On the first day of Christmas Zulu 3 gave to me...

Hello there everyone I'd like to start this blog post off as we start every morning: 21 days 'til Christmas!

And just under two weeks until we will all be either continuing our travels or heading home. The last 9 days here at Carara have flown by. We started our work here by joining forces with some local volunteers to move rocks from one section of the park to another. The week that followed was a blur of rakes, gravel bags and wheelbarrows. Although we all felt a bit like worker ants marching along the same stretch of path over and over again, we managed to finish gravelling at least 100m of path.

Lots of gravel...

Along the way we were met with many nods of both approval for the good work we'd done so far and disapproval from some very keen birdwatchers whom we probably disturbed with our squeaky wheelbarrows. For the most part though the people we've come across have thanked us for the work we're doing or have stopped to chat for a while. We even hosted a tea party with a couple who happened upon our lovely Casa Verde.

Speaking of accommodation we've got a pretty sweet setup over here. Proper beds make for an excellent night's sleep and flushing toilets are a welcome change after our trek and community phases. Showers allow us to stay fresh and clean after a hard day's work and a fully functional kitchen has made for some exciting new food creations. Pork and beans have never tasted so good. We even have a girls vs. boys energy bomb competition which the girls won for originality and healthiness but the boys ultimately took the prize for their enthusiasm during presentation.

Full store cupboard - pork and beans top left

Besides keeping ourselves full after a long day's work we spend the evenings relaxing in hammocks or playing games. Obviously ninja has continued to be a source of great entertainment. The other day we played a round with some visiting university students who have been keeping us company. No doubt due to the amount of practise we've had team Raleigh emerged triumphant as our PM Vic defeated the visitors in a 1 to 1 showdown. Uno and chess have quickly become the other go-to games of choice.

Although our current jungle surroundings don't remind most of us of our typical winters back home, we've come fully prepared to celebrate the holiday season. A Christmas tree and Santa hats we've brought with us will be put to good use at Playa Hermosa once we move there on December 6th and most definitely won't look out of place.

by Sophie, Project Comms Officer

Which Zulu are you?

And all too soon we have reached the final phase of the 12L expedition.  We've gone from Alpha to Zulu and these are the new group allocations.  Deployment was bright and early on Friday morning with everyone now on their way.

Remember to quote the Zulu name in any messages that you send in via the blog, even though they aren't published on the website we do make sure that they are given to your nearest and dearest as soon as we can.


Zulu 1 - Coast to Coast Trek, Costa Rica
Claudia Fiedler, Claire Skelton, Sarah Crawford,
Henry Anderson, Ziggy Parris, Angel Mejia, Paul Darius, Ben Byers, Mela Piedra, Lilian Keller, Patrice Hollywood, Bo Brand, Eveline Kroese

Zulu 1 - Coast to coast

Zulu 2 - Miratombo Trek, Nicaragua
Sarah Flynn, Jim Howard, Barney Harker
Alex Robertson, Hidde Van Lent, Callum Blues, Jose Quesada, Hester van Marwijk Kooy, Jakeling Escoto Rivera, Frankie Owusu-Brobbey, Yorleny Bermudez, Andrea Grundke, Vinnie Moriarty Barron

Zulu 2 - Miratombo Trek

Zulu 3 - Environmental, starting in Carara National Park, Costa Rica
Jae Quiros, Vic Lapsins
Jonas Koch, Luke Waldock, Jonathan Corrales, Pedro Ocon, Archie Finlayson, Anika Kandola, Anna McManus, Arlene Rodriguez, Sophie LaMarre

Zulu 3 - Environmental

Zulu 4 - Los Loros Water project, Nicaragua
Florian Cross, Charlie Cox, Karen Malone
Marco Mora Jimenez, Diego Molina, Matt Whiteside, Ben Hilton-Delhaye, Omar Ochoa, Carlyn Brown, Puck Van der Vet, Suwen James, Shannon Potter, Claudia Audlie

Zulu 4 - Los Loros

Zulu 5 - Miraflor House building project, Nicaragua
Natalie Metcalfe, Pauline Wright, Nicole Ferris
Ben Persofsky, Jack Moxham, Louis Tindall, Harley Decker, Dave Rosen, Gustavo Granados, Floor van Selms, Vera Juarez, Tiggy Taliadoros, Vic McIrvine, Aishath Green

Zulu 5 - Miraflor

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!

