Borders Exploration Group

Cuba 2012

Key Dates

• 21st to 22nd January (Saturday and Sunday only) – Cuba Training Weekend 4



• Friday 17th February – Fundraising Quiz at Selkirk High School



• 23rd to 25th March – Cuba Training Weekend 5



• 8th to 10th June – Cuba Training Weekend 6



• Thursday 28th June to Thursday 19th July – Cuba

Presentation Part 1

Presentation Part 2

Leader Selection Weekend

Ron's Leader Selection Weekend photos can be found on Facebook.

TV Quiz Answers

Many thanks to everyone who bought one of the quizzes, the winner was Sandy Bell from Newtown St. Boswells and a cheque for £50 will be heading his way as soon as I get a hold of our Treasurer to write one.

The best score was 86 / 90, and a good number of folk were also very close to that result with several scores of 85 and 84.

The most common errors were ones where we needed a wee bit more in the answer than most folk gave, such as Q65 - Really weird form of Elizabeth's initials - where the answer was "Bizarre E.R." rather than just "E.R.". Similarly Q86 - Which Medical man : in private - was "Doctor Who Confidential"

One or two answers had good suggestions for answers such as Q18 - What you ask if you don't know - where we needed "how do they do that", rather than "Question time" which many folk put in as answers Q42 was much the same - One of Grandparents, parents and children - was "Family Guy" where "My family" and "The Generation Game" were frequent answers.

Also thanks to one competitor (sorry the bit of paper got separated from the sheet with your name) who suggested showing the number of words in the answer, so I will do that for the next one.

Many thanks again to everyone who bought a quiz, by the looks of the state of some of the returned ones, a lot of time has been spent over these, sometimes with friends and neighbours called in to help and several cups of tea or coffee have left their impression too. :-)

Jim

Training Weekend 1

Friday

Our first Cuba training weekend started on Friday evening at Cappercleuch, St Mary’s Loch. Nearly all the ventures and a few new additions joined the team for the start of the training weekend. After everyone was accounted for, we began with some ice beakers in groups. This led everyone become more familiar with people in the team and was great fun especially when Jim was called a “fascist”. After this, the rules for the weekend were established and duties for the weekend. We then split into groups to plan our walk for the next day, two walks were planned for weather dependency. Finally, after a busy few hours, everyone found what space they could in the hall and tried to get a comfy sleep, many quite nervous about what Saturday would involve.

Saturday

After little sleep, a dose of extreme snoring and a bit of spooning, the team was ready to start the new day. After breakfast, the team spilt into two. Group one began by canoeing over the Loch to start the walk while the other group did some ice breaker games. Canoeing over the Loch was a success with no one falling in! When reaching the other side, we began the walk. The walk went around the forest, over the hills and back down. After numerous fails and the occasional break we reached the end where Ross decided to make up the “amazing” game of Dogfood. Back in the hall, the team dried off and were taught how to cook our dinner on trangias. After tidying up, we were given a spanish lesson by Paul and Patricia. We were taught some phrases that would hopefully be useful to us in Cuba. After a talk on the expedition and a night time tidy up outside, it was another race to get a comfy spot on the floor for some well needed sleep.

Sunday

After a sleep filled with even more snoring and the occasional funny noise from Dove, the team was up and ready for another day. Tidying up rucksacks was the teams first duty as the hall was needed for the fitness session. Fitness circuits, putting up tents, hygiene and bag packing was the plan for the morning. The fitness circuits definitely benefited us and some of us learnt how to put up a tent for the first time. After the morning activities, we returned back to the hall for some lunch and to see the Chile presentation. Afterwards, we split into groups that would investigate different parts of Cuba’s culture and history. Finally, a well needed clear up was done of the hall and it was home time. Over the first weekend, the team become extremely close and got to know each other really well so thanks for an amazing weekend guys and see you next time :D

Martha R and Eilidh J

Training Weekend 3

Friday 25th November 2011

It was our third Training weekend at Yarrowford Hall. We all met at Yarrowford at 7.30. We ,first of all, checked to see if we all had the appropriate kit with us and we all divided up to learn how to pack our bags correctly so that we knew where all of our kit would be in our bag in case of an emergency. It was a worthwhile lesson as we were going to be taking our rucksacks on an 8 hour hike and we needed to know where our waterproof clothing was and meanwhile try not to get our other kit wet if it was raining. Later on in the night a symbol was stuck onto our forehead and we had to go out in the dark into the field and find the symbol which resembled our symbol our forehead however we weren’t allowed to talk which made it very difficult trying to find out what symbol was on your forehead and then finding it in a huge field in the dark. Afterwards we went back to the warm cosy hall and warmed up with tea and coffee and began to wind down for bed. It was a fairly long afternoon but very enjoyable.

Saturday 26th November 2011

We woke up at 6.30 on Saturday morning. Everyone was still tired after having little sleep. We had our breakfast not long after getting up and we then had to pack our bags for an 8 hour hike. The weather looked promising from inside the hall but once we got out side we soon noticed that it was freezing. We were set challenges to find things on our hike like a stick over a meter and a feather and something dead. We started walking up the road towards a farm track and from then onwards it was all off road. The terrain was at points very wet but so far it hadn’t rained. Just before half way into the walk we were faced with a huge challenge. It was a very, very steep hill covered with heather and trees went up the sides. We had to co rite to the top of it. It went on for almost 400 yards, but looked like it went on for miles. At pointes we were on our hands and knees and it seemed to take forever but we all knew that we would be stopping at the top for lunch which made it all the more worthwhile. Closer to the end of the walk, just when we started to go back down hill, it started to rain and hail was pounding us. It nipped our faces but we were almost there. Once we got back we had a long and welcome rest and meanwhile we were told that all of the venturers would have to make dinner and decorate tables and that we would have two surprise guests. We all decided on a Scottish themed night and some of us went into Galashiels to buy decorations and food. We were going to be making Scotch broth with crusty bread, Mince and tatties and for desert ice cream and shortbread. The night went down a treat and the food was great and we were entertained by Caitlin playing the flute and Julia playing the fiddle. It was all well deserved after the 8 hour hike. Towards the end of the night we learnt some Spanish from Ross and Claire and played some fun games involving our Spanish which we had just learnt.

Sunday 27th November 2011

On Sunday we were woken up once again, very early. After breakfast we assembled into out groups and discussed plans for presentations we were making on Cuba, whether it be on its history, culture, language etc. We were then given a lesson on how to cross a river successfully indoors, as unfortunately(or perhaps fortunately, depending on how you look at it) the river outside was far too high to use. We then did a mock river crossing on the field behind the hall which was performed successfully. By the time we came in, it was time to pack away the soaking wet clothes and equipment and head off home.

Liam