Bronze

My favourite memory of the Award was cooking our dinner at dusk on the first day and in the early morning of the second day of the expedition. It was a rather nippy morning so we were all very cold (it was mid-October) and still a bit sleepy, but it was fun whipping up breakfast under the still-dark sky, talking about our experience so far and it was very satisfying when the food was ready! As we ate, the sun began to rise and to witness that change in the sky was amazing! :-)

14

The biggest challenge was to be able to do some of the sections regularly, as sometimes I did not have enough time with other activities and school work, but I managed to fit them in anyway and keeping a routine became easier over time. I have now completed 3 of the sections and very nearly at the end of my last section!

Belgium

I have continued all my activities and I have nearly finished my Bronze. I have finished the Voluntary Service, Physical and Adventurous Journey sections and I have nearly achieved my goal for the Skills section, which was to improve my technique and gain more skills on the violin by playing ‘Fantasie uber Carmen’ by Franz Drdla for a concert.

Here is a picture of my Bronze team spelling out the word BRONZE after a break, as we got closer towards the end of our Qualifying Journey. We all agreed that we made a great team! This was taken in front of Zwart Water (one of the sites of our study), an area classified as a landscape with both marsh and riparian vegetation and pine forest. It is fenced off due to the vulnerability of the area and I learned so much about water life during this trip. The water has a strong attraction on waterfowl –hundreds of ducks gather here, especially in autumn and winter while in early spring, amphibians such as the common toad, brown frog, moor frog, green frog and Alpine newt lay their eggs in the shallow water.

Participant