Raleigh 12G&H...Done!

Venturer flights home have landed.

VM wash up is almost done.

Kit has been cleaned and counted.

Radios have been checked.

Friend requests fly around on Facebook.

Travel plans begin.

Reality kicks in.

At the end of the expedition, I think I can safely assume that every single person who took part in Raleigh 12G&H is reflecting on what has been an AMAZING thirteen / ten / seven / five weeks.

It feels like a very long time ago that the convoy of buses came up the drive holding 126 wide-eyed, slightly scared and very excited looking Venturers, and in that time we have seen them grow before our very eyes.

We’ve seen them walk from one ocean to the other. We’ve seen them climb a volcano. We’ve seen them change the lives of whole communities and massively benefit the environment in Costa Rica.

And the VMs have been with them every step of the way providing help and support and enabling them, by the end of the expedition, to run the show themselves.

As Comms Officer and as a PM in the final phase, I’ve had the unique opportunity of conducting interviews with project partners, community members and venturers and also working on a full project myself which has fully confirmed for me the role of Raleigh as a youth and sustainable development charity.

This expedition has fulfilled both facets tremendously.

All the time whilst trekking 270km, helping to preserve a National Park, saving sea turtles, building a school, providing clean water and sanitation to remote communities in Nicaragua and running up and down volcanoes the Venturers have been setting goals, measuring themselves and developing as people. It’s not just about ‘helping others’, rather a mutually beneficial partnership.

And the communities and National Parks themselves who are massively grateful for the help they have received should also feel a massive sense of achievement and pride of how they’ve helped us too.

Each person involved in this expedition, whether they intend to or not, will probably end up doing something differently to the way they did it before, whether it be recycling more, getting involved in community and charity work or just simply having more fun and not worrying so much about the little things. Because we all have something to count ourselves lucky over. Not least the unique opportunity we have all had to change our lives and those of others on Raleigh.

And we haven’t half had fun! Friends have been made for life and we’ve laughed, cried and played games as well as grafting. As we all said goodbye the earth moved – and it wasn’t just the minor earthquake! These new partnerships are a force to be reckoned with and one day might just change the world.

This is 12G&H, listening out. Thanks for the memories.

The Zulus are back at Zero!

The Zulus have returned to Fieldbase from their Adventure Challenge!

I'd like to say that they came bounding up the driveway, full of the days of spring...however they were more akin to zombies than spring lambs after a 3.30am start, a nap on the bus and the small issue of 8 days of solid adventure!

Here are their summaries of the past few days...photos to follow!

ZULU 1 - by Sarah Tight
"So where ARE we?" was the first question from Tarlaan when we arrived at the beginning of our 5 day trek. Little did we know that navigation was to become impossible, traversing snake-infested grass the norm and that our personal fragrances could reach such potency! Spirits rose and fell, but the spectacular views kept us going up the near-vertical hills. We walked up A LOT of such hills, swam in amazing rivers, laughed, cried, and overall, survived!

ZULU 2 - by Mayci Hicks
Zulu 2 is comprised of many different people from different Delta groups, yet despite these differences we fell in effortlessly to the social circle that would shape our lives for the next 5 days on trek.
Raleigh trek consists of 55km, 4 Zulu groups, rucksacks containing our weight in Pork & Beans and some of the hardest days we have ever experienced.We overcame a multitude of challenges and our team never broke, despite...
- encountering tricky boulders in our river crossing and then realising it was the wrong way...
- trying to find camping ground between walls of mud and corn
- seeing ANOTHER 50 degree mountain climb with a rucksack in the heat of the midday sun...

During moments like this, it is easy to see the qualities that make up a person. No-one in Zulu 2 gave up.

Yesterday, the winners of the trek and survival challenge were announced and there has never been a prouder moment than when Zulu 2 was proclaimed the victor! 10, 20, 30 years from now, if something goes wrong, these memories will help us pull through, realising "I can do anything". Zulu 2 may officially end when we leave Raleigh, but our connections never will.

