chasingthesuneast

New Zealand has no time for the Ego.

Posted on October 22, 2017 by chasingthesuneast

We are teaching in what I believe to be the most interesting, challenging and diverse environments ever known by teachers. In a world of so many unknowns, yet so much information we find ourselves paralysed and overloaded with advice and predictions for the future.

Let me share with you my New Zealand teaching experience 2 months in, with some examples, comparisons and the need to stay present and build awareness and strength of mind personally and professionally.

Things to note:

The young people in the school I teach are referred to as, ‘learners’ I will write about ‘kids’ and ‘pupils’ too.
I have included some leadership and Maori proverbs as a wee cultural link.
All text is my opinion and reflections based on my experience.

The bell rang 5 minutes ago.

8.35am comes around and I walk to my ACG (academic counselling group) most of you know as ‘regi’ and I greet my class of year 10’s (3^rdyears). There is no bell, no warning bell, no bells all day ever! There isn’t surge of pupils through the door all at once, just a steady stream arriving on their watch followed by finding a seat and out comes their phone to start their snapchat story for the day.

Very different to the bell ringing and having accountability of calling upon the bell as a verbal warning or signal for the start of the school day. To my amazement most of the kids are waiting at the classroom door before I arrive and the same applies to classes throughout the day.

Because the pupils are actually given the responsibility to tell the time (not difficult when they have their phones in hand all day) they arrive early in many cases.

For me as the teacher, I no longer experience that dreaded ‘bell anxiety’ that we all get near the beginning of the day and at the end of break and lunchtime. I start the lesson when everyone has arrived and is changed, and I also then dismiss my class on time almost all of the time.

I am the first to admit that I was guilty back home of hanging onto the kids for just a minute or 2 more than I should, or pushing the lesson into the final 5 minutes allocated for getting changed. For the past 2 months I don’t think even once I have been rushing to finish a lesson and it has come to a natural end because I feel in control of the allocated time and feel trusted to use my time wisely.

The dog ate my homework.

“A pond fern dies, another takes its place”.

Homework is a thing of the past in Finland and this may seem absurd to some educators, but all we need to do is look at the world rankings and you see Finland at the top of the world PISA table.

Teaching in New Zealand feels like they have taken on some of Finland’s philosophy of allowing children to be children and pursue their passions after school rather than homework.

I have not given many homework assignments, certainly not like we do in the UK, with a set question and hand in date within the week. Now this is certainly a topic of debate with many pros and cons, I do not have the answer but I do know that more lengthy assignments are given out to complete at home rather than in school time.

I mark a whole lot more internal assessments from year 10 to 12 (3^rd-5^thyear) classes. Some certificated classes in PE are 100% internally assessed by the class with learners submitting as many as 6 assessments over the year. Internal assessments are given to optional PE and core Health pupils at least once a term. Mock exams are a further assessment for pupils as well as junior exams for year 9 and 10’s (2^nd & 3^rdyear).

Do you want to go to the principal’s office?

“Great teachers have the ability to ignore trivial disturbances and the ability to respond to inappropriate behaviour without escalating the situation.”

My first taste of restorative practice was in New Zealand in 2010 on a student placement in the South Island. I remember I ‘went off my head’ at a class because they weren’t listening, and they all just looked at me as if I had grown 2 more heads!

I learned the hard way that being engaging as a teacher and gaining respect could be done through some emotional intelligence and management of my own emotions. During 2010 I applied my new found restorative practice in NZ and had great relationships with the pupils.

Fast forward to my probation year in 2012, and I saw a truly inspirational leadership model being applied in a school with significant socio-economic problems. The head teacher and senior management team held every single pupil accountable and this yielded incredible behaviour and exam and results. As a teacher in this school I was asked by the principal himself to send any pupils to him that were disrupting the learning of others;

“I would happily have 20 pupils at my office and deal with them, and you still do your job with the remaining 5”.

Not only did I feel an incredible amount of support from above I also saw the success of his methods as pupils rarely re-offended and produced; apology letters for misbehaving, great results and became role models for others.

This form of charismatic leadership is truly transformational in areas where change is needed. In schools and classes that do not require a huge amount of behavioural change there is not a lot of room for this type of top-down leadership. On discovering this I had 2 things I needed to do;

Explore new ways of engaging pupils from a bottom-up leadership approach, in order to avoid having to manage behaviour in the first instance.
Most difficult of all… tame my Ego!

Because I say so !

“In order to lead others, one must know how to lead oneself.”

PE teachers all know the following phrase all too well;

“Can we just play a game?!”

I have learned, the answer to this – against the will of my stubborn Ego is sometimes;

“YES!”

Just play!

No matter how many studies I read or documentaries I watched about child development, for some reason I was holding onto this control of deciding when and if the kids can play! The kids ‘play’ a lot here and there is no denying their superior skill level compared to the UK.

This teaching experience has allowed me to step/ has pushed me outside of my comfortable teaching philosophies to see me as the teacher in a whole new perspective.

Personal development the underdog of PD

“True leadership must be for the benefit of the followers, not the enrichment of the leader”.

Now if this all sounds a bit too much like; star gazing chat…bear with me. I thought that I was going on this sabbatical to assist with Professional Development. Little did I know that I would go through challenges that were little to do with my pedagogy and more to do with the will and influence my Ego had over my decision making and reactions.

Let’s say a pupil asks you a very ‘obnoxious’ question.

Sometimes we just react without little thought and have quite a strong emotional reaction, proclaim the emotion/disgust we feel to the pupil/class;

“You make me so angry!”

Then there’s times when we pause, let thoughts go through our head, and choose a thought to act on and deliver, usually with a nice class or good student, am I right ?

The nature of a modern learning environment, which promotes restorative practice, relationships over redemption and building bridges and moving on means there is little space for the Ego to run the show.

My Ego has had to take a back seat in teaching Kiwi kids. You see Kiwis in general are very humble human beings – you just need to look at Richie McCaw to see they do not like to showcase their achievements. Perhaps it is the smaller population thing, but in schools there is not a blame culture making it really easy to repair pupil/teacher relationships and move on.

Spending time and energy holding onto a grudge with a pupil seems nonsensical to them and they do not have the in-build chat back from their Egos that we experience as teachers;

“You cannot let them get away with that.”

We listen so often, to the internal dialogue between our Egos and emotions determining our actions that we have little control how and what we say in heated moments.

Professional development has certainly happened, but teaching in NZ has been personal development that I hope will inform and influence those I work with in the future.

When asked by my tutor at Uni how much I know about Physical Education out of 100%, I said;

“25%”

Now, I believe I have just reached base camp and the real answer is about, 2%! We are always learning and the environment we teach in is constantly changing. I hope that the next part of the journey includes applying personal development into a professional context and the 2 can play their part respectively for greater awareness for teachers and pupils.

Thankyou – persue your passion

Posted on June 25, 2017 by chasingthesuneast

images (8)

It’s bold. It’s inspiring. It shows, you have the power to change stuff…

What is thankyou?