Zulu 3: A letter home

Dear Mum and Dad

Well I made it through trek in one piece. The rumours that you heard were true, in bits it was indeed traumatic and at times I cried, in fact at one point I thought I wouldn’t make it...but I did! And my God it was incredible!

The team made it so special; I don’t think it would have been half the experience without them. As we all sat on the shore of the lagoon the other night we all talked about the mammoth trek that we had just completed but a few hours earlier, and there were some clear highlights for us all.

Firstly there was the night we spent on top of the mountain at the military base, witnessing the most stunning sunset.
Then there were the awesome views, the endless laughs and the ‘volcanic eruption’ we all watched. The last three days of our trek were so amazing that I can barely put it into words. Seeing the splendour of Cerro Negro; climbing it; and running down, was just one of the best experiences of my life. Then sleeping under the most astonishing crater before hiking down to the lagoon and swimming in a crater lake made it all the more worthwhile.

I won’t tell you all the stories now though, I’ll be seeing you very soon!

All our love

Maria, Liam, Ciara, Dara, Rob, Ben, Sophie, Ravenna, Brayan, Gustavo, Danny, Alex, Alex, Adri, Valeria. Gaz and Simon

xxx

It's all go in the jungle with Zulu 3

We're sorry for the lack of blogs from Zulu 3 but here they are now with a Spanish blog from Jesus.

The Bravo 1 roadtrip was with the group on Thursday and Friday and they are all doing extremely well. Their pace and quality of work (over 200m of trench dug) has impressed the rangers. and when not working hard they are certainly playing hard as you will see in the blog.

Raleighando – En La Cangreja por Jesús y Millie

Son las 5.35am y es la hora de… Zulú 3. En la selva de Parque Nacional La Cangreja aun oscuro tres dormidos ventureros se levantan para preparar desayuno. Basta con hervir agua, agregar avena, dos docenas de azúcar, canela y leche y el tradicional porridge está listo. Amanece y los primeros rayos de luz atraviesan el fichaje del bosque, momento de iniciar la caminata cuesta arriba, hacia la casa de los guarda parques. Pico, pala y caratillo es lo necesario para continuar. Trabajando cavando la lanza de 70 centímetros de profundidad entre el recoso suelo.

El trabajo es arduo y pesado sin embargo el equipo ha logrado cavar más de 218 metros, colocar un grifo para beber agua, limpiar senderos y pintar algunos letreros.

Con el sol de mediodía, llega el momento de regresar al campamento para almorzar – pasteles de atún, empanadas de refried beans o soya, noodles con vegetales, panqueques y los ingenios queques mess tin de ken nunca antes vistos en Raleigh! A la hora de bañarse en el rio negro frese naturales jacuzzis y posas de limpia cristalina agua.

Por la tarde es común jugar el adictivo ‘monopoly Deal cards’, actividades planadas por Kelly, Vic y Ken como el ‘pop quiz’, ‘ready, steady, cook’, y ‘Raleigh Prison Break’. La navidad esta cerca y como es común en Holanda celebramos el día de San Nicolás (5 de diciembre) – Marette, Friso y Eleonore algunas confites y galletas de bajo del improvisado árbol de navidad hicieron memorable este día.

Por la noche el plan es irse de fiesta. El requisito para entrar a Zulú 3 discoteque es verter ropa hecha con hojas y naturaleza, algunas snacks, cinco queques de: limón, chocolate, marshmallows y jalea y una increíble fogata a guardan el Bar de la mono borracho.

No hay dude de que Raleigh ha sido una experiencia para nunca olvidar, a pesar del cansancio, mosquitos, ropa olorosa y trabajo arduo, basta salirse de la rutina de cada día, entrarse a la montana y probar de que estamos hechos y quienes verdaderamente somos. Atrás se quedaran los arboles, las aves, la lluvia, el rio y los momentos inolvidable para Zulú 3 en el increíble Parque Nacional La Cangreja.

Zulu 3 hard at work clocking up the metres!

