Leaving Raleigh (September 2008)

Our last few days on Raleigh were filled with lots of fun! On our first day we did lots of tidying of group kit and a bit of personal packing. In the afternoon we met up with out group from Phase 1 to discuss what we’d learnt, what we would take from the experience etc. Then in the evening awards were given out to the biggest faffer, best cripple, most eligible male/female, best cook, best dancer and the man up award (people who’d been a total wuss and then learnt to not complain and just get on with it!). We did our final skits which involved trekking onto the stage in just our undergarments and rucksacks! The field base people had dressed up in superhero costumes this time! The following day was the Olympics so we had to come up with a National Anthem (Jingle Bells!), and make a flag. We also stripped off to become Alpha Naked again and did our faces up so we looked like The Joker out of the new Batman film! The games were very varied: welly wanging where you had to hit one of the PMs to get points, jeep pulling, jelly throwing (most times you could hit your PM with it!), longest slide down soaped up plastic sheeting, food race (eating watermelon, M+Ms out of porridge etc in fastest time) and sleeping bag wrestling. It was as fun to watch as it was taking part! I did a bit of shopping in the afternoon to find something tidy to wear for the black tie dinner we were having in the evening, and also for some souvenirs. Everyone was all dressed up and looking nice and the PMs were serving us ginger ale and pre-dinner nibbles. Then we sat down at the nicely candle-lit, dressed-up table and were served proper plastic plates!! The meal was delicious veggies in some sort of tasty sauce! For pudding the guys/girls that had hooked up had the guys presenting the girls with a slice of cake, everyone else had a sort of banoffee pie and I had a vegan version of the Energy Bombs that people had had on trek, but with bananas. We had another party starting off with some Scottish Dancing (Gay Gordons etc), then another party. We didn’t sleep much as buses were leaving at 3am, 5am, 6am and 9am. I was on the 6am with all the other white water rafters. We got up to say goodbye to everyone and there were a few tears shed and lots of hugs!