Photograph of the World Challenge group, Kyrgyzstan 2008. Front page of the RGS Review 2008, RGS Archives
World Challenge
Explore the history of our World Challenge expeditions since 1998, as told by Duncan Wilson (staff 1990-2025).
In the September of 1997, the then Headmaster, James FX Miller (staff 1994-2008), asked me to organise a World Challenge Expedition (WCE) for our 6th form students.
The WCE ethos was that month-long expeditions to some of the more unusual corners of the earth should be totally student organised and led, with WCE and the accompanying staff present only to step in during emergencies. The theory was for students to learn leadership skills, self-reliance and teamwork and anything else that may confront them. They also took part in charitable work in-country along with a lengthy trek.
I was lucky enough to be involved in 5 of the first 6 of these adventures and it was a massive learning experience for me and for my other RGS colleagues involved in these trips too.
Venezuela 1998 (1 team)
Nepal 2000 (2 teams)
Peru 2002 (3 teams)
Mexico 2006 (2 teams)
Kyrgyzstan 2008 (1 team)
Photograph of the World Challenge group in Venezuela, 1998. RGS Archives [ref: Acc 0317]
There are too many tales and stories to recount even a fraction here, but strong memories remain from all of trips. VENEZUELA 1998
In Venezuela, the team had to jump from the dugout canoe into foaming rapids to part haul our vessel over the rocks in the turbulent waters to journey on upstream to Angel Falls. The same team endured a local reprisal in a shanty town outside Barquisimeto where, when clearing a site for the building of a community health centre, we inadvertently destroyed a local leader’s secret marijuana crop. A very hasty retreat aided by a military attachment followed!
NEPAL 2000
Nepal featured the longest of the treks with 21 days spent moving through the monsoon in the Himalayas. Those present will recall “Leachfest 2000” every bit as bad as it sounds. The last night of that expedition was heralded by our guide from the trek, Lhakpa, an expert mountain guide and Buddhist monk, turning up at our hotel to conduct a moving Buddhist prayer service for our safe journey home having described the team as the best he had ever had the privilege to lead.
Photograph of the World Challenge in Nepal, 2000. RGS Archives [ref: Acc 0317]
World Challenge expedition to Peru, 2002. From the 2002 RGS Yearbook, RGS Archives
PERU 2002
Peru saw one of the moments that one dreads and pushed the qualities of all those present to extremes.An awful accident on a 4500-metre mountain pass left a mangled bus lying at the base of the cliff. The horror of the incident can only be matched by the pride I felt for the way that, despite the freezing temperatures and thin air, RGS students calmly handled the situation, setting up a makeshift medical station on our bus, bring up the wounded, finding lost infants and carrying out the dead. We treated and stabilised over 40 injured and returned every lost infant to a parent. After several hours we heard that the emergency services had finally managed to get through the snow and road blockages to take over.
MEXICO 2006
Mexico posed its own challenges as the team carried out charity work in a remote village high on a plateau close to the desert. Felling trees and making classroom furniture was tough enough in the 45°C heat of the day but digging a drainage system to keep the winter storms from flooding the school, proved a significant task with only simple hand tools. Two students were on constant water purification duty to keep everyone hydrated. 6 months later, we received a letter via WCE from the school’s teachers. The drainage ditches had worked and for the first year ever the school had remained unflooded and open throughout the rainy season, with the gratitude of pupils, parents and staff there.
KYRGYZSTAN 2008
Kyrgyzstan was not short of its adventures either. Little was known about the central Asian Republic, recently independent from the Soviet Union. Mountainous and subject to extreme weather moving across the land brought its own complications. The Conan-esque incident of being escorted to a yurt by beweaponed horsemen in wool and furs and walking between them to meet the tribal chief and gain his permission to cross the land, was as amazing as it was surreal. Less amazing was sealing agreement by sharing a bowl of fermented mare’s milk. If you are ever offered the chance to try this concoction, smile politely and leave quickly!
WCE continued at the school for several years in the very capable hands of Miss Etherington, but as the company passed from independent ownership into a much more commercial enterprise, she and I felt that it no longer met our requirements as a school.
However, for all the years we ran the expeditions, everyone who took part was influenced by them and grew significantly as human beings. As one headmaster said:
“We took them out as children, they came back adults ready to take their place in the world”.
I appreciate how fortunate I was to be so heavily involved, and I am forever grateful for the fortitude and resourcefulness of all who took part.