Blogger Jesus cooking up a storm with PM Kelly

The Zulu 3 swimming pool

Home sweet home AKA Jungle Camp

Who said the jungle was tough??!!

Here's an update from Zulu 3 (by blogger Serena) who are certainly making the most of their time in the jungle and setting themselves some though challenges.

The Zulu 3 jungle warriors have arrived and settled into camp where we will be living in deep jungle for 19 days. Whilst here we are digging a trench and laying water pipes to supply water for a project that includes building a wheelchair access path and providing toilet facilities to visitors to the national park.

The work is very tough because of the rocky ground but we are all motivated by our PMs’ promise of a cake if we make 200m of pipe and our desire to beat the previous group!!!

In the middle of snakes, spiders, tropical birds, poisonous frogs and other wildlife we have set up an amazing jungle camp albeit with a few collapsing basher beds (belonging to Jesus, Friso and Annie).

We work hard in the morning but have time to play games and enjoy camp in the afternoon. We are midway through a weird and wonderful game of human cluedo and have a Ready, Steady, Cook competition, pub quiz and Raleigh prison break to come.

Out of our humble jungle kitchen, we have already been provided with tuna fish cakes, onion rings, brownies and an incredible fudge cake by Ken. We can’t wait for the next one!

The rangers are very friendly, the river is crystal clear and our beds are waterproof. We are all okking forward to the next two weeks in the jungle.

Pura vida!

Bravo 1 will be visiting Zulu 3 next week so we will return with photos of their work and impressive sounding jungle camp.

Zulus Out

We’re back from the Zulu Adventure Challenge! This morning it was time to say goodbye to our fun and friendly Zulu venturers. There were tears, laughter and friendships parting but never to be forgotten as we waved goodbye to them at San Jose airport. But what a way to end! Saturday morning saw sixty venturers arrive at Puntarenas and fly over to San Lucas Island on a convoy of speed boats. As they arrived they enjoyed a chilled out day to recuperate after their tiresome, trekking escapades and of course, to mentally prepare for the unknown events ahead.

That evening the venturers were taken on an eerie tour around the prison in the dark to hear the horror stories and history (home for the next three days!). They were then left to relax for the evening ready for a lie-in and a slap-up Gallo Pinto breakfast at 7am the next morning - brilliant!

Unfortunately for the venturers, this was all just a big ploy to make the next day’s events even more of a surprise. Up bright eyed and bushy-tailed at 4am the next morning were the Raleigh PM’s as they got into costume, grass skirts, war paint, drums and all, and headed off to the prison cells where the venturers were sleeping, for an interesting wake up call.

“Ooohohohohohohohohohohoh!” (That is the PM’s running into the prison cells to wake up the venturers, red-Indian style, if you can imagine that). After a brutal awakening, including warrior dancing and chanting, the venturers finally dragged themselves out of bed. They were given a brief introduction from the King and Queen of the San Lucas Zulu warriors (Sabrina and PM Andy in head dresses and loin cloths), got into their groups, packed the bare essentials and once blindfolded, were taken to their first challenge where they were left alone to fend for themselves.

Slowly but surely as the PM’s departed the Zulu venturers removed their blindfolds and in front of them was a map, a grid reference, a bag of watermelon and Pineapple, two knives, and some bug spray. After some refreshing breakfast to fuel them up for the day (the fruit) they found their grid reference locations and began the fun and games. Each group had four challenges to complete that morning; raft building, Command, low ropes and fire building. For each challenge they were timed and scored. That evening was the real survival challenge however. Another grid reference! This time to four separate beaches within the island where each group had to set up their own jungle camp using two pieces of tarpaulin, 6 mosquito nets, and a sleeping bag each. They were then visited by the ‘fish man’ (Country Programme Manager, Ross) and had to signal to him in morse code from the shore. Once the message had been received our trusty fish man sped over to drop off some freshly caught red snapper, with instructions on how to slice, gut and cook it up for dinner as well as some instructions and ingredients for making damper bread. All this with no guidance whatsoever from our project managers – it is survival after all.

The next morning the venturers really were treated to a slap-up breakfast of Gallo Pinto and spent the rest of the day packing and relaxing on beautiful San Lucas. That night they enjoyed a tip top barbeque underneath a magnificent sunset, the final expedition slide show and of course a good old Raleigh party to close in expedition 11H.

