On Tuesday 5 July 2016 a group of 25 Year 12 and 13 students and 4 members of staff set off from Farnborough Hill on our big adventure to visit Southern India. We flew to Chennai in South East India, where we split into 2 groups and went our separate ways.
What an adventure we had – we experienced Indian culture, cooking, hygiene, hostels, schools and temperatures. We travelled on trains (some overnight sleepers), cars, little buses, jeeps and tuktuks. We trekked in the beautiful hills and mountains and did a safari where we saw lots of different animals. We saw elephants and some of us had the opportunity to wash an elephant which was amazing. A highlight was the “project” when we volunteered for a week. This involved living and working with a community and included planting trees (mainly mango and silver oak), going into schools to meet the children and helping women terrace a hill and clear a road. We ended the trip with some rest and relaxation on houseboats in Kerala which is in South West India, from where we flew home.
We arrived home safely 3 weeks later very, very tired, but happy and with many lovely memories.