Preparation for Iron Will
Shackleton Tent
: Gary Prins, Michael O'Brien and Benito Bidoli
Our 7th week at Quest started with an intellectual PT session with Mr Leared. He gave us some tips about journaling and writing in general which I think most of the lads took to heart. His feedback about our journal writing thus far was also greatly valued. Some of the group were also involved in a mock up interview scenario with members of the Falcon Etiquette Society. Everyone got a chance to be interviewed for a chosen job, and also to sit on a panel to do the interviewing. The rest of the day was spent preparing for two days of Iron Will training.
We started the "mini" Iron Will with a 40km cycle around Esigodini, followed by a 10km hike. It was a tough cycle with a number of steep up hills and bad roads. Most of the guys were pushed to their limits cycling through the blazing heat, all the while having to navigate to checkpoints with a GPS. The cycle was followed by an 8km hike where the navigation was even more important. One group skipped out on the hike due to one of their tyres bursting on the cycle, resulting in them pushing their bikes for the last 8km over rocky terrain.
After a well-deserved rest camping out in Quiet Waters we set off on the second day with 6km of orienteering followed by another 21km cycle. At the end of the day we were all exhausted. It was a really good experience which was a good taster of what we will be facing during Iron Will. We also had a trip to town on Saturday where we sampled the delights of the ‘bend over’ market and went to Bulawayo’s only movie house to watch the latest Marvel movie.
The next two days of the week were spent doing some natural acumen around Quiet Waters with Mr. McDonald as well as Media with Mr. M. We had some close up Natural Acumen to deal with when we found a spitting cobra in Oscar’s drawer! This poor snake was ‘dealt with’ but not after a fair amount of girly hysteria from certain Questors! It was an interesting two days and we learned much in preparation for Kariba where our new media skills will be put to the test.