Zulus, you’ve been incredible. Your work with Raleigh has been invaluable. We hope that you have left with memories that will last a lifetime and more. Pura vida amigos!

*Blog by Dawn Tennant, photos by Polly and Kat Mammone

Zulus Head To Prison & Tangos Go To Playa Hermosa!

Our lovely and talented Communications Officer, Dawn is currently on San Lucas Island, putting in place all of the final preparations for what should be an incredible second half of the Zulus’ Adventure Challenge. We, Logs/Yankee Emily and Raleigh Veteran/Tica Tuti, will be filling you in on all the juicy details in her absence. Here goes nothing...

The Zulu groups descended upon La Fundación Ecotrópica last night; after a collective sigh of relief (trek phase over!), the groups hunkered down for the night, anxious to see what the second half of the Adventure Challenge had in store for them. All 4 Zulu groups got an early start this morning and with tummies full of porridge, made their way to San Lucas Island (formerly an island prison, now a wildlife refuge). The venturers spent the day enjoying the beach, taking a tour of the prison grounds, and generally chilling out. And tonight, rather than sheltering themselves from what was supposed to be a heavy tropical storm, are sitting on the pier watching a beautiful sunset and the millions of stars peppering the sky. Magical.

 

 PM's Megan, Nick and Haley loving the trek!

San Lucas Island

Last night the Mini Expedición Latina deployed – here with some information (en Español) is Tuti! Take it away...

Es el segundo día para la Mini Expedición Latina, el grupo (Tango 1) llego ayer al Refugio Nacional de Vida Silvestre Playa Hermosa, esta es la primera parte de la Mini Expedición.  En estos 3 días siguientes, los chicos van a estar ayudando con labores do voluntariado en el parque. En este tiempo, también van a estar aprendiendo como utilizar el equipo de Raleigh, por que después de estos 5 días, les espera la parte mas emociónate y desafiante…la caminata de 5 días hasta la cima el Cerro Bares! El grupo esta listo para todo lo que falta de su aventura!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch (Fieldbase), we’ve been getting into the Adventure Challenge spirit as well! Mozzy net fishing, anyone? 

We are truly roughing it.

Until next time, this is Emily & Tuti – out.

Photos courtesy of Haley Rust

Zulus, Romeos, Rain and More

Updates from the venturers! Everyone is doing well. Romeo 1 are doing what they’re meant to be doing – trekking hard, walking strong and going for gold in the Turrimacho trek! Today they will be staying at Barbilla Rangers staion and tomorrow they will head over to take on some of Cost Rica’s deepest jungle! Romeo 2 are on track, on time and going strong. Today they are on their way to Alto Cebadilla. Romeo 3 over at Las Pailas are also cracking on nicely. All is going well and yesterday they began building their jungle camp so they now have a nice comfortable roof/tarpaulin over their heads to keep them safe and dry. Romeo 4 over in La Cangreja spent their first night at La Fundación Ecotropica rangers station. Today they head over to the Santa Rosa ranger station where they will be sleeping for the rest of the project. Romeo 5, Romeo 6 and Romeo 7 arrived in Nicaragua yesterday where they all stayed the school for the night, before going their separate ways to their project sites today.

Zulu groups 1, 2, 3 and 4are all on their last day of trekking today. They will meet tonight at La Fundacion Ecotropica ranger station where they will spend the night catching up and sharing stories. They will make their way over to mystery location first thing tomorrow morning! Bearing in mind that none our Zulu venturers know what part two of the adventure challenge holds, it’s all pretty exciting in Zulu world at the moment. Some of our field base crew have departed today to set up for the next few days in situ. A few more of us will be joining them tomorrow morning with lots more up our sleeves to make the next few days of expedition 11H one to remember.

Everything with Charlie one, two and three is running smoothly. Everyone is well, happy and enjoying the torrential downpour of rain that has decided to hit Costa Rica and Nicaragua recently.