Thankyou is a social enterprise based here in Melbourne which has challenged market leaders, inspired the public and changed thousands of lives through some of the most effective game changing, business strategies!

BOLD

Thankyou was founded by 5 university students who came up with a concept to sell bottles of water in order to fund water programmes in developing countries. From the beginning their intention was to apply their 100% model. Yes, 100% of their profits go to helping people in communities where there is need. This means that they are not offering opportunities to shareholders in order to fund their upcoming projects, nor are they asking the public for donations and have to raise the capital themselves… Some may say they are bold, others told them they were mad and many industry experts totally wrote them off as naive teenagers. The critics had only one thing right; they were indeed teenagers, just 19 when they started off.

If like many teenagers, you have ever had a dream of doing something pretty incredible with your life, you may have also have been told by an ‘adult’ that it’s not possible or my favourite response;

“You won’t make any money doing that“.

I say ‘adult’ because they have been the excuse that many people give when they were asked why they didn’t pursue their dreams. Adults have authority and knowledge, and in the thankyou story the team prove that previous knowledge and applying the status quo is not the only path to success.

If you go into something with the sole purpose of ‘making money‘ that may well be what you do but you will be limited in the amount of job satisfaction and internal happiness you experience in the process. Working with young people day-to-day who are looking at the job market, and choosing their career path – there are too many ‘do not dos’ and we aren’t encouraging our young people to pursue passions and take enough risks (more on this later).

Last week I attended a conference titled; “Mental health and wellbeing of young people in education“. This was easily one of the most informative and enjoyable conferences I have attended in my professional career. The overwhelming messages that came from the 9 presentations across the day were:

1. Young people are experiencing less time in creative and practical subjects because of increased pressures on schools to improve on exam and league table results.

2. At a time when human touch, emotion and communication is being challenged with too much technology in day-to-day lives, young people need good role models.

3. If we do not prioritise happiness as the most important pursuit in life we will be dealing with dependant, mentally unstable adults who do not have resilience and self-confidence to try, fail, pick themselves up try again and work out (for themselves) who they are and what they want to do with their lives.

INSPIRING

How can we learn from what the guys and girls at thankyou have done? You can start by watching their Coles and Woolworth’s campaign video to see how they apply creativity and imagination to raise brand awareness. Granted they have used technology to achieve many of their outcomes but in the process they are making people the centre of all that they do. They exist to positively improve the lives of others’ can you imagine walking out the your office knowing that was your day job!

Now if you are thinking, I bet that they got an early lucky break, try asking them how many emails they sent and received in their third year leading up to their first big retail deal… 25,000! They failed more times than you can count and they picked themselves up every single time until they succeeded. The team did not stop and rest when they had their first breakthrough with their bottled water idea. As you can see on the video they have gone on to launch food and body care ranges.

On a personal level we are so incredibly inspired by this story and last week were lucky enough to meet 2 of the co-founders Daniel and Justine at their baby care launch event. Chris has met them before and has been incredibly drawn to their business philosophy and priorities both on personal and professional level. After watching the thankyou journey we know that we are part of the many people who want to make a difference.

There is a lot of work behind making a dream become reality and this is a message that young people need to hear especially when they live in a world where disappointment and despair surrounds them in the news. I actually limit myself to the amount of ‘news’ I view on a weekly basis otherwise you find yourself being pulled down by the over saturated news feeds that constantly update us about the worlds disasters.

As a very wise friend (who does not waste his words) told me;

“This is actually the quietest time in human civilisation but we believe it not to be because we are constantly updated on our phones and TVs.”

This point was reinforced when I turned on my phone to a ‘live news broadcast’ during the Grenfell tower tragedy, thought to myself this is sickening as the cameras are pointing towards this burning building people are dying inside! News has been turned into entertainment at the expense of those most in need and I was not willing to add myself to the millions of viewers feeding this market! (rant over)

I have recently thought to myself why do we feel the need to be inspired by people who have defied death, been abused or beaten a deadly disease? Maybe because it resonates with us that these people must be superhuman – there must have been something special about them that helped them to succeed. Now, not for one minute am I writing off the incredible feats of people who have overcome adversity or beaten illness, we all know and are proud of these people in our lives!

What I am saying though is that we need everyday, healthy and informed role models to inspire us to pursue our passions and follow through on our dreams so we don’t look back on life thinking; I wish I had…(insert unfulfilled dream).

The co-founders at thankyou could have followed their classmates and completed their degrees thinking that they will give their dream a shot later in life.

Go to uni. Graduate uni. Get a job. Again I am not here to offend, downgrade or say that this is not admirable – it truly is, and it takes hard work and drive to achieve the above. I am appealing to those out these who do not need a university degree in their career or those that have a dream they want to pursue. We need inspiration from relatively ordinary people who aim to achieve something extra-ordinary using the same hard work and determination seen from those who complete a degree.

More and more young people are seeing the benefits of completing internship, bridging programmes, apprenticeship or industry related training, which offers them skills they need for work that an academic degree cannot. There was no better training for the thankyou team than being chucked in at the deep end of the bottled water market and pitching to companies with their idea. They were told what wouldn’t work and what they needed to improve on which was better than any seminar they could have attended. No degree could have prepared them for how to run their business, not only because of the practical experience they gained but because they had not been conditioned to think inside the box of ‘how it has always been done’, they had no limits which worked in their favour.

The team challenged hundreds of industry experts at their own game much like the other household names; Albert Einstein, Sue Campbell, Steve Jobs and Richard Branson did at the beginning of their careers. What do all of these people have in common, apart from unlimited determination to succeed? They all made use of creativity, imagination and humility. None of these soft skills can be tested on paper or quantified – they can however, be felt. Think about how you feel in the presence of your favourite people, how good it feels to be respected or have your ideas listened to and taken seriously. These soft/ interpersonal and cognitive skills, I believe, can be nourished and built. If we kill them off in school we are teaching our young people that academic and propositional knowledge is the only measure of success. Many of our parents, friends and family members have achieved great things without academic skills and are successful because of their attributes and attitudes.

YOU HAVE THE POWER TO CHANGE STUFF…

You will be reading this and thinking, what about you and me and other people my age who have degrees in the bag? Yes, there are many occupations out there (teaching included) which requires regulation and education for safety and consistency of standards, which is provided by universities for good reason. I also know that passionate teachers can have a profound influence on your life and if you have had the pleasure of being taught by Dr William Kay at Stirling University you will agree that he is one of those educators who pushed us in the pursuit of excellence both professionally and personally. I can categorically confirm that my experience and drive to follow my passion has had the biggest influence on my career and has led to every extra opportunity I have ceased and squeezed.

There are teachers all around us in life, we just need to look for the lessons other people can teach us from their experiences – good or bad. Chapter One is the name of the first book released by Daniel Flynn from thankyou and it shows that they are not just a social enterprise, they are a beacon of light to the individuals who know that there is more unused fuel in the tank. They prove that with enough passion, people and support you can achieve anything you set your mind to, as they aimed to educate the public and fund the future. As my parents always told me when I came home with ideas for my future;

“No matter what you pick, it must make you happy – do whatever makes you happy and you will never work a day of your life.”

