|FIELDNEWS|
EXPEDITIONS | TRAINING | RESEARCH
VOLUME 14 - AUG 2010
Sabah Youth Conservation Expedition
It's been a really busy summer period for us out in Borneo with school expedition teams, mountain bike holidays and the usual array of training, expeditions and rigging. A particular highlight was the Sabah Youth Conservation expedition. We enjoyed their focus on educational expeditions and were delighted that they were able to fund 5 local Malaysian students from a children's home we have worked with over the last three years, to join them. Photographer Quentin Lake was also there - if you'd like to enjoy some of his amazing photos and find out more about the trip, see their blog as well as Quentin's site to buy prints.Journey of a Lifetime
It's rare that the whole Fieldskills team comes together on one project but this very thing happened in July in setting up an amazing trip across Borneo for British Charity, Journey of a Lifetime Trust. Their “tip to tip to top of Borneo journey” took 24 disabled and disadvantaged young people from Tanjung Datu National Park at the southern tip of Sarawak, to Sandakan in the East of Sabah and eventually ended on the northern tip of the island. We worked with the team throughout the design and implementation of the trip and on one occasion we had Dom Hall from the UK office running jungle survival skills sessions for the group with local expert Hanry Daud, a large logistics team from Fieldskills Adventures under Simon managing jungle camping, food and transport and the Ropeskills Rigging team using rope access techniques to allow all of the team including the wheel chair users to safely access Maliau’s canopy Sky Bridge.
You can see more more about this amazing charity at www.jolttrust.org.uk.
Psychological issues on Expeditions
The majority of people travelling with expedition organisations such as Fieldskills return happy, full of stories, and counting the days until their next trip. Some, however, may have found their trip a challenge, not only due to physical exertion, but also due to the psychological demands of the trip.Mental illness is common, and of course, any individual may suffer from emotional problems whilst overseas. Therefore ability to recognise warning signs and know the appropriate steps to take is a valuable skill when on expedition.
We have published a longer article on this issue via our facebook page in conjunction with InterHealth and will be attending their seminar on the 21st September 2010 entitled ‘Recognising and Coping with Psychological Health Issues in Volunteers and Expeditioners’. For more information click here or call 0207 902 9000.
Course Focus
EXPEDITION PLANNING AND LEADING
EXPEDITION PLANNING AND LEADING
The expedition industry offers many exciting opportunities to lead trips all round the world - but building up the skills and experience to get that work, or even knowing where to start, is not easy. That's where our, 'Get into Expeditions' courses come in. There are also lots of people who end up working in remote places and want to know how to plan their trips, what to do if things go wrong and learn some of the skills involved in managing groups in remote areas. All this and more is covered on our expedition courses on October 9th and 10th near Oxford. Find out more.Fingers Crossed for Training Award...
At a time our training is growing and being taken on by more Universities, schools and expedition organisations we're delighted to have been shortlisted in the final three for the Westmorland Gazette Business and Tourism awards in best training business category. The only downside is that we have to attend a posh awards dinner and Dom may have to buy a suit and brush his hair!