ZULU 3 - by Taormina Locke
After the exhausting but immensely rewarding trek, all the Zulu teams were whisked away to 'Paradise Island', a beautiful island haunted by the ghosts of the old prison there.

Our first night was spent setting up camp next to the pier, and then being given a talk by Ross on San Lucas Island's history. Although a little spooked, we were all looking forward to getting a good night's sleep until 7.30am - a lie in!

However, we were dragged from sleep by a blood-curdling scream at 5am followed by huge shouts and roars! Our tents were pulled to the ground, and we hopped out into the dawn to see our PMs had gone wild! All dressed in ghostly attire, they rounded us up into our Zulu groups to start the 24-hour survival challenge.

The challenge entailed navigation from a point to which we had been led blindfolded, tight-rope walking, spider-web diving and bridge-building, camping, cooking dinner from scratch (including scaling fish) and finally rounded off by a celebratory jump off the pier into the sea!

This morning we woke at 3.30am to get packed and load the boats heading back to the mainland. What an incredible last few days to end a Raleigh expedition!

ZULU 4 - by Anna Coleridge
Shocked to be woken up at 5.30am just days after finishing trek, Z4 started the survival challenge slowly. After a less-than perfect first task (though Mark did build a great fire) we picked up our game. In the raft-building task we put in a strong performance and were complimented on our intelligent design. The final two challenges in the morning went relatively smoothly, though our size range from Leon to Carla meant we struggled to balance weight!

Fatigued and ready for lunch, we stopped on a path to eat before finding camp for the night. We reached our designated beach just in time to meet the 'boatman' Ross with our fish and bread for supper.

Mark built a wonderful fire, Grace scaled many a fish for supper and Annie and Alice made bread dough in bowls made out of watermelons, culminating in a lovely evening around the fire (did we mention the fire?).

Up at 4.30am because of the concrete floor, we were back at base in good time to hear that Z2 had won! Despite this, we thoroughly enjoyed the survival challenge and are ready to come home.

Thanks guys! Pics to follow!

Z4 - a tale of ups and downs...literally!

After a few setbacks at the beginning of the trek due to minor slip-ups and navigational errors we finally got back on track to hopefully complete our expedition trek on time. There have been some amazing highs (and boy, were they high!) and amazing experiences. Seeing the incredible view from a mountain top plane crash site gave us our first motivation boost to see more of Costa Rica from a high altitude. Despite the struggle of a 3am wake up and climb of the Cerro Bares mountain, we were more than rewarded with the eclectic colours of the sky during sunrise.

While walking we have experiences the kind hospitality of the local people, with many providing us with food such as absolutely delicious mangoes, eggs and tortillas. As we limp towards the finish line with weary feet, we shall all look back with fondness on the roller coaster ride of a journey we have had.

As a group we have stayed strong and although it has been tough, we will one day forget the pain and remember only the spectacular memories we have shared.

Listening out, Zulu 4.

Well done guys and good luck for the next section - the adventure challenge!

Where are Zu!?

Here's an update on where the Zulus are up to on their adventure treks on the penultimate day before the Adventure Challenge!

Zulu 1 are going great guns - they stayed in Bocana last night and had a brilliant evening after a long day trekking and making good progress. Today they're heading to Alto Concepcion Iron Bridge, hopefully another successful days' trekking for them.

Zulu 2 started off the day in Bajo Quesada and are in great spirits, assuring us they didn't get lost once yesterday (not sure we believe them, it happens to the best of us!) Today they're heading to Mastetal.

Zulu 3 were in Piedra Vieja and left the community centre there this morning to head to the Cerro Baru to climb up to the end point, they'll be walking all of the day today to make as much progress as possible to make the job easier tomorrow!

Zulu 4 are all going brilliantly and in good spirits as they head towards Catie, not long to go now!

They'll all be sending in more details as I know you're all dying to hear where they've been and what they've seen, so we'll keep you posted!

12H Delta Groups - the final slideshow!

Here's a slideshow to show the whole of Phase 1 for the Delta Groups.

Enjoy!

Roooooooaaaaaaaad Trrrrriiiiiiip!

