Saints Trek 2019

November 11, 2019 | Boys’ College | Author: Gretchen Maruggi, Director: Round Square

In conjunction with Stanford Lake College, St Stithians Girls’ and Boys’ Colleges, six boys participated in this year’s annual ‘Saints Trek’ which took place during the August holidays.  

The Saints Trek was initiated as a Round Square project to incorporate various aspects of the vision, namely service to others, challenge and responsibility, all within a global perspective. The project aims to challenge participants both mentally and physically. Their intellectual, social and physical boundaries are tested and expanded as they function in a completely unknown physical and social environment.

 

The Saints Trek is a 10 day adventure programme incorporating two components:

Phase 1: Service Project

The Saints Trek party spent five days working at Glenshiel School where they built a jungle gym from scratch, a vegetable garden, they cleaned out the classrooms, installed a TV, painted the floor of the eating area and painted games on the ground (Hopscotch) for the children.  They also engaged with the children on a daily basis and read to them, played games and participated in classroom activities.

 

Phase 2: Adventure Challenge

Over a period of 4 nights and 5 days, the participants hiked in some of the most beautiful scenery in South Africa in the Magoebaskoof mountain ranges. Vistas ranged from grassland plateaus to mountains and river gorges. The students were required to navigate themselves, also carrying their own backpacks with bedding and food for the duration of the hike.

Although there were some tough times (hiking up a steep mountain to the ‘Iron Crown’, exhaustion and a wild fire) the students reported that it was an experience that they would do again in a heartbeat.

 

Well done to Kyle Parker, Justin Gouws, Nathan Hoffman, Theo Dieltjens, Kyle Cohead and Samuel Taylor for participating and completing this wonderful adventure.

 

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