Confessions of a trekker... the El Gordito de Guanacaste award

Project Manager Jude Warsop has the inside scoop on our Raleigh Adventure Challenges - in this latest update, she and the X-ray Two team reveal what life on a 20-day trek is all about...

Let's start with the average calorie consumption of a Raleigh venturer during their adventure phase. Can you guess which X-ray Two trekker ate the following food in a single 24 hour period:

1 cup of tea
1 bowl of porridge with sugar & jam
Porridge seconds
2 cereal bars
1 baguette with 1 tin of tuna
1 packet of crisps
1 chocolate bar
1 packet of 'Mentos' sweets
Another bread roll with someone else’s leftover tuna
1 pack of sweetbreads (6 loaves)
4 Oreo biscuits
1 cake
1 'Little Diana' (sweet)
1 ice cream
Breadsticks (several)
1 more chocolate bar
1 bowl of macaroni cheese
Macaroni cheese seconds
2 more 'Little Dianas'

Calorie count – by my reckoning that’s a massive 7,325 calories!

So, drum roll please! The El Gordito de Guanacaste award goes to... Phoebe Walsh! Pictured below during the daily warm-up, it’s hard to understand where this slender lady is putting all these calories - but she's certainly got an appetite. And she’s not the only one... most of the trek teams are putting away a similar amount of tucker. It just goes to show how much energy the Raleigh Adventure Challenges demand!

Congratulations Phoebe...

Your prize - a large packet of Rennie - can be collected at Changeover

Now blog-followers, to explain where all these calories are going we thought it would be worth sharing the ‘normal’ schedule for a day on Raleigh trek:

03:30 – Wake up, get dressed (into dry clothes if you’re lucky), pack up camp, make and eat breakfast, wash-up, warm-up and mentally prepare for the long (probably 20km) road ahead.

05:30 – Radio check. Let Fieldbase know where we are and where we’re planning to go.

05:45 – Load the 23kg rucksack onto your back, put one foot in front of the other and start walking...

08:00 – Break for snacks, try to resist eating more than the one snack. Find this difficult so eat two.

08:15 – Keep walking. Probably up some big hills, if you’re lucky they also go down sometimes.

10:00 – Break for snacks again. Kick yourself that you ate two snacks at 08:00 and delve into tomorrows rations.

10:15 – Keep walking. See amazing scenery and talk about how much you ache but also how lucky you feel to be here.

12:00 – Break for lunch. Hopefully somewhere sunny but shaded. Make big and happy sighing noises as you unclip your rucksack and consider removing your boots for respite from soaking wet feet. Open Pork & Beans, tinned tuna or instant noodles and be amazed that yet again it seems like the best thing you’ve ever eaten.

13:30 – Put your wet boots back on and confirm that taking them off wasn’t such a great idea after all. Start walking with renewed energy as the lunch kicks in and you realise it’s less than 5kms to the sleep stop.

15:00 – Arrive! Whoop, cheer, generally smile and hug a lot. Congratulate yourself and your fabulous teammates on a great day. Sit down.

15:30 – Make camp, either with your tents in a field or, if you’re lucky, in a local school, community centre or even someone's home. Marvel at the amazing generosity of the Costa Rican people as they open the door to a big dry space with running water and electricity and trust you - a complete stanger - to stay the night...

16:30 – Chill out. Have lovely chats about the best bits of the day, write happy thoughts in your journal, put on dry (not clean!) clothes, get excited about dinner.

17:30 – Eat dinner. Hope there's seconds and then eat those too. Remember to radio Fieldbase with SITREP so they know we’ve arrived safely.

18:30 – Re-apply bandages to feet & apply new ones to fresh blisters. Laugh when someone else has worse blisters than you...

19:00 – Review the day, score it somewhere between 9.5 & 10 again (only the blisters cause the slight dip below max). Plan tomorrow, confirm another 03:30 start, another 20kms and another amazing adventure..

20:00 – Lie down. Head hits pillow. Sleep.