So that us lot at Fieldbase don’t go stir crazy with cabin fever, during each Phase we hop into the Bravos to embark upon a tour of all of the projects across Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

There were 2 road trips in Phase 1 – Costa Rica (to all the Deltas, Alpha 3 and Alpha 1) and the road to Nicaragua (to Alphas 2, 3, 5 and 6 plus Charlie 1 and 2, the ICS groups).

Becky, our Logistics Co-ordinator (AKA food goddess) has written a guest blog about life on the road during the long journey north visiting the projects.

Costa Rica road trip update (and impartial reviews based upon food creativity, long drop quality and hospitality) to follow in the coming days...

(Bravo) 3 is the magic number

15 days ago we set off in Bravo 3, our sturdy and very shiny Land Rover carrying valuable cargo of food, kit and 3 members of the fieldbase team, myself (Becky) and Rolo from the field base Logistics team and our very own photographer Bjorn, there to capture it all, the good the bad and definitely, I speak for myself here, the ugly after 15 days of intrepid travels.

To those of you who thought we at field base spend each 19 day phase with our feet up, sipping a cold beverage whilst occasionally taking calls on the radio are completely off the mark.  Pah!  Never let it be said that being a member of the field base team doesn’t mean some hard graft or that we don’t “get out there”. 

The truth is, being a member of field base is ace, having worked solidly for days to prepare for the deployment it was time to bank some fun-time and a chance to widen our sights beyond the walls of the Bodega. 

Driving out of FB in Turrialba we agreed our job for the next 15 days was to be a breath of fresh air to the teams, to never moan about the hardship of long drives, numb backsides, limited leg room and ahem..air con, the occasional shower and the odd hamburger!  We hope we didn’t disappoint.

During our 15 day tour we visited and got stuck into work at 5 Raleigh projects in both Costa Rica and Nicaragua and on top of that meeting up with our friends the trekkers Alpha 2 as they completed the Miratombo trek.  OK so out of the 5 visits, 2 of them had scheduled days off for our arrival, and ok so we did occasionally get a shower but we also had an important job to do.

We hope all the groups enjoyed and benefitted from our visit, we definitely loved every minute and came away with a feeling that we too had got a lot out of it.  Continuing the theme of 3’s there were 3 things that I personally gained from the trip; it was a great opportunity to meet some brilliantly bright and entertaining young venturers, all getting to grips with the challenges and benefits of working as a team.  An appreciation of how hard the groups work on Raleigh projects and treks, and admiration for the dedication of all of the team members.  And lastly, it was a great opportunity to meet and live within Nicaraguan communities, experiencing first hand the challenges of living (long drops and long hikes), working (the heat) and trying to bring up a family (on rice and beans alone) in often very remote areas.

We’d like to thank all our hosts Alpha 2, 3, 5 and 6 as well as Charlie 1 and 2. Thanks for your hospitality, your company and all the laid on entertainment, and also thanks to the Nicaragua sunshine for our great tans!

We look forward to doing it again in Phase 2.

Alpha Update...

The Alphas are all back and glowing from their Phase 1 experiences!

Alpha 1 had an awesome cross-continent trek with a sprint finish towards the sea...

Alpha 2 had some awesome highs (and lows but they were only in the altitude sense)...

Alpha 3 had loads of jungle fun in Tenorio...

Alpha 4 made San Lucas island sparkle...

Alpha 5 helped to water a whole community...

And Alpha 6 made excellent progress on their school!

I'm just waiting for the final project summaries and all the pictures to come in (there are literally thousands!) and then I'll have a full update for you later. Watch this space!

Delta Groups Final Round Up!

Here's a final round up and pictures of the Delta Groups' projects! Really well done guys. The Bravo 2 road trip visited all these project groups (me included) and they were all fantastic. We're so proud!

DELTA 1

Delta 1’s phase took place in 2 locations, starting out at Vivero hatchery in Playa Hermosa and moving to Carara National Park. We arrived by bus at a spot next to the sea to set up our basha bed village among the coconuts, palm trees and crabs.