There are days in teaching when it is hard work and there are other days when I think I cannot believe that I get paid to do this! The main thing is that I am doing something I love and have passion for.

That is the feeling that you should get working at your dream instead of clock watching and counting down to Friday, then 2 days later feeling the Sunday night dread slowly creep in. There will of course be people out there who say;

“Happiness and work doesn’t work.”

Well to them I say, just as Daniel did to his critics;

“But what if it does?”

Thankyou.

Useful links:

The grass is greener where it is watered

Posted on May 29, 2017 by chasingthesuneast

Purchase this image at http://www.stocksy.com/223228

Wednesday lunchtime (Scotland):

Sitting attempting to finish an email that has been saved to drafts 8 times since 8.30am, whilst on the phone to the ladies in the office – getting bus quotes for a school netball game, at the same time being shown a new app on the iPad by colleague, also gesturing to a pupil at the department door that you will be along in 2 minutes for a lunchtime club that started 5 minutes ago and failing at attempt number 45 of trying to eat your lunch…. A scene that many of the teachers out there will be all too familiar with!

We all know that the teaching profession is judged on the time spent teaching or contact time and we get brilliant holidays and work 9am to 3pm – easy ! If you don’t have a teacher in your family or live with one, please re-read the paragraph above and multiply by 24 then add 20+ hours teaching time you have a typical week…Little secret it’s more than 35 hours a week! If you do know a teacher you will also probably know that, they are driven by a huge amount of passion and care for young people and their development. This is not a job for the faint hearted and I can say spending more time; planning, preparing, researching, collaborating, reading, discussing, marking, chasing, collecting, recording, negotiating, reporting, analysing, designing, counselling, listening and reviewing on a daily basis than teaching is worth it. I would be lying if I said that I didn’t look forward to the bell on a Friday, but I also love the satisfaction of getting to Friday having had an amazing week!

Wednesday lunchtime (Australia) :

Sitting reading the Australian Educator, underlining and annotating the article which asks; ” What skills will make our students future proof ? “ I am also sitting down to eat my lunch, and will be able to finish it and do not need to organise trips or chase pupils for homework or lead extra curricular activities. This scene compared to my Scottish lunchtime would be the dream.

The dream if I was not passionate about my job… I am extremely passionate and do not feel the same way about my current role. I work as a Cover Relief Teacher (CRT) for Health, PE and Sport. I choose to take a secondment to teach in Australia and observe the Australian curriculum. I thought that I didn’t get much time to teach back home, well here I initiate very little learning (more on why later). I quickly realised all that what I love about teaching is everything that comes with the job, all that happens away from the spotlight of contact time all of the extra roles we play as a department that the public, parents and critics don’t see. The idea of having a quiet lunchtime to all you teachers out there seems like bliss but believe me, taking a step out of full-time teaching has cemented the reason I teach and the fact that I know that not everyone could do it, and I love that I can!

What’s the difference?

This is a question that I have been asked a lot recently by friends and colleagues and the reason you have clicked on my blog again. Thank you and I hope that I can engage you for the next 10 minutes.

The first thing that I noted down on day 1 of teaching in an Australian secondary school;

” *** MOBILE PHONE POLICY??!! *** “

My observation sparked something in me, which led to the first Travelling Teacher blog. Now here I am another month down the line, having taught in over 21 schools across Melbourne! 21 schools! Before, I couldn’t have named 21 schools never mind compare their policy and practice to our Scottish curriculum back home.

Because we now live in an instant world where adverts are shorter, people can be liked in an instant and if we don’t like something we have such a variety of choice that you will switch off or over if I don’t get to the point. As of 3 minutes ago I started competing with these alternatives so here’s the differences – from daily school policy to classroom practice.

Key alternatives :

– Music is played over a tannoy system in the morning to signify the start of the school day and played again at end of break and lunchtime usually in place of a bell. Some schools don’t have any bells or music and pupils and teachers have to keep track of the time.

– ALL teachers do at least one yard duty (20 mins) per week, ensuring pupils are safe and setting good examples during break and lunchtime.

– Uniforms are bought by parents and strictly enforced across the school. PE Uniform is also purchased at the start of the year for all pupils to wear matching kit with the school logo on it. In winter rugby tops as well as tracksuit bottoms are available for PE participation. Junior pupils wear PE kit to school (and stay in kit) on days they have PE and Sport.

– Staff dress code is much more casual than home. On day 1 I could not decide which staff were the PE teachers as not many staff were wearing smart clothes.

– PE is one subject and Sport is another. All pupils receive core PE and play 1-2 hours of their selected sport in year groups. The PE teachers do not deliver all sport, staff from across subjects teach the classes based on personal interest.

– Excursions, camps and competitions are the norm. Pupils go on school camps most years, play inter school sport on a monthly basis and travel across the country on educational trips (paid for by parents).

– 1 in 5 teachers in the state are cover teachers. The main reason I get work as a cover teacher is because of the amount of staff who run and attend school trips. The budget for cover teachers and availability of cover is much higher than back home.

– Technology and phones have a prominent place in the classroom. Today my class were studying for a test with their phones, tablets and laptops are out on the table and I have been given a school iPad, you can picture the scene. The biggest challenge for me is the use of mobile phones. Teachers texting during lessons, pupils taking calls during class and the general overuse (in my opinion) of casual technology E.g. social media, texts, games and scrolling during lessons.

– Learning intentions, co-operative learning and wider life skills integrated in learning seems to be a very new concept. I thought coming to Australia that they would be ahead of us for learning and teaching but they do not engage in as many learning activities.

– There is a much higher reliance on redemption, if pupils do not engage in the lesson and complete work they will be the ones to suffer. The onus is not just on the teacher to ensure work is completed, the pupils get given space to take on responsibility.

– Skills for life, work and learning are unheard of here, although pupils can be trained in trades during school hours. We have life skills maths as a subject back home and here academic grades are a priority and retaining propositional knowledge rather than core skills still remains a key indicator of the good student.

– Do you want me to phone your mum? Classroom teachers will quite often pick up the phone to their students’ parents. I know that in Scotland we refer concerns on to pastoral staff. Here the teachers have direct relationships with parents for incomplete homework or behaviour issues and parents can hold their kids accountable for actions.

– Finally; “beep!” I have never heard the ‘F bomb’ being dropped from kids more than I have in the past 4 months! The amount of swearing that I hear on a daily basis is quite unbelievable. The amount of swearing and casual use of cursing during conversation is astonishing. Pupils will be telling teachers stories and make use of a number of swear words, without a second thought.

Things I miss (Fundamentals) :

– PUT YOUR PHONE AWAY! I have accepted that technology is here stay and for as long as politicians are best palls with the leaders of this multi billion pound industry it will be pushed into education without many hitches. We simply cannot have pupils texting and even speaking on the phone during a lesson! If it’s not life or death, do not disturb is my view and if it is schools have phones! Nothing is more important than learning to be present and compete a task. We are much more structured in our schools back home – games and mobile phones are a privilege and that privilege can be taken away if abused.

