Today’s Monday lesson was very different compared to previous Monday’s because we actually veered off on a different track in Jegersberg, rather than staying on the traditional 4km route like always, even the beginning of the trip started differently, with a practical quiz.

As usual we met a Spicheren around 0900, before we set off though, we had a quiz game in order to warm us up mentally. This consisted of using the tightrope attached to two trees outside Spicheren, and answering questions to win points. This was fun because it set up the competitiveness for the day , although it wasn’t sure if we would actually just be doing this all day.

After establishing two groups, we headed off to Jegersberg but took a different track rather than the usual one every previous Monday, this was exciting to us because we hadn’t seen much else of Jegersberg, or even how large the area was.

We started on the side track heading up hill with a small group in charge of navigation which was established at the beginning of the walk, this would prove to be quite easy, but at times hard enough to make us stop and think. At certain points of the walk, the terrain became quite comedic to the less able walkers, the snow and ice was still established this far up and walking up a steep hill was hard, but very fun to watch. It allowed us to keep warm and make sure we were concentrating enough.

At certain points throughout the day we stopped for small activities ran by the different people in charge, ranging from team relay race to creating a human ladder to retrieve the parachute. They all have a sense of team cohesion built in and made us communicate with each other and think.

When we reached the highest point of the day we had lunch around the typical camp fire, with the Norwegians pulling out hot sandwiches and hot dogs like usual. We stopped here for around 30 minutes because heading back towards the university, as this was a new part of Jegersberg to me, I had no idea where we were, so made sure I stuck close to the group, after a while it became apparent where we were, right back at the first side track.

View just before lunch

Overall I thought today was a success because of how different it was compared to previous Mondays, the group leaders made sure everyone was working hard and communicating effectively.