We split into 2 teams nicknamed the Tigers and the Sharks to help us deal with working shifts during the day and night. These teams worked really well for scheduling or work in the hatchery and duties around camp.

During the day, work involved digging a ditch around the hatchery to protect it from waves and helping to set up the fence that surrounded the hatchery. At night, we patrolled the beach to look for turtles and their eggs which are at risk from poachers who unfortunately still look out for gaps in the patrols and steal the eggs and nests. Us being there however massively reduced that risk.

We managed to collect many eggs and each nest averaged 100! We were also very lucky indeed to see several turtles laying nests and to release hundreds of baby tortugas – we even saw a turtle laying its eggs during the day.

In our free time we massively enjoyed paddling in the sea, learning Spanish and playing cards in this most beautiful environment.

When we moved to Carara National Park, we found the work and environment to be very different! We dug drainage ditches to improve the paths during the rainy season and beyond, and lived in the jungle. Looking around, we saw how much work Raleigh had done there – we found many bridges engraved with the Raleigh name and venturers’ names dating back to 2004. Oscar, the ranger, was very pleased with our work and gave us a presentation on the park to say thank you.

We encountered tons of wildlife, including a variety of lively monkeys and slick snakes, and even took a trip to the crocodile bridge one day.

Delta 1 have formed a great bond and are sad the phase has to end, but are excited about the next part of our adventure!

DELTA 2 – PART 2 (Playa Hermosa)

Exhausted after our jungle adventures, Playa Hermosa came as a pleasant surprise! The sun, sea and sand were life-savers. But excited as we were to relax into our new location, we were also eager to get involved in our new turtle conservation work.

The group was split into day and night shifts, beginning on the day we arrived! At 12.30am we ventured out into the dark to start ‘turtle patrol’.

Walking along the beach at night was amazing; apart from seeing the Milky Way we were able to collect hundreds of turtle eggs and spotted a ‘Lora’ turtle just as she was making her way back to the sea.

Adjusting to the day shifts was harder than becoming nocturnal! We had to swap lie-ins for getting up and ready at 5.30am. But just like the night shifts, day shift work was also very rewarding! We were able to release a batch of baby turtles into the sea, as well as working no our tans while we planted coconut palms.

We all had such an epic time at the beach that we were almost devastated to leave it. Next up: the challenge of the adventure trek!

DELTA 3

Our time in Duchari has taught us how to handle new challenges, from the difficult trek we faced to and from Duchari, to the hard work building the school. Yet despite the hardship, we all had fun and got on really well together. We spent long days working no the school, having to dig holes for 5 days before the final foundation post arrived and the endless amounts of sawing (without a chainsaw, note Delta 4!) and hammering. Hanging around the local community added to the significance of what we were doing. Playing around with the children and having a game of football led to a magnificent opening ceremony where all the locals danced around in circles. Our great relationship with the Cabacars led to a few tears when we had to depart, and we also formed a great relationship with Delta 4 because of our proximity to them (and sharing the trek experience of course!).

When we finished the school, we couldn’t quite believe that the building we had been working on for 3 weeks was finally complete and that our time in Duchari was over. It wasn’t really until we got on the bus back to Fieldbase that we were able to achieve.

In short, this project was challenging but fun and tremendously rewarding.

DELTA 4

We finaly finished our school on the 19^th. The locals put on a wonderful opening ceremony, including songs and prayers for us. We presented the laque and were pleasantly surprised to receive gifts in return. Coffee followed the ceremony which were all very much enjoyed.

The uphill walk home was a challenge in the heat, however, in true D4 style we annihilated the walk home and are all safely happily back and Fieldbase.

Despite the challenges we faced, we all learned how to work in a team and all had the opportunity to lead the team. Overall it was a thoroughly rewarding experience.

Maxi Pali time, then adventure challenge!

And many, many thanks and well done to all my Delta Group project bloggers and photographers!

Zulu Groups Announced, time for adventure!

Here is the announcement of the Zulu groups for the adventure challenge! The teams are leaving at 11am and I can confirm they are all very excited, yet groaning at having to pack MORE pork and beans and porridge into their bulging rucksacks...