– Sit still, listen and don’t touch anyone or anything (insert fidget spinner!) If you have been in the classroom in the past 12 months you will know exactly what this craze is and how distracting it is to learning. For something that was invented for those with learning or behavioural needs it has been counter productive in promoting focus and attention.

– Expect more instead of accepting less! We do not need to see young people have more choice especially if they are avoiding the completion of tasks. Young people are paralysed by choice and this has created unnecessary anxiety and fear of being judged on their choices. If they say; “I don’t want to do it”, that’s their opinion but it’s not always right for them.

– We blame technology at a time when human support is most important. Speaking to some pupils today they said that everyone gets bullied at one point in their life either face to face or online. They said that we need to remain resilient and resourceful in dealing with problems instead of trying to fix problems through a screen.

– Building relationships based on mutual respect and trust will set an excellent example for their future connections to others. Pupils said that the most important thing to them was knowing they had support and where to get it.

– I miss teaching core skills. PE in Scotland has had a huge shift in priorities and focus, especially in the underpinning principles that develop all 4 domains in (mental, emotional, social and physical) wellbeing. There is little difference between PE and Sport here and the pupils are not challenged or taught about management of emotions or attitudes.

– A phrase we all know well; “I forgot my kit/ I’ve got a note”. We have done a lot of work back home to make sure that pupils are included and contributing in lessons. Here pupils sit out playing on iPads, phones and sometimes sleeping! There is little recognition of forgotten kit and fake notes being a front to mask pupils’ PE phobia. There are limited alternatives for pupils who are not traditionally sporty.

Back to basics

In order to achieve meaningful success in child development, educational settings need to apply some tough love (mum and dad you have been right all along) ! Pupils have too many excuses, instead of the tools to articulate and process their emotions in order to finish tasks. I keep repeating the same point about ‘completing tasks’ and even as adults we need to swap multi-tasking to mono-tasking and get better at ‘doing’ rather than saying.

I was lucky growing up and remain to be in such a position that, there is never a smart phone between me and my parents when I am in their company! Setting an excellent example starts at home, and parents who are on phones or tablets instead of socialising with their kids are encouraging poor lifelong habits. Eating at the table, family chats and quality time should be a device free and an emotionally open environment. Promoting discussion, disagreements and even arguments is important so that children know how they feel and how to express those feelings. Children will try to avoid confrontation in order to reduce the chance of hurting another person (usually an adult) or falling out with them. The skill of communicating how you feel is very important, and carries on into adulthood as we manage or destroy relationships with the reactions we choose and how we approach reconciliation.

Relationships have been at the forefront of my thinking over the past month. Strong relationships begin with advanced skills in communication and inter-personal skills. No matter how much technology advances, we will still require deep meaningful relationships to thrive and build emotional and mental health. It’s no fluke that Finland (click for worthwhile video) have topped the world educational league tables with their approach of student and teacher well-being and happiness as a driving force.

The ability to teach these skills back home as part of Higher Leadership is such a pleasure as a teacher, and I can tailor my lessons for the pupils in front of me and their needs. Investing time and energy in all aspects of health and well-being will bring payback as young people gather skills to work as part of a team and individually. Working with young people to help them grow by teaching transferable skills will enable them to grow as individuals to succeed into adulthood.

Travelling Teacher

Posted on April 20, 2017 by chasingthesuneast

Hi everyone!

Hope that this blog finds you all well?

I have added another layer to the blog as, the Travelling Teacher. I have now been teaching in Australia for 3 months and have been able to observe and take in all that is around me as a relief cover teacher in schools across Melbourne. This blog will be written when I have gathered enough notes on a topic, judged in my humble opinion and is purely based on observations & experiences. Please feel free to challenge, ask or comment about anything I write and you do not need to be involved education to do so. I have started with a topic dear to all of our hearts…communication! As you read this you will see that I may seem quite the hypocrite making use of social media to promote my story but you will hopefully agree with the method to my madness!

SacredPowerOfListening

Are you even listening..?

Today after a day teaching in a secondary college I got home and had to lie down. So I did, and instead of lying, ‘idly scrolling’ and running the risk of dropping my smart phone on my face (you have all done it!) I read a book…yes a real book with pages and printed words!

Words

We all live in a world where we see and hear words all of the time, probably more than ever before. By the way I am not going to add in any ‘googled facts’ or figures I am sure you can all do that in your own screen time…
So I have spent the day in a Secondary College in Melbourne teaching Physical Education and Health to a bunch of teenagers. Lets just say that this school was one of the better public schools I have been to. There is so much I have to say about teaching out here in general, but the topic today is communication and asks; “Are you even listening?”

Eyes

When you have lunch with a friend how often do you check your phone look down or just click the middle button to see if you have a notification? Unless you are friends with my dad, who still has a Nokia 3310 then I am sure that you will have experienced and or done this from time to time. I have noticed that it is now harder than ever to get eye contact, and harder still to maintain that contact as you speak to kids when teaching but also adults. If young people are not being spoken to by friends and parents with eye contact then they will not expect it nor give it when its so badly needed!

Ears

Now, if you are still reading, thank you as you have not responded to your brain’s urge to click on another link, read a message that has floated from the top or bottom of your screen or check who has your last instagram post. The art of listening, and I mean actually listening (now as I write this my phone just beeped, and again, I am fighting the urge not to click!) has been lost. Most people now listen with intent to respond with their wee piece, their opinion or even worse something they have just remembered that they wanted to say from another topic already discussed and closed. Our ability to maintain focus on one single topic at a time with the compassion and support for the person speaking has dramatically decreased. We crave constant attention for our every thought as our brains have become conditioned and spolit by the attention we receive at the click of a button. When we have to concentrate and listen to only one person we are experiencing an act of modern selflessness, as I now find myself feeling great when people actually stop and listen.

So what?

Well as my observations have become to much for me to just ponder over on my own, I took the opportunity to talk and listen with some senior pupils about the topic above. I am in a very privileged position in that I can turn up to a school as a cover teacher; observe, take notes, judge till my hearts content and then leave with my findings. Today my routine was no different, but to my surprise the content of my findings on the overuse of technology (especially that of social media) surprised me.

What happened?

Well it started out with the usual chat as a new cover teacher;

Class: “Miss where are you from? ”

Me: “Scotland!” I reply, in my thickest of accents (cue the class trying to copy my accent).

Then the conversation turns to the work to be completed which I was told (with no way of checking) was all complete and they had finished assignments due for tomorrow…
Ok, so now onto my burning questions for the pupils who are all sitting with, a laptop each, phones out on the table and one ear phone in. This (to my teacher friends) a very common scene from senior pupils in a classroom nowadays.

I asked; “So do you actually get much work done with laptops out all of the time, or do you just have your work and lots of other tabs up at the same time?”

“Eh yeah (Auzzie accent) if we are honest there is so much to distract us, and we don’t do that much work in class”, they reply.