Speaking of rain, time for a weather update! For those of you jealous folk back home who are longing for some of our Costa Rican sunshine, be jealous no more. Sweeping its way across Costa Rica in the next few days is rain, rain, rain! But it wouldn’t be Raleigh without a little bit of damp. So with our anoraks’ zipped, umbrella’s up and tarpaulin tightly fastened, we’re just about ready to take on the world (or Central America at least). Saying that, the last few weeks have provided us with a whole lot of sunshine so we won’t complain. Let it rain!

Please note that Pinki Tse from Romeo 5 and Joyce Hiu Tung Law from Romeo 7 are moving to join the Romeo 4 team in La Cangreja.

In other, more cultural news, Cartago is getting ready for one of Costa Rica's biggest Religious festivals – Virgen de los Angeles Day is a Costa Rican holiday celebrating Costa Rica's patron saint, the Virgen de los Angeles (la Negrita). It is celebrated on August 2nd with religious pilgrimages from San José to the Nuestra Señora de los Angeles Basilica in Cartago. Locals and tourists make their way over to the monument of Virgen de los Angeles to pray. They bring with them small objects and things of signifcance that represent what they wish to come true in the future. In the next few days Cartago will be filled with over two million people celebrating this special day!

Updates from the phase one moustache competition... drum roll... In third place, we decided that everyone’s a winner here at Raleigh (apart from the actual winner, who actually won) so there is no third place. But we do have a second place… Keiner! Well done Kei. A unique design, neatly shaped and a decent amount of volume. Solid. But taking the lead with the majority vote we have… more drum rolls…. with an absolute howler – Cameron! Well done Cam.

Well done to all participants, a great effort from you all. It’s the taking part that counts. You can shave now.  

It’s Sabrina’s (Deputy Manager) birthday today – happy birthday Brie! To celebrate the field base team have decided to replace walking around the office with dancing! It’s the simple things in life. Pura vida.

Photo by Dawn Tennant

*Blog written by Dawn Tennant and photo’s by Kat Mammone, unless otherwise stated.

Zulus and Romeos

Our Zulu groups have been trekking hard through some of Costa Rica’s finest and most beautiful terrain over the last through days. We’re happy to say that all the groups are doing well do far.

Zulu 1 began their trek at Alto Palma. They spent the first day hiking to Caite where they were able to camp at a farm for the night. The next morning they continued on to the peak of Cerro Bares where they spent the night and woke up to a magnificent sunrise over the Pacific Ocean. Today they set off from Galan and are heading to Zapotal.

Zulu 2 began their trek at Rancho Largo and spent the first night in Upper Galan where. The group are currently making their way over to Bajo Quesado. They will spend the first half of the day heading towards Alto Palma where they will be able to witness some of the best views in the whole trek. They will spend the night sleeping at the edge of the ridge at Bajo Quesado with an incredible sunrise to wake up to in the morning.

Zulu 3 have so far made their way from Bajo Lanas over to the peak of Cerro Bares for an amazing morning’s sunrise to start the day. Today the team will be crossing the Rio Quirel, Rio Cajon West and Rio Cajon East until they reach the Iron Bridge – a magnificent bridge situated in between two stunning valleys. They’ll be spending the night here before the last day of trekking tomorrow.

Zulu 4 started their trek at Fundacion Ecotropica and ended their first day at Santa Rosa where they slept at the Ranger’s station. They then moved on to the peak of Cerro Bares. Today they will continue on to Piedra Vieja where they’ll be sleeping in a school for the night.

Safe to say all of our Zulu groups are doing well! Everyone is still in one piece, happy, healthy and most importantly enjoying themselves. Tomorrow is the last day of trekking for our Zulus before they will get ready for the second half of the phase and head to the mystery location to take part is some serious survival skills! We’d love to give you more information about this part but unfortunately we are sworn to secrecy. The field base team will be heading out to meet the guys at the mystery location in the next few days to help organize some of the fun and games, so more updates and pictures from that soon!

As for the Romeos, last night’s we all got well and truly stuck in to some Raleigh-oke. First song to get the ball rolling – Queen, 'Don’t Stop Me Now.' The venturers were up at dawn this morning to sort out a few final bits of packing before they loaded up the buses departed in their new Romeo groups for the start of phase two!

Pura vida!

*Blog written by Dawn Tennant and photos by Kat Mammone, unless otherwise stated.