The two Friluftsliv year groups joined again at Spicheren, then we walked over to the huts past the playground a little South. Here, after a very brief walk and talk we were placed in groups of four with a rough even mix between the previous groups. Once split out, with the maps we had brought we were given an additional map with several locations we had to arrive at. After finding our start point, we were tasked to draw our route and present it to one of the session leaders.

The groups set off intermittently after taking the time they needed, and many were simply following until we were into Jegersberg – which resulted in some confusion upon that happening.

Our route was in a fairly circular arc, passing a few lakes and points of interest along the way. A side exercise was to complete some sort of creative photo with your whole group at each point and share it with the rest of the groups afterwards for a winner to be selected. This added further competition to the day and was useful (subtly or not) for persuading everyone to get their head in the task.

It’s that way.

The group I found myself in was fairly evenly split with those who were keen on learning, and those who felt they had already learned a little so would hang back on taking responsibility. In my experience this was helpful, as it took a more active and leading approach to finish the tasks.

With such small groups in relation to the whole cohort, it was enjoyable to have some more time with fewer people and to see how we interacted with one another throughout the day – particularly when difficulties or disagreements arose. However, with such a focused group it would take many sessions for a large group to integrate. Perhaps it would have been a better suited format for a later date, though for some i.e. the more introverted, it may well be the ideal routine every time.

The whole day was totally flexible, entirely dependent on our abilities and want for pace to complete the tasks. There was no time or place to meet the others, only a spot online to post our result pictures. I appreciated this independence and thought it quite suitable for the task provided. A time limit might have stressed those with less experience to make more mistakes and have less fun. As it was a beautiful day there seemed no need to rush.