What happens when they don’t get the work done? Well, they now earn a Saturday* detention for 3 hours! What, so teachers come in on the weekends? They do, and they supervise pupils during said detention. If you have worked in a school, or ever or been a detained pupil you will know the likelihood you turning up is pretty slim, especially on a Saturday!!

*the introduction of the Saturday detention is a copy cat move from public schools, wanting to build similar prestige to that of the private schools in the area.

The root cause

We all know that the use of an empty threat has a limited shelf life and having worked with children you know not to make that mistake if you are seeking for any sort of credibility. So what did the pupils think was the cause of the problem, why did they choose distraction over work…?

They had a couple of reasons, one being the fact that in Australia they have only 1 shot at exams to gain credits at the end of 12 years of formal education and this didn’t seem fair or achievable for some. The second and most staggering one, was that they were adamant that phones were the root cause. They were incredibly articulate about the cons of smart phones outweighing the pros. When I asked them if they wished that they had grown up in a different time they all (unanimously) said they wish they knew a time before smart phone technology!

They gave examples of times with friends, out for dinner at footie matches and parties when everyone is capturing the scene on their phone instead of living in the moment! They said that they find it difficult to connect with people and talk to new people they meet as there is a communication barrier.

Now what?

I managed to persuade the class to rein in the negativity and give me some hope and solutions. They asked what was different back home in PE and I told them about PE in December in Scotland! ‘Social Dancing’ was ‘youtubed’ and they looked at me in disbelief that both boys and girls are up dancing and not only is the dance floor filled, they are dancing together and holding hands!

One boy remarked; “They all look pretty happy, I wish we had to do that!”

Then it hit me…these kids are missing out on the pure joy and delight of being outside their comfort zone, socially and emotionally (2 of the factors impacting on performance) that they have gone to social media for the kick. Now there is too much of a fear of failure, and that failure being recorded for all of the world to see, that young people are paralysed in a distracted and disconnected mess!

Who’s actually listening??

Now don’t get me wrong, I am well aware that young people will never have it the way we did growing up and getting your first mobile in your mid-late teens. With digital literacy starting as young as 3 in formal education with iPads in nursery, they will be the most tech savvy generation to have ever lived up to now,.

Refreshing to hear from these teenagers, that they still want the real life experiences that we grew up with and still hold dear in our memories! For some, these images they see of people ‘living life’ have been seen online, but never physically experienced. Today I listened and I felt some real uncertainty when they spoke about the future as they have access to so much information, they fear what is around the corner and if they will ever have jobs or need to drive a car!

I believe it is our job as educators, and one day as parents to prioritise the importance of building strong and sustainable relationships, and be true role models for them to learn how to connect in a human way. One boy said, that his mum has started a habit with her friends of putting all of their phones in a bowl when they come over. These are the types of habits that will be copied and allow our young people to use their senses to live and feel real life through their minds and bodies, not through a screen. I also believe that teaching leadership and interpersonal skills to young people is needed more now than ever as they enter a time of rapid change, and will need to maintain a strong base of support around them to feel safe and secure in their life choices. Learning about new technology will obviously be needed in order to be competitive in the job market, but this should not be at expense of real people skills and ability to connect on a human level.

W Trek Survival Guide

Posted on December 7, 2016 by chasingthesuneast

Torres Del Paine

W Trek Survival Guide

Patagonia is an area in the south of South America and is shared between Chile and Argentina. To fly into Patagonia within Chile can be cheap as long as you fly in-country (e.g. we flew from Santiago to Punta Arenas within Chile).

We chose to explore Patagonian mountains by foot through the famous Torres Del Paine National Park following the world renowned ‘W-Trek’.The trek is nearly 100km starting from ‘Administration point’ or 86km starting at Paine Grande, taking a catamaran across the lake to the starting point as can be seen on the route map below:

5 Day route map with campsites

When to go:
In our opinion the best time of year to do the trek is the first or second week in September before the peak season starts from Mid-sept onwards until early in the year. If you go later on in the year you will need to book flights, hostel in Puerto Natales and, refugios in the park well in advance. The only downside of going early is the unknown weather conditions, which can change by the hour.

Glacier Grey

How to get to the National Park:
From Punta Arenas airport there are mini bus transfers into town which will drop you at the bus station. From the bus station you want to get a bus to Puerto Natales where all trekkers stay before going to the National Park. Up to 6 BusSur coaches leave daily to Puerto Natales between 7am and 7pm.

What next ?
If you are lucky you will be able to stay at Erratic Rock Hostel (its awesome and has EVERYTHING you need for the trek)! If not the Singing Lamb as well as other hostels in the town are comfortable and close to rental shops etc. If you are not staying at Erratic Rock then get yourself there on arrival for a free briefing on the trek, and you can hire all the gear you will need at a reasonable price too as well as buying your all important bus ticket to the National Park which leaves from the bus station at 7am daily.

Planning the W trek?
On arrival do a 5 day weather forecast check and you can set your dates for the trek. 5 days is the minimum time you can take to complete the W and if you have time to be flexible you can take more time. Go onto the Torres Del Paine website to check if there are any fees required for camping sites or if you are staying in refugios you will need to check for availability (otherwise you have to camp in tents they provide if beds are full).

What to take?
If you have space when traveling to do the trek you may bring the flowing items with you, but we hired and bought most of the equipment on arrival to Puerto Natales.
Must- haves: Walking boots, thin layers, thick socks, head torch, hat, gloves, big rucksack and water bottle/flask, map (collect on arrival at park).
Hire: tent, 4 season sleeping bag, sleeping mat, poles and mess kit (large water bottle, stove, pot, plate, mug, spoon).
Buy: Lighter, gas canister (enough gas for your trip), waterproof trousers, light rain coat and bin bags!
Food: Enough food for the trek plus some more… buy sandwich bags to separate food into days to avoid eating too much on day 1 and to get rid of unwanted packaging and allow for resealing. You can prepare by making day 1 lunch night before as well as pre cook some pasta, and boil some eggs. Best advice we had was to break a few eggs into a plastic bottle and squeeze air out and seal -cook for breakfast or dinner for; scrambled eggs on the trek! You must take rubbish with you hence bin bags…

Breakfast: Porridge oats, powdered milk and jam
Lunch: Pack of wraps, pack of sliced cheese, chorizo, dried fruit and nuts for snaking throughout day.
Dinner: Pasta, super noodles, instant soup, tea/coffee, packet sauces and chocolate LOTS of CHOCOLATE!!!

Water: The water in the park from rivers, streams and waterfalls is very drinkable, take water from areas upstream of campsites.

Camp Sites and Refugio’s
If you choose to camp every night you will be camping at a minimum of 4 campsites during the trek and most are free (some are not!). The first site that will cost will be ‘Grey’ on night 1 (should you choose to stay there) it will cost 5000 Peso if pre-booked (this can be pre booked in Puerto Natales) or 10,000 Peso if you are a ‘walk in’. The refugio at Grey will vary in cost depending on the level of board you choose.
The second campsite that must be noted as one to PRE-BOOK is Los Cuernos . If you wait to pay on arrival you will have to pay to camp (a considerable bit more than any other site)!