ZULU 1

Lou Gibney, Emmeline Brown, James Morrison, Rocio Mora Vicarioli, Luke Bialkowski, Anne-Roos Hesselmans, Hamza Amor, Maria Jose Araya, Sarah Tight, Thomas Topham, Martin Edwards, Alexandra Spensley, Tarlaan Mohammadi, Rebecca Curtis

ZULU 2

Charlie Reeder, Madeleine Tudor-Jones, Daniela Ortiz, Cas Wright, Mayci Hicks, Claudia Craig, Alejandro Montero Merino, Cristina Webster, Drummond Clark, Adri Rodriguez, Charley Attwood, Katie Philpott, Vanessa Targett

ZULU 3

Ed Barrie, Elysia Booker, Juliette Zietse, Silvia Godinez, Taormina Locke, Christina Gregoriou, Darshini Mehta, Fran Anderson, Rebecca Weighell, ROberto Vargas, Tom Everett, Ciaran Russell, Lucy Gatt

ZULU 4
Charlotte Lovegrove, Krisztina Deak, Rebecca Miller, Roberto Mariano Alvarez Garcia, Ly Anh Dang, Devon Weaver, Grace Packard, Alice Brawley, Joseph Druce-Oliver, Anna Coleridge, Carla Alejandra Porras Vargas, Mark Shepherd, Silvia Rojas, Leon Clark

Enjoy guys! We'll update you courtesy of my Zulu bloggers and photographers as soon as they're back, and we'll post regular round ups from the groups when they radio into us!

It's Oh So Quiet...(maybe not)

Just 2 short days ago, Fieldbase was a serene place. Ross, Pedro, Vanessa and Katie were holding the fort and gliding around Fieldbase like ducks, appearing graceful yet paddling like crazy below the surface in order to arrange the small upcoming events such as the 12H Adventure Challenge, Phase 2 Project Allocations, the arrival and induction of the Explorers and the descent of over 100 Venturers from their Phase 1 projects and Bravos 2 and 3 from their road trips.

That relative quiet ended quite literally with a roar (of engines) this morning – things don’t half move quickly on a Raleigh expedition! 16 new Explorers arrived at Fieldbase safe and sound at 7.30am after a night at the British School, welcomed by a gallo pinto breakfast and then in quick succession (in order of their Delta group numbers, as if it was planned that way!) Deltas 1, 2, 3 and 4 arrived back fresh from their projects (well they’re fresh now after a few 20 minute showers to scrub off the mud and sweat to reveal their happy faced and slightly bronzed limbs!)

And an hour ago, Alphas 2, 5 and 6 arrived back from Nicaragua to join in on the party, the rest of the Alphas returning tomorrow morning.

Blogs, news and photos are being accumulated as we speak, so watch this space!

Delta 1 - what's goin' on?

Delta 1 spent the first 9 days at Playa Hermosa; a beautiful beach frequented by many types of endangered turtle. We have been working with rangers, digging, putting up fences and wandering the beach at night, all in an attempt for Tortuga conservation. On the second day, Ella, Rebecca, Juliet, Louise, Janet and Roberto were in the middle of digging a ditch when Charlie saved the day by yelling in warning for a rogue massive wave that was about to crash into the ditch. We later heard that the digging we had done had saved the turtles in the hatchery! We have been very lucky to see many turtles - Emmeline, Tom, and Charlotte were cautiously paddling when they turned around to see a turtle a few metres away. It worked its way up the beach, dug a nest, laid its eggs and left, whilst Delta 1 and the rangers stood and watched in amazement.

We have also released many baby turtles (everyone say ‘aaaaaah...’) - James very carefully carried them to the beach and we all placed them on the sand and watched them waddle to the ocean.

When we all arrived at Playa Hermosa we all thought the crabs were endearing, but after spending the week with them crawling in our shoes and scuttling everywhere, we now considered them pests!

In our free time, we learned Spanish from Rocio, who has been teaching us handy phrases like 'todo bien'. We also like to eat coconuts, listen to Roberto's renditions of Adele music, play lots of card games and carefully dip in the sea, which is dangerous due to riptides.

