own money!? All of the gang are coming into their own and they have already demonstrated some interesting traits, fab skills or provided great memories that will stay with us much longer than this trip.
So far (in no particular order):
Mishka – creative accounting, we’re right on buget not sure how because we can’t understand her anymore her accent is so strong.
Charlotte – the David Bailey of the group. She is our number one media mogule, we’ll have amazing memories as she’s taken some fab pics.
Rosie – Middle of the Mziki game reserve stripping down to her apple catchers and sports bra (what’s new) and doing an hour and a half of yoga on the hut roof at sunset.
Craig – Nearly losing our leader to the embers of the campfire after Craig climbed through the bush in the pitch black and scared the life out of him.
Zoe and Daisy – Theatrical presentation of ‘The Hungry Lion’ (I’ll let them explain) not forgetting ‘The Dance of the 14 Head Torches’
Amy – So laid back in the morning that she rocked up to the 18km trek on a wet morning to take on bush, beaches and rocks in her sandles!!!
Megan and Debra (aka Becky Lane) – Experiencing a coca cola induced sugar rush and trying to fend off not the wildlife but some other World Challenge students (it’s not completely clear how hard Debra tried!!)
Becky N – The only girl who can spend 10 days roughing it and her hair still looks amazing, Herbal Essence eat your heart out.
Alex – (The professional shopper) The only person I know who can spend 4 hours in two shops (and I thought I was good)
Beefy and Tim – Playing 9 pin bowling on the roof of the hut (two meter drop) with monkey apples and firewood, did they really not consider that the apples would roll off the roof and they would have to collect them??
Great Moments and Challenging Moments
Megan
Great Zoe’s head torch dance
Challenging Walking (anywhere)
Amy
Great Exploring the rock pools at the beach
Challenging Compromising
Mishka
Great Relaxing with the gang at the beach
Challenging Getting up the vertical staircase after the 6km we did along the beach (it’s not her fault she’s got little legs)
Alex
Great Dancing with Zulus
Challenging Surviving without straighteners, make up and home comforts
Charlotte
Great Paying someone to do her washing
Challenging Doing her own washing!!
Daisy
Great Meeting other people
Challenging Not spending all her money at once
Tim
Great Driving through the rural villages at dawn – sunrise on one side and the moon on the other
Challenging Getting everyone packed and ready on time
Zoe
Great View from the Mziki loo
Challenging Chatting up the driver (she’s still trying)
Craig
Great Zulu dancing
Challenging 18km trek
Becky N
Great Every day
Challenging Finding a decent shower
Debra (aka Becky L)
Great Other World Challenge students
Challenging Treking with an injury (nothing to worry about at home)
Rosie
Great Yoga in the sunset with an audience of monkeys and a view of the sea and the estuary
Challenging Controlling her bladder
Beefy
Great Actually getting here
Challenging Students personal organisation
Gail
Great Evenings around the campfire
Challenging Keeping everyone happy at meal time
It’s all fun fun fun – we’ll try to keep you posted.
Take care all
Gail xx
Hey parents!
We all got here okay 
Stayed in our first hostel last night which was really nice, we met Duncan our country agent and he told us what was what here and don’t worry he gave us lots of tips on how to stay safe etc etc! We’ve met a couple of other world challenge teams out here and has been really good talking to them finding out what they’ve done and stuff, one group has just come back from the Giants Cup trek we’re doing and they said it was amazing, they even saw a small herd of buffalo! Today we travelled to St Lucia which took about 3 and a half hours, most of the time we were all asleep but we had a good look at what the country was like. We also made some friends on the way by hanging our pants to dry out of the window1 We’re staying at another hostel but camping tonight as it’s cheaper. There are loads of monkeys about crossing the roads, sitting on bins and in the trees which is really cool to see. There’s a market just up the road from here and a few of us girls went up there and had our hair braided, when we were there the women who were doing it told us that the man standing near by loved us, we got to speak to him later and he said that he could love 14 women and prove it (wink wink) haha. Starting our acclimatisation trek tomorrow,
speak to you soon love alex and the team 
After a long flight with not very good food, we arrive in south africa, wen tover budget on the transport to the firsts nights stay, made some if back with a pasta and vegaetable meal, porridge fro breakfast this morning, a long trip in a minibus and we are now in St Lucia Eastury.
Weather is great, hot and sunny,