French Valley

We hope that this guide is helpful as we could not find a ‘how to guide’ online for the trek and picked up the information along the way as we explored the park. Please feel free to comment, share and feedback on the blog. Argentina and Chile blog to follow!

The Olympic Games in Rio and Brazil

Posted on September 25, 2016 by chasingthesuneast

Rio De Janeiro

The 2016 Olympic Games were hosted in Rio de Janeiro and we were lucky enough to attend! We had bought a few tickets before leaving the UK through CoSport as we planned to be in Rio for the first week of the games.We have had limited wifi across Patagonia and now are able to update you with event news and exciting gadgets used along the way…

Event Tickets

Olympic Stadium

We increased our ticket count when we arrived- buying; rugby 7s final tickets along with, equestrian and athletics for Super Saturday. If you are ever going to a games in the future try to buy straight from the official website rather than a reseller to avoid disappointment and wasting half a day waiting to collect.

We were picked up at the airport by our hostel and even though it was 6am and check in was not until 2pm, we were able to get into our room to get some much needed sleep! Our hostel Samba Green was situated in the area of Botofogo, perfect location for us; a 20 min walk to Copacabana beach, next to the metro for transport links to all Olympic venues and had restaurants and shops really close by too. It’s worth mentioning here that the staff in the hostel could not have been more helpful and it was by far the best service we have had!

Samba Green Welcome

Botafogo Beach

Our afternoon and evening on day 1 did not disappoint; we headed up the famous Sugar Loaf mountain for views over the city. The ticket cost 70 reals and we had to take 2 cable cars to reach the top, well worth it when you see the view! We stayed for sunset and could see across to Christ of Redeemer, the airport, Olympic Stadium and Copacabana beach.

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Day 2 was the start of our Olympic spectating and we travelled (very easily) to the Olympic park in Barra for the Women’s gymnastics preliminary rounds. We were in the afternoon session which saw; GB, Brazil and 6 other countries complete for places in the final. The atmosphere was amazing especially with the Brazillian home support for their gymnasts.

Floor event

Womens Gymnastics

Beam

Vault

Our next day at the games was a busy one with 2 events to watch in 2 different venues. In the morning we travelled to Deodoro to watch the Cross country element of the equestrian One Day Eventing. We picked a spot at one of the water jumps beside some fellow Team GB supporters. We waited to see Pippa Funnel on ‘Billy the Biz’ before heading to see some other fences and the combination in the second water.

Pippa Funnel

Pippa -water exit

Tough Combination

Team Ireland

It was really easy to catch our transport from Deodoro to the Olympic Park, especially as we had purchased Olympic travel cards which were contactless and allowed us on any public transport for 7 days. The next event was the men’s gymnastics – all round team final and the Team GB men were looking strong amongst the competition. We had good seats near to the pommel horse, rings and vault. The competition was very close between Japan, China, Russia and GB for the top spots. The British boys gave a brilliant performance on all apparatus and did extremely well to place 4th being such a young team.

High Bar

Floor Action

Men’s- All Round

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Our 4th event was the men’s (C1) canoe slalom in the X-Park where the BMX demonstration events also took place. We joined some other novice canoe slalom spectators, as well as our Canadian friend Lauren on the side of the course. We were really impressed at the level of skill and concentration shown by the athletes in this sport as the margins were very small at the top of the table. We saw the semi-final qualifiers,where the top 10 advanced onto the finals. Team GB made it into the final and we were able to stay and watch. Winner Gargaud from France set a very fast time of 94.17 seconds which the rest of the field were unable to beat.

Gate 19

Gate drop

Canoe slalom course

The next set of tickets were for the first of 2 rugby sessions at Deodoro stadium, where team GB took on a number of teams for qualification to the semis. Our first game was against The All Blacks and we won 21-19. We then went onto beat Argentina in a tight match in the quarter finals and then beat South Africa in the semi final. We were lucky enough to get tickets to the rugby final’s where we saw GB v Fiji. We were beaten 43-7, Fiji were by far the better team and favourites coming into the competition. The atmosphere at the rugby 7s was fantastic as it always is at 7s tournaments! We joined friendly fans from all over the world.

Rugby studium

Olympic beers

Auz v France

Argintina v NZ

GB v Fiji final

Team GB Rugby 7’s Silver medalist

The following day we were in court 1 for 10 hours of Olympic tennis action. We landed very lucky with these tickets; not only were they £25, first up was Andy Murray in his quarter final match! This was a 3 set tie breaker match against American Steve Johnson, Andy looked strong in the first set winning 6-0, then the American fought back winning the second set. After 2 hours of tennis Andy won the third set tie breaker to advance onto the semis the next day before beating Del Potro to claim Gold.

Murray serve

Murray forehand

“See-you Jimmy”

Murray pre-match

Following the excitement of the Murray match was another high quality game between Gail Monfils and Kei Nishikori. We then saw the Bronze medal men’s doubles match between Canada and USA, followed by a mixed doubles with Venus Williams and playing partner representing the USA against Italy. During our session on court 1, the organisers opened up Centre Court where the Gold medal men’s doubles match was taking place. We had free entry to this match and were able to get very close to the action to see Nadal and Lopez win gold for Spain against Romania and stayed for the medal ceremony too.

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Following the tennis was ‘Super Saturday’ where we saw many different events, but the stand out events for us were watching Greg Rutherford, Mo Farah and Jess Ennis-Hill attempt to repeat their performances from 2012 and win gold in the long jump, 10,000m and the heptathlon. Unfortunately, these achievements weren’t quite matched, with Greg winning Bronze, Mo winning Gold (after falling in the early stages of the race!!) and Jess winning Silver. However, seeing GB athletes win these medals, we still consider this to be a Super Saturday!

MObot!

Jess-Ennis Hill Lap of honor

Jess 800m finish

Greg Long jump

Pano of stadium

GB Pole vault

PolePod Selfie

PolePod attachment

As you can see in the photos above we were able to make use of PolePod (bottom right, click link to see more) to take photos with our digital camera and GoPro and could easily change the angle to suit the photo. We have made use of PolePod; skiing, hiking, at events, for Panoramic photos and more! If you want more info about PolePod you can click this youtube link or email inventor Andrew Davidson: a.davidson@asd-zine.co.uk

After a busy week of events we headed north for a couple of days to see one of Chris’s school friends and his wife who live in Belo Horizonte. This was a nice break from the rush of the Olympics in Rio and it was great to catch up with old friends.

“Scottish in the house”

Midnight Pizza with Stuart and Fabiola

We then returned to Rio for 2 final events; 200m final at the athletics and the Women’s Hockey final. First, the highlight of the athletics being the 200m final in which we saw Usain Bolt win his 8th Olympic Gold! We also saw Scottish athlete Lynsey Sharp, 1500m semi-fnal and a new Olympic record set in the Shot Put of 22.52 metres!