Delta 1 has now moved onto Carara, where we live in the jungle camp in the rainforest. We're helping to build the path in order to encourage tourism and allow rangers to continue to run and conserve the national park. Yesterday we went for a wash in the river in the rain. We were all clean and happy but Maddie fell over in the mud on the way back, which Roberto found very funny!

We also had to take a detour from the path when we found a snake swimming in a puddle, fortunately Juliet wasn't there as she hates snakes and even has a special stomping dance to ward them away!

Today we dug a ditch to divert water away from the path, and I can confirm that Delta 1 is loving life in the jungle so far. Louise is slightly upset that she has the most mossie bites! We are awoken by the sound of birds and monkeys daily, which is amazing, and are looking forward to the week ahead!

Delta 1, out!

Delta 3 - The Story So Far...

Here is an audio blog with some pictures from Delta 3, recorded on the Fieldbase team's roadtrip to the Chirripo indigenous territory.

Enjoy!

What's the Score Delta 4?

Although Delta 4 had a long and difficult journey to their project site, by Thursday morning we had finally made it! Overcoming steep hills, slippery slopes, rivers, jungle climbs and a dog peeing in Tom’s boots along the way, Delta 4 managed to reach the beautiful village if Tamiju. Despite the 24 hour delay due to heavy rain on the first day of our trek, we were able to quickly set up home in Tamiju, complete with an impressive pulley-operated shower built by Mark and Ciaran, Annie and Sarah’s long drop toilet which required only minor (but necessary) adjustments and a bar overlooking one of the most beautiful views in Costa Rica.

The Rulez

Om nom nom (hope the pigs aren't looking)

The View from Tamiju...

Work on the school had been coming along very well with the floorboards already on and the walls going up. Delta 4 can proudly say that our school is further ahead than Delta 3’s! (sorry Delta 3, it wasn’t me that said that, honest – Ed., aka Leanne.)

La escuelar

The rivalry between the two teams was officially put to the test on Sunday through a football match at the halfway point between the two villages. Although Delta 4 arrived with fewer players, we definitely proved ourselves to be the better team, winning the game 5-2!

We’re all having a busy but very enjoyable time and are really looking forward to seeing the result of our hard work when we finish the school.

Love, Delta 4

Hola todos, this is Leanne from Fieldbase, fresh from a trip to visit Delta 3 and 4 to collect the above blog and the one from Delta 3, which you’ll see (and maybe hear) tomorrow! I can confirm that progress is indeed fantastic on the school at Tamiju, and everyone is in high spirits, despite the pesky pigs (and Martin’s slight obsession with such) and the smell of the long drop after a good few days’ use... The group is super organised and well on track to finish the school and prepare for their opening ceremony which they will invite all the ‘locals’ to (bearing in mind the locals can come from 1.5 hours’ walk away!)

I can also confirm the intensity of the rivalry between Deltas 3 and 4 is hotting up by the day (healthy of course!) and I couldn’t possibly choose between them - it’d be like picking your favourite child – not possible. (Bribes welcome if you fancy trying though guys, obviously.)

A brilliant group in a beautiful setting – go Delta 4!

Photos from Delta 4

We'll have a full blog for you from Delta 4 tonight, and Delta 3 tomorrow, but in the meantime here are the first photos from Delta 4... enjoy!

Alpha 3 - the group to be!

I have just returned from the first few days of Alpha 3: Project Tenorio and I can confirm that things are going great up in th'hills of Volcan Tenorio National Park - a superb group and a brilliant project!

A little soggy yes, with quite a lot of rain, but as I type the Venturers and PMs should be moving into the awesome jungle camp we built with the bamboo we chopped down and stripped to make a basha village - proper jungle style!

We arrived on Wednesday afternoon and were met off the bus by Eber, our main ranger dude and general all-round great guy. He showed us to our temporary lodgings (a classroom next to the ranger station) and we set up a group tarp and cooking area straight away and put the kettle on. After a super early start we were all pretty tired, so got cosy in preparation for a busy day to follow.

