I have finally had the long anticipated practice camp for Mongolia.
It was a 2 day and one night camp to the Manjedal activity centre, where we camped.
We arrived at Manjedal and gathered in our group of all the kids going to Mongolia from Melville SHS and met with our World Challenge guide Gary. Gary will be our guide for the duration of the Mongolia trip as well.
We started the day off with Gary reviewing everyone’s medical information sheets and making sure they are up to date. This was a long process and as you can tell was VERY exciting.. not.
In the mean time we organised our team roles and got our bags ready for the upcoming hike.
Once Gary was done we had a talk about how to adjust our straps on our bags and how some emergency scenarios would play out. Such as what to do when you are being kidnapped (kick and scream) or how to activate the emergency beacon.
After he was done we began the trek.
The trek was roughly 4.5km and is only around one fifth of what we would be doing each day in Mongolia. We spent the time practicing walking with our bags and occasionally stopping to have a talk with our guide about the experiences and scenarios we will encounter on our journey in Mongolia. After a couple of hours of trekking we reached our camp site.
We began executing our roles and working as a team to complete the tasks that were at hand for example, cooking, setting up tents and collecting equipment needed. It was really fun to see how well we work as a team and how things will go in Mongolia. We set up all the equipment and proceeded to make dinner….. Pasta!
We spent a while preparing the different ingredients and we were finally finished, it tasted really good. Every night in Mongolia we will be cooking and preparing our own meal and every day switching over the roles. After dinner we all sat down and had a good time laughing, I really enjoyed getting to know the people that will be with me as a part of the expedition.
We slept in a tent, this camp was the perfect time to test my equipment and make sure everything was working well. My sleeping bag and mat are really comfortable and it will be perfect for getting a good nights rest.
During the night I suddenly woke up to a sniffling sound coming from outside the tent. I carefully and quietly opened the entrance to the tent, making sure not to wake my friends who were still sleeping. I opened the zipper of the tent and there looking right back at me was a kangaroo trying to get into our bags! It gave me quite a fright but it was really awesome to see.
In the morning my friends and I prepared breakfast and boiled water while everyone else started the process of taking everything back down. We cleaned all the equipment and returned it.
Before we go to Mongolia we have to make a list of all the equipment and food we need for the whole duration of the trip and buy it during our stay in the capital of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar.
We once again prepared our bags and started the trek back to the entrance of Manjedal.
I learnt many valuable tips and advice that I will use during my expedition in Mongolia, I also learnt that there is a lot of work involved in preparing for the trip but I think that all our work will pay off when we land in Mongolia.
We arrived back at the entrance and awaited pick up by our parents. I had a great time and can’t wait to go to Mongolia!