1500m semi-final

Shot Olympic Record

Usain Tunnel

4x100m change over USA

Usain Lap of Honour

Javelin Action

200m Final line up

L.Sharp 800m semi-final

Our 10th and final event was the Women’s hockey final at Deodoro Stadium, a highly anticipated match with GB taking on world number 1’s Holland… And what a match it turned out to be, as after normal time the score lay at 3-3 draw and the teams went onto a shoot out against the goalie. GB won 2-0 in the most spectacular fashion after having played some unbelievable hockey and maintaining their composure throughout the whole match. The icing on the cake for us…getting a photo with one of my fellow Youth Sport Trust mentor’s and now Olympic Champion Alex Danson! A moment we will never forget!

National Anthems

Hockey Stadium

Team talks

GB score

Celebrations

GB Top of Podium

AD Medal Ceremony

GOLD!

Leaving Rio on such a high was an incredible feeling, we had the most amazing Olympic games as spectators! It was also a great feeling to be part of a friendly and successful games, despite the negative media coverage that any Games seems to attract, Rio proved the haters wrong! We loved Rio as a city, felt safe the whole time and could not have wished for a more incredible experience, thank you Rio!

Stop and Appreciate life

Chris of the Redeemer

Copacabana Beach

View from Christ

Lappa Steps

We took some down time after the Olympics to enjoy the Brazilian coast, firstly the beautiful island of Ilha Grande, before moving onto the coastal town of Paraty.

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We are now nearing the end of our South American adventure and what an adventure it has been! We will update with activities from Argentina and Chile before we take on our next continent…Africa!

Speak soon,

Hayley and Chris

Patagonia

Bolivia : La Paz, Salar de Uyuni & Lake Titicaca

Posted on September 1, 2016 by chasingthesuneast

Following the inca trail, we flew to LA Paz in Bolivia and stayed in the popular hostel- Loki in the centre of town. On arrival we managed to book an overnight bus to Uyuni in the south of Bolivia to meet our Canadian friends for the Salt Flats tour.

Train cemetary

This option of organising your own transport to Uyuni and then picking up a tour package on arrival is much cheaper than an inclusive trip from LA Paz. We went directly to the To Do Truismo office to buy our tickets but you can also book online, (you do need about 48 hours notice to receive confirmation). For transport to Uyuni and a 2 day salt flats tour with food, accommodation and transport included,we payed the equivalent of £65 compared to cheapest tour option from LA Paz starting at £135.

Jeep

We were driven across the salt flats in a 4×4 jeep accompanied by our English speaking guide and his huge sun visor! We were given a number of opportunities to take perspective photos and we all took advantage of the photo shoot opportunities…

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The salt flats are created from a dried up lake and the area covers 4,086 square miles and altitude of 3,656m. The salt appears on the surface in hexagon shaped plates and the salt crystals are mined and refined in the local area.

We stopped for lunch in one of the many ‘salt hotels’ which pride themselves in being constructed with mainly bricks made from salt believe it or not! We had more photo opportunities after lunch as well as a hike up the ‘cactus island’, a deposit from the nearby volcano.

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As the sun began to set we drove towards the edge of the ‘Lake’ where we found some very shallow water on the surface of the salt. This is where we took the ‘reflection’ photos with great direction from our guide…

The evening was spent in a local salt hotel where we were served delicious food and wine and found our more about Bolivian culture fro our guide. We then took the opportunity to go out on a clear night to look at the stars without any artificial light. The sky was so clear we could see the Milky Way and many shooting stars. Using an app on the Canadian’s phone we were able to identify star correlations and timings of visible comets.

The second day of the tour started with a trek up Tunupa volcano to around 4,200m of the 5,321 m summit. We were taken into a cave to see mummified bodies which was interesting and slightly disturbing… The trek took us over volcanic rock and up above the salt flats, and we could see the huge expanse of the area. We reached the viewpoint close to the volcano and headed back down for some much earned lunch. Our transport took us back to Uyuni where we started and we caught the overnight bus back to La Paz to stay in our hostel.

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Tunupa Volcano

The flowing day we took some time to explore La Paz by taking the ‘Red’ cable car over La Paz to a viewpoint overlooking the city. There are 3 cable cars across the city, which, from what we could gather, are a means of public transport for the locals, as the price is very cheap and allows you to avoid the congested traffic in the city.

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Using the travel agency in our hostel we booked a local bus to Copacabana on the edge of lake Titikaca. The bus journey took around 5 hours and about 3 hours in we had to get off the bus as it crossed the lake in a barge and we travelled in a very small tourist/fishing boat. As there are many hostels in the town, so we waited until we arrived to find somewhere to stay. Unknown to us there was a pretty big religious festival taking place in the area, and there were a number of visitors who had traveled from across Bolivia to worship. We were told that some people had walked from La Paz to Copacabana to worship ( 86 mile journey )!

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We climbed to the top of Cerro Calvario (Calvary Hill) which is lined with monuments representing the 14 Stations of the Cross. Pilgrims visit the Stations for prayer and penance for sunset and we joined hundreds of people worshiping and giving thanks to Pachamamma (Mother Earth). We enjoyed a beautiful view across the lake as the sunset and people burned incense and poured beer on the ground? Next day the the main square was buzzing, we were lucky enough to see celebrations and entertainment by local marching bands.

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We are currently making our way south through Argentina and Chile, whilst selecting our very best Olympic pictures from the thousands taken over 10 events. Brazil blog is on its way, we promise! Speak soon,

Hayley and Chris

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Cusco and the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu

Posted on August 16, 2016 by chasingthesuneast

Cusco and the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu

Cusco is a beautiful city set in the Andies at an altitude of 3500m which we felt quickly upon arrival. There are a number of reasons to travel to Cusco and we chose to acclimatise in the city for 4 days before starting the Inca Trail.

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We had some amazing food and drink in Cusco and were able to catch up with a friend from uni as well as explore the Sacred Valley. We took a free walking tour to find our way round the city and learn more about the multicultural history of Cusco. With so many influences including; Arabic, Spanish, French and the Native Incas, the city’s architecture is varied and has a part to play in Cusco’s story.

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I think that it is now time that we give a shout out to our amazing Travel Agent Jeanette at STA Aberdeen who has organised our tours for us including Galapagos and The Inca Trail! We did the Inca Trail through Bamba Experience and this is an extremely popular tour selling out 6 months in advance! We had a briefing 24 hours before our trip, detailing our route and equipment needed for the trek which would be 4 days and 3 nights.

Day 1: An early morning meet at 6am to get the bus to Ollantaytambo where we met the rest of our group and had breakfast. From there we were transported to Kilometre 82, our starting point for the trek and final checks were made along with sleeping bags and mats secured onto our bags.

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The start of the trek was relatively flat and took us alongside the Urubamba River for 10km. On the walk we passed the famous Incan ruin of Llacpapata, used as a food store and collection of taxes for produce. We climbed 700m to our first campsite at Yuncachimpa where we arrived to tea and popcorn followed by a delicious dinner.

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Day 2: Early rise at 5am for our toughest day of trekking on the trail. We walked for 4 hours climbing 900m to reach the “Dead Woman’s Pass” at 4215m and it was safe to say the air was thinner up there!

