A group of young Gibraltarians from the Open Award Centre leave on Saturday 6th July to travel to the French hills in order to complete their qualifying Gold Adventurous Journey.

A statement from the Open Award Centre follows below:

The 10 participants, whose ages range from 17 to 18 years, will be based in the Mont Lozère area,

which encompasses the Parc National de Cevénnes and shall be there until the 13th July; to complete the AJ, which for most participants is the most arduous part of the Award Programme.  The AJ entails travelling approximately 80 kilometres by foot over four days with three nights spent under canvas.  The participants will carry all their food, tents, stoves, fuel and other equipment in their rucksacks for these four days as they are expected to be self-sufficient during the venture.

As if that is not enough, they are expected to do this in unfamiliar wild country and do so by navigating their way along a pre-planned route, hopefully without deviating too much and definitely without getting lost!!  But that is not all, the Award requires that participants have a Team Goal, "a journey with a purpose", and to this end they will need to, after the AJ, produce a deliver a presentation to the AJ assessor.  The Team Goal is of their choosing and needs to be relevant to the area they are visiting.

At base camp the participants will spend the first day acclimatising to the area, sorting out all their food and equipment and also brushing up on their map reading skills.  They will also need to become familiar with the local conditions regarding hiking in the region as well as brushing up on their French, just in case they need to ask for assistance.

Following the initial familiarisation period the participants will then start the adventurous journey proper.  During this period they will be monitored by independent Assessors, Alison and Brian Evans, who will determine if the participants are observing the correct Country Code procedures, correctly navigating across the various parts of the country and, meeting the conditions for a qualifying venture.

Over the last twelve months, the local participants have been busy conducting practice camps in the south of Spain and completing their various academic examinations.  The cost of the trip is being met from a variety of sources which include, monies raised by the participants through personal and parental contributions; the Government’s youth grant; and the Award itself.  The Award and participants would like to thank H. M. Government of Gibraltar Youth Grants for their financial support.

Adult leaders, Romany Vinent, Gaby Grech and Michael Pizzarello, who are acting as supervisors and, as such, shall be responsible for the general safety and wellbeing of the participants whilst away from the Rock, accompany the participants.  The Award and the participants want to thank them for all the time they have spent over the year in getting the participants ready for the qualifying adventurous journey and for accompanying them on this venture.