Year 12 CAS Trip to Cortes de la Frontera

This is Chloe Cameron’s review about their trip:

On the 10th and 11th of October, the current Year 12’s of Aloha College went on our first CAS trip. After a two-hour bus drive up into the mountains, we arrived at a cluster of cabins in the forests of Cortes de la Frontera. We spent two days and one night there, along with an Adventurebug team, doing a whole range of activities and tasks.

Upon arriving, we had lunch and were assigned to our cabins where we got ready for our first wave of activities and challenges. Split into big groups of up to 15 people, we learnt (not without a little difficulty at first) how to share our ideas, work together, listen to each other and exercise our patience as we attempted to build catapults, climb trees, clamber through nets and actually hit the target in archery.

Being away from the vast amount of technological distractions we have today, we were able to enjoy and appreciate the stunning surroundings and grow closer as a whole year, integrating as one body rather than remaining separated into our “social groups”. We were told that we would be “taken out of our comfort zone” and certainly some of us were but that being said; everyone participated with enthusiasm and as a result we had many laughs. Not only was there more interaction between us students, but also between the students and the teachers that accompanied us on the trip; a late-afternoon game of football with mixed teams of boys, girls, students and teachers sparked some friendly competition and a fun set of matches. After a night time game involving the kidnapping and rescue of myself and three other peers in a dark forest, we all went to bed bearing the fatigue of an action-packed day.

The following morning we managed to get ourselves up at an early hour to then take part in some relaxing morning meditation as the sun flooded the valley; a truly breath-taking picture. Once fed, re-energised and in our designated groups again, we began what became an extremely competitive activity: an obstacle course through the forest that involved crawling under cargo nets and swinging on a rope! After being told by one of the Adventurebug team that “it’s not about the destination but more about the journey”, we set off on a three-hour trek through the rolling hills and valleys to then conclude the whole trip with lunch in the quaint village square of Cortes. Surprising ourselves by wishing the trip had been longer, we boarded the bus and made our way back home, tired from our intense, two-day adventurous experience.

By going on the trip we were given the opportunity to learn more about our peers and ourselves and we were also able to find or enhance our spirit for adventure, discovery and passion for challenges for success in life, which isn’t achieved purely by studying!

Tags

SUBSCRIBE
TO NEWSLETTER

Swag ramps hoodie keffiyeh yr knausgaard cronut semiotics you probably haven’t heard of them.

[mc4wp_form id=”309″]