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After a break and some photos at the top of the pass we carried on down through the trail to campsite number 2, at Pacaymayu at 3600m. We arrived at the camp at 1.30pm before another delicious lunch at 2pm, and the best part of he day, an afternoon nap! Woken up at 5.30 pm for tea and popcorn again was a treat, and provided with another 3 course meal for dinner! That night there were very little clouds and we could see the stars and the Milky-way clearly.

Day 3: Best news after 5am wake up was Cake for breakfast! The cook had prepared a cake and iced it for breakfast that morning followed by pancakes and syrup ! We did not think that the food could get any better…. But it was a piece of cake for the guys on our team!

This was our longest day of hiking on the trail, 16 km and total drop of 1000m in altitude. The start of the day included a 400m climb up to Rukurakay Pass at 4000m, ruins of an Incan storage building used for preserving foods in the mountain. This was then followed by a 400m descent to Sayacmarca an old Incan resting place for pilgrims travelling to Machu Picchu.

View from Sayamarca

Hayley at Sayamarca

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Faces carved into the walls

It was at this point our guide Pabel informed us of the physiological difference between westerners and the Incas which allowed them to travel through this environment efficiently. The Incas and native people to the mountain have a deeper chest cavity, allowing them to take in more oxygen per breath.

Pabel

From there on the trail followed the original Inca trail on the stones payed by the Incas, passing through beautiful landscape and under a canopy of native trees.

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We descended 1000m passing Winaywayna, huge Inca terraces used for creating hybrid crops, experimental farming and bringing on crops in concentrated terraces. The crops were then moved to produce food for residents of Machu Picchu. Our campsite was at the bottom of the ruin at 2650m our lowest camp of the trail.

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Day 4: Rain overnight made the 3am rise a little challenging, as we packed up for our final day. We joined the rest of the 250 trekkers at the check point at 4am (3rd group in the que) and waited for the check point to open at 5.30am. We walked for one hour along the edge of the mountain side to reach Inti Punku otherwise known as the “Sungate”. We were really looking forward to being the first ones up to the Sungate before any tourists set foot on Machu Picchu for the day and getting the “postcard” photograph….. Us-Sungate

After the “stunning” view from the Sungate we headed closer to Machu Picchu as the cloud started to clear and the sun burned through. We were able to explore the magnificent ruins and our guide gave us a tour of the Temple of the Moon and the traditional buildings.

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We took a walk to see the Inca Bridge used by the Incas to escape to the jungle. You can see where they remove their planks so that the enemy could not follow them… MP-Inca Bridge.JPG

Our day was finished off with an incredible train ride through the Sacred Valley on an Inca Rail train from ……. To our starting point at Ollantaytambo, where we hopped on a bus back to Cusco.

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A truly magnificent trip, which was WELL worth saving up for and the experience was made by the hard work and commitment from the Bamba team. Our guide Pabel, the porters who carried tents and equipment at 25-30kg each and the cook! Also the porters ranged from age 17-80 years old and ran past us to pitch tents and get the camp ready for our arrival. They were truly the reason that the trip was such a success and they deserve all of the credit they can get.

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We will have another blog update after the Olympics, speak soon !

Hayley and Chris.

Galapagos Islands

Posted on July 24, 2016 by chasingthesuneast

Day 1-Hotel View

We promised you all Galápagos Island hopping tour blog…so here it’s!

Our tour ran by G Adventures, took us from Quito in Ecuador to explore 3 volcanic islands and the Galápagos wildlife. At 4am on the 13th, 16 of us left Quito and we were in for a amazing tour…

Day 1-Santa Cruz 3

First stop was the island of Baltra where we were transferred by bus then water taxi across to the Island of Santa Cruz. Our accommodation was on the sea front with incredible views, weather was equally as stunning! Lunch was a 5 dollar treat, including soup, main meal and drink all made with fresh local ingredients! After a wonder round the island and a briefing for day 2 we headed to the local streets for some exquisite food! Steamed fresh fish on the BBQ with the most incredible coconut sauce, washed down by the local brew, we were becoming huge fans of the Galapagos very quickly!

Day 2took us on a trip up to the ‘Highlands’ of Santa Cruz (not quite like the Highlands of Scotland) to see the famous Giant Tortoise in the wild. We were able to get very close to the tortoises as well as walk through lava tunnels underground.

Lava Tunnels

Giant Tortioise

Day 3 began with an early start for a speedboat trip across to Floreana Island where the local population is around 150. We had 2 nights on the island, staying in local accommodation and eating in all 3 of the island’s restaurants! The food on Folreana was outstanding; octopus, fresh fruit juices, banana chips (in place of croutons in our soup) and craft beer.

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Day 4 we had our first experience of snorkelling with the unique wildlife; our first snorkelling dive let us see a baby sea lion, sea turtles, crabs, sharks and pelican birds diving for fish.

Baby Sea Lion

Chris and sea tutrtles

DCIM100GOPRO

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Day 5 on the speed boat again for another 2 hour trip to our 3rd island; Isabella… Little did we know that we would be in for a huge treat on route!!!
DOLPHINS! In the wild, in the Galápagos! This was not part of our tour, but the captain of our boat spotted them, and slowed down for the dolphin pod to play with the boat, jumping out of the water and swimming alongside the front of the boat. This has to be one of the highlights, first time seeing Dolphins, in their natural environment and hearing them communicate to each other.

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Day 5 continued to impress, as we climbed up the volcano known as Sierra Negra (1370m). This volcano was active 10 years ago and Isabella Island is made up of a series of volcanos. The caldera is 10k in diameter, not sure that our photos do the expanse of the area justice!

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Day 6 we opted for an optional tour to the lava tunnels and snorkelling in the bays. This trip we were provided with wet suits as we were in the water for over 45minutes looking out for; seahorses, white tip sharks, sea turtles, Galápagos Sharks, puffer fish, sting rays and sea lions (the tour did not disappoint we saw all of the above!) second part of the tour took us on foot to walk across the lava bridges to see Blue Footed Boobies both incubating their eggs and feeding young chicks. We learned that the parents pick one chick if there are 2 to feed and help thrive, whilst the other will perish as they cannot provide enough food. On the third and final part of the day we were lucky enough to see the huge Manta Rays as they swam lifting their fins out of the water.

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Sea Turtle

Galapagos Shark

Nesting Blue Footed Boobies

Sting-ray

On our last full day in the Galápagos we travelled back to Santa Cruz and the option to visit other parts of the island. We decided to take the walk out to Tortuga Bay, a sheltered and well hidden white sandy beach. We ate our picnic alongside some hungry finches, and then hired a sea kayak to explore the bay. Again we saw a variety of fish and sea turtles as well as experiencing our first rain shower since leaving Scotland (slightly different with warm rain and swim wear on!)

DCIM100GOPRO

We were also lucky to have had a great group of people to enjoy the trip with and will remember this tour for a very long time!

Another turtle…

This has been a challenge to pick photos as we have hundreds, but we have tried to include the best…hope you all enjoy them as much as we did taking them!