“Geocaching”

Today, monday the 1st february, we had our next day trip organised by the norwegian outdoor education students. Topic of the day was „Geocaching“. A day before, the Norwegians told us to bring our sleeping bag, sleeping mat, knife, first aid kit, thermo bottle, water, food for lunch, compass, map holder, an extra set of clothes and a lighter or matches for this monday. I couldn’t imagine what we needed all that stuff for, but I was excited to find out. Unfortunately it was raining heavily and because there was no snow left, I met the others at Spicheren with hiking boots and waterproof clothes.

The Norwegians divided us into two groups and two of them escorted each group to show us the tasks on our way to the lunch place. They showed us on the map where to go, committed the leadership to the group and just observed and took care that nothing happened. On the way we had to manage two tasks. We splitted up into three groups with three people each. My teammates were Stella and Kristian. First challenge was a relay race where we had to run in the first round, followed by walking and carrying one of our team members as fast as we could. That was the moment when our winning spree began. Like this challenge, we also won the second challenge before lunch, where we had to rebuild a building of coloured logs by sending one of the group on a hill, on which the building was placed. Some minutes later we also finished that challenge as the first team because we worked  together very well as a team.

When we arrived at the lunch place, our last task before lunch was to lighten a fire against as quick as possible. In spite of the rain, we managed it pretty fast to make a good fire – especially because Chris took the lead and told us what to do. When the other group arrived we had lunch together.

With a filled stomache and very wet clothes we continued our trip after lunch by walking into the direction of the university. On a small hill, the Norwegians called us to build one tower out of wood per team. Winning team was the team who built the highest tower in 10 minutes by just putting the wood horizontally on top of each other. My good teamwork with Stella and Kristian payed out once again and we won the challenge. Last task for us was to bring a teammate  with a „broken leg“ to a point and back, stabilize his leg, carry him the same distance again, and finally carry him that distance once more.

That race was very close, but sadly we did not manage to be undefeated the whole day. Be that as it may, that challenge was pretty much fun, carrying one of the team around as fast as possible or being carried around by the others.

The tasks the Norwegians organized for us were very diverse and motivated us to play even in the rain. They observed us without removing our freeplay. This good organisation and leadership payed off beacause the whole group was motivated and had a very good day.

I liked the opportunity to practice my map reading and to get to know some of the Norwegians better by competing in the same team with them. I hope the trips organised by us will be as good as the days the Norwegians have organised.