Bronze Level Adventurous Journey

Twenty Award participants of Harvest International School accompanied by four mentors went to Prashar Lake on November 2, 2017 for two nights and three days to fulfil the requirement of IAYP Bronze Adventurous Journey. Before departure, the participants were given an in-depth training on tent-pitching, cooking, first-aid, team building, etc.

The participants began their journey at 8 pm on November 2. They reached the base camp (Baggi village) at 6 am the next morning. After having breakfast at 8 am, the students and mentors started the 8 -10 km. trek to Prashar Lake, situated at 2700 meters. During the course of their 8 hours of trekking, they crossed a stream, rocky terrain, dense forest, and meadows. While trekking, they also explored the flora and fauna of the region. They stopped on the way to prepare lunch for themselves at about 1 pm in the afternoon. They reached the destination (Prashar Lake) at 4 pm. They remained busy pitching their tents for an hour at the campsite. Then they collected wood for the bonfire. After dinner, they slept for the night in their tents.

The next morning, after waking up at 6 am, some of them played cricket while others played football to warm up for the day. After breakfast the students went for a hike 3 km deep in the forest. They discovered a cave in the forest. They had a bonfire in the cave and relished tea which they had brought with them. After the cave adventure, the participants visited the temple, which is located close to the lake. They researched about the temple and the lake by interacting with the priest and the locals. At noon, the students scaled a steep hill close by. The summit of the hill gave them a panoramic view of the entire region. Later, the participants took to cooking their food. They were assigned various tasks, for example, collecting and chopping the wood for the fire, cleaning the utensils, cutting the vegetables, etc., and finally they collaborated to cook dinner consisting of rice, dal and vegetables. The entire process took 4 hours. After dinner, the students pitched the tents and had a bonfire.

Next morning the team returned to base camp and from there after travelling for 12 hours returned to school. Click for pictures of this journey

Development and Maintenance of School Garden

About 20 Award participants of Harvest International School, initiated the project: “Development and Maintenance of School Garden” under the guidance of mentors Deepak Sharma, Pooja Gupta and Vinita Seth.

They selected a piece of land and started from scratch. Initially, there were only 13 participants, but as the weeks passed by more and more participants joined the project. They started by making the land suitable for gardening by tilling the land and adding fertile soil and manure to it.

The participants designed the garden and did fencing. of the garden by planting flowering shrubs. They selected the areas for developing a lawn and planted grass. They demarcated a medicinal plants section and planted medicinal plants on it. Since the inception of the project, students have been involved in tending the garden, adding soil and manure, and the planting of grass, flowering, ornamental and medicinal plants. They maintain the garden by weeding, watering and planting new plants on a regular basis. Click here for more pictures

Adventure Trip to Prashar Lake

Trilok Singh, Award Leader from Harvest International School, Ludhiana is sharing his report on the Bronze Level Adventurous Journey.

The nine-hour-long haul to Himachal started on 15th October 2016 at around 9.30 pm. Nine hours later journeying in two tempo travellers we reached our destination and base camp, Baggi, which is roughly 10 km from Prashar Lake. This group comprised two Award Leaders, two mentors and eighteen Bronze level aspirants.

The trekking adventure started immediately after breakfast, when the participants climbed the challenging track into a beautiful new world. The arduous climb presented many difficulties but operating as a team they made light work of it. The group took a well-earned break at the half-way point, stopping at a couple of houses where they were allowed to use the facilities. The participants made food for everyone with the limited available resources.

At 7.00 pm, as we dragged our weary limbs onto the shores of Prashar, its stunning beauty erased all our aches and pains. The participants set about pitching the tents immediately, before the sun could go down. The participants worked in three groups with one leader. With the help of the mentors and Award Leaders, the participants built fires and set about preparing the evening meal. This self cooked meal by the participants was enjoyed together, sitting on the ground around the campfire. After dinner the participants spent some time together discussing and planning the next day's activities.

The early morning sun heralded a fabulous day and spurred the participants to accomplish all the necessary camp tasks with alacrity. Soon the fire was lit for a breakfast, prepared as a group. The day was passed in many adventurous activities like practicing the tent pitching, rope activities, and understanding of camp craft and equipment. The mentors explained the navigation techniques to the participants.

In the evening the participants packed their tents and returned to base camp ’Baggi’. After reaching the base camp site, the participants pitched camp, lit a fire and enjoyed a small dance party; food was then prepared and eaten by firelight and then straight to sleep as an early start was required the next morning.

Next morning everyone was up at 6.00 am, ready to pack tents and load equipment into the tempo travellers again. It was challenging work for us since nobody wanted to break the spell the beautiful location cast upon us. It was a wonderful experience that gave us a new way to look and explore mother nature.