Surviving Survival Week - Men's Core 2019
By Oliver Bidwell, Callum Skinner and Christopher Tennick of Fiennes Tent
The first week of Quest is a tough one! Twenty-four boys are thrown together and pushed to their limits physically and mentally.
After a pleasant first evening of drinks and introductions, we were rapidly thrown into the Quest Fitness Test (QFT). This consists of push ups, pull ups, press ups and a 2.3km run. This test provides a base for us to work on our fitness levels. After this, the rest of the day was pretty chilled as we familiarised ourselves with our surroundings and sorted out our camping kit. We were also ready for our next PT session! So it was a surprise when we were woken up at 2.30am and told we were going into the bush for an undetermined amount of time.
It turned out to be an incredibly tough week of hiking, carrying people on stretchers and navigating the bush, completing various team building tasks along the way. It was a relief to reach camp every night but even then we were unsure as to how much rest we would actually get. Food and water were rationed and scarce so tensions would occasionally run high but everyone pulled together to help each other when it counted. From gutting fish and chicken, to pushing a tractor tyre up a hill, we have all faced challenges this week. However the sense of achievement as we arrived back at the Quest campus was unparalleled. Being able to watch the sun set on Saturday evening from the top of Usindisa with a cold beer in hand, seemed to make all the hardships worth it!
Quest has certainly begun to build an armoury of ‘weapons’. Quote of the week: “Is Zimbabwe in South Africa?”