Thursday consisted of getting up nice and early to a yummy breakfast of rice pudding before heading into the jungle to chop wood. Thomas, Jemma and Andres looked like naturals as they yelled 'timber!' and sawed away to get enough bamboo to make their home-to-be.

We then joined the others who had been constructing a group area and the framework for some seriously comfy beds from the bamboo we already had - and worked all day until we were almost finished. Unfortunately, quite heavy rain stopped play and we learned that a couple of the beds hadn't quite been protected properly and we ended up with a couple of soggy hammocks! So on Friday, the first day of work at the park, we decided to split the group with half completing the camp and half off to work for the day.

Suzzanne and Jungle Camp's new pet, Spidey

The work involved 2 different jobs - sifting and then carrying sand up the 1.5km incline towards the beautiful Rio Celeste waterfall, and then working right next to the aforementioned cascada creating the new staircase out of concrete. Not a bad office for the day!

Siftin'...

Not the worst office view ever...

Crew with a view

More of the same on Saturday, and we really felt like we had made progress, helping the National Park to attract more tourists - from what we could see the past projects at the park had really helped to improve this too as we weaved through huge groups of visitors on the run up the hill!
After a day of hard graft, we welcomed some visitors of our own - ROAD TRIP! Rolo, Bjorn and Becky arrived from Fieldbase to pep us up, bring fresh food and play our new favourite card game, Spoons. A yummy dinner of fried plantain, rice, scrambled eggs and refried beans warmed the cockles while we all reflected on the work we'd done as the rain came down outside.

I very quietly left the group this morning at 5am to get the first bus back to Fieldbase, absolutely blown away by an awesome group of people who are bonding more and more by the day and a beautiful location - can't wait to get more updates which we'll fill you in on as soon as possible! Pics of completed jungle camp to follow too.

Good luck guys and enjoy your new home!

Delta Is For Digging

The Delta groups have arrived safely at their Project locations and are busy settling in. Many of them are busy testing out their spades in the classic Raleigh digging tradition.

Delta One in Playa Hermosa are enjoying sunny weather. They have started trench digging and have arranged a night patrol.

Delta Two in Carara National Park are experiencing cloudy weather. They have built their camp and have already finished digging one of their ditches. Tomorrow they will be clearing more of the path.

Delta Three in Duchari also have cloudy skies. They have started digging the foundations for the school building and have already managed a football game.

Delta Four in Tamiju enjoyed sunny skies, while they were busy digging holes. Tomorrow is expected to bring more hole digging.

Delta Training Slideshow

The night right before the Delta Venturers were deployed into the field we reminded them of all they had been doing ...

Venturer Manager Training in a Slideshow

We also created a Slideshow video to show how far the Venturer Managers had come...

Fieldbase Recap in Slideshow

At the end of the training for the Fieldbase team we put together a slideshow to remind ourselves just how much we had done...

A very special visit...

We've just been paid a visit at Raleigh CR&N Fieldbase by Richard Benyon, the Conservative MP for Newbury from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Standing in front of a sea of Raleigh T-Shirts and attentive faces, he explained how he is here to see the amazing work that Raleigh does here in this part of Latin America, and how this part of the world is focusing on sustainable development and conservation, in the hope that we can take some of these learnings on board in the UK and beyond.

A Q&A session then raised some interesting debates - about why countries like the UK and others in Europe appear to not be as focused on sustainability as Central America. It's true, we have a way to go, but I think every single one of us here, since being on Raleigh, have become more than a little bit more aware of our place on the planet and how we can contribute to keeping it sustainable - essential if we are to survive.

Mr Benyon then went on to ask people to talk about why they were here on a Raleigh expedition. Everyone has their own very unique story, and that's what makes this particular expedition so special. Host Country PMs and Venturers who want to learn more about their country and spread the word about it. Young people from the UK who feel a sense of direction is needed and aren't getting the support or stimulation they need back home. Career breakers who want to change the way they live their lives, even just a little bit. And Mr Benyon was right, every one of us should be proud of the fact we're here and want to make a difference, however small.