Earlier this month the Year 6 students of the British School of Colombo came to stay at Borderlands - this was the third year running Borderlands has hosted this adventure education programme for the school and according to Mr Ben Evans, the Junior School Principal, this was the best trip yet.
An amazing opportunity for 60+ kids, many of who were leaving home without their parents for the first time, and for many more the first time sleeping in a tent, and definitely the first time challenging themselves in such a brave and determined way on many of the activities we introduced them to.
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| Thaabit and "The A Team" |
I will leave Nirmal, one of our trainee guides, to describe this life changing experience for the kids and teachers of BSC and we look forward to welcoming them back year after year we hope!
"We recently had the pleasure of welcoming the sixth grade
students of British School Colombo along with their teachers to our river base
camp in kitulgala for a three day youth leadership program. 60 eleven year old
students together with 5 energetic teachers enjoyed their time with us Hiking,
canyonning, rafting and not forgetting the dancing! It was definitely a dream
adventure come true for the kids and a life changing experience for some of the
teachers.
The kids started their adventure by hiking up to a historic cave
in the vicinity of Kitulgala known as Belilena Cave, which was the home to the
ancient “Balangoda Man”, dating back 16,000 years. The kids took up the challenge of the hike in good spirit and
enjoyed it right throughout. The cave itself amazed all the kids and the
shower afterwards in the waterfall over the mouth of the cave was, in their own
words “SO COOL!”
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| Trekking through local rubber and tea plantations |
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| Cooling down under Belilena Waterfall with Yohan |
As night fell the usual sounds of the surrounding nature was
drowned by the noise of sixty kids in their pyjamas singing, clapping, shouting
and more shouting!
Day Two started with the morning exercises as usual and the
highlight of the day was the canyoning. The kids were simply GREAT! Whether it was
jumping of 20 foot rocks cliffs in to pools, sliding down water slides or
crawling on the rocks the kids did it with a smiling face even if they had
shivering legs.
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| Mahesh leads the morning excercises |
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| River Crossing provides a chance for some good Team Work! |
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| First to Take the Jump in the Canyon! |
The night time energy was taken up to a whole new level with
the stereo blasting dance music and the kids......well going CRAZY dancing! Dinner
subdued the party atmosphere and as the day was coming to an end the
marshmallows appeared to be roasted on the campfire.
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| Kids take to the makeshift Dancefloor |
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| Dancing makes us HUNGRY! |
Rafting was definitely making the kids excited! While some
of the kids took on the white waters of the Kelani River the others took on the
“Mini Amazing Race – Borderlands, and that was then that. The end of another exciting and fun filled adventure with the students of British School.
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| Year 6 British School Colombo - June 2012 |
Thanks kids for being such great sports and we hope to see you back here once you join the Senior School! Thanks for the Adventure”
