Wilderness Engagement
Posted on August 6, 2020
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I spent the majority of my childhood in Dhaka, Bangladesh, a megalopolis with a population of over 20 million in one of the densest places on earth. Dhaka is a concrete jungle with almost no green space in it. Even for action weeks, where wilderness interaction is required, we were sent abroad since Bangladesh had no facilities to truly experience the wilderness as even very remote parts of the country have human habitation.
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Moving to Bangkok was an improvement over Dhaka, having more parks and green spaces but Bangkok is still a concrete jungle. However, here for action week we now travel to nearby local areas in Northern Thailand where nature is still relatively untouched by human activity, and the environment is much more centered on wilderness and experiencing it.
My first connection with wildlife was on an action week trip to Chiang Mai in 2015. It was a three-day trip involving trekking one day, kayaking and spending time at an Elephant Nature Park. At first, I was apprehensive to travel alone outside Bangladesh and worried that I would miss my home and family too much to properly enjoy the experience. However, despite the physically exhausting activities which I wasn’t too keen about, I really enjoyed it. It sparked in me a new initiative to want to travel and explore the wilderness in various locations and conditions. I found that I enjoyed trekking, especially going up mountain trails where I would spend time in silence allowing me time to think and reflect while pushing my endurance limits. This experience forced me to work collaboratively with my peers in group tasks, such as feeding and bathing the elephants at the sanctuary and also allowed me to experience independence from both family and my teachers.
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Even though I enjoyed action week as a whole, I wasn’t nearly as excited about the physical exertion portion of it. Early on in Y11, however, I was accepted into the Duke of Edinburgh International Youth Award Bronze cohort (or IYA for short). This program entailed two 3-month skill-development endeavors and one 6-month skill-development endeavor. It also included an Adventurous Journey, as well as a practice Journey. As outdoor leisure activities gain more popularity, the Duke of Edinburgh Award requires each participant to partake in “wilderness engagement” with the hope that participants can do so with minimal impact or damage to the natural environment. Their motto is “wise use without abuse.” In the Adventurous Journey, we were going to be assessed on our use of skills such as cartography, navigation, campsite setup, etc. We would also be judged base don how well we conducted and planned our trip around a goal that we would get to choose.
I wasn’t worried about the skill developments, but I wasn’t excited about the idea of going through what seemed like action week again, especially one that would likely be much more challenging. As it got closer to the date of the practice journey, we began preparing for it. This time, we had to make all the decisions. We had to choose which site to conduct the journey on, choose a goal, mark out a route, carry and make arrangements for food, and anything else we felt we could possibly need. This was in near-isolation from the supervisors, which meant we were responsible for the whole journey. This was a stark contrast to action week, where we generally just had to show up and do all the tasks set. Even though this meant more work, it meant that we could customize our journeys to achieve our goals and enjoy ourselves.
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For the practice journey, we went to Khao Yai, a national park, in October 2018. We spent two days trekking with the objective of taking pictures of the park for a promotional poster for the next year’s IYA cohort. We were expected to organize our meals as well as prepare, gather and distribute our supplies and most importantly, determine our trekking routes. I was in a group with three boys from my year and one boy and one girl from the year below. However, during preparation, the other girl dropped out and I was left as the only girl in the group. Additionally, all of the boys were athletes, while I don’t pride myself on my fitness. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to keep up with all of the other boys.
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In order to fulfill the above requirements, I had to learn compass navigation and cartography; setting up a campsite with tents taking safety into account, using a gas stove for cooking and heating water,etc., none of which I had ever done before. In earlier action weeks, a lot of the work was done by the supervisors and teachers; all we had to do was set up our own tents and follow the markers on trekking routes.
When it came time for the journey, I was extremely worried that I would not be able to take it. However, our group worked well together and we knew enough about what we were doing to not get lost and stay on track. I surprised myself by keeping up with the group and being able to show all of the skills necessary to pass the test, although we weren’t being properly judged yet. Also, I found the experience to be fun and engaging, far more than I usually found action week. The work was harder, but the reward was greater. For the next journey, the Adventurous Journey, we went to Khao Ito in March of 2019. Before the trip, I was less apprehensive and was actually looking forward to it. However, just before the trip, I hurt my knee. I suddenly became worried that I would not be able to go on the trip, or even if I did, I would slow down my teammates considerably. Not wanting to let down my group, I decided to go on the trip anyway and do my best not to hinder my group. Although I wasn’t as fast as normal, my group was supportive and helped me complete the trek. Even though I wasn’t able to enjoy the trek as I would have liked, I still enjoyed the trip considerably. We continued to work on our goal, and as we had already begun taking pictures on the last trip, we were more aware of the wilderness around us and found better photo opportunities. At the end of the trip, we were told that everyone in the cohort passed the tests.
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Taking almost complete responsibility for our journey was a big and rather challenging step for our group because these were completely new skills that we had to use and we were going to be judged on our use of them. However, it gave us a lot of freedom. We got to customize our trip to fulfill our goal and enjoy ourselves, so although the preparation was more work, the treks themselves turned out to be much more fun for us. The fact that we had planned it, made us overlook whatever challenges we faced on the actual trek itself. Spending practically the whole day walking with a small group ensured we would mingle to keep all of our spirits up but most importantly allowed us to get to know each other a lot better on a personal level. This reflected in us being more comfortable with each other even after returning to normal school routines.
During the trek, which was not easy, I realized that when looking at wilderness from a distance (in a photo or through a window), one mostly notices the beauty on a large scale. In this trip, I noticed things such as the hard-earthy soil we walked on, the small individual shoots trying to get sunlight in the shadow of tall trees, the incessant noise made by various insects all through the night. which made me appreciate the concept of an ecosystem where organisms and communities are dependent on each other for survival, which in a way, was like the dynamic of our group. I used to see the wilderness as something other, something far away from myself. I saw it almost as a danger, not knowing very much about it. Now, I see it as the natural beauty of our planet, something I am privileged to be able to see and experience. My experiences helped create this drastic change in attitude, and I’m now a more aware global citizen.
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Fulfilling the requirements for a certificate, learning new skills and having fun almost seem like fringe benefits when I now look back and realize my good fortune to experience the wilderness, which I can see is endangered due to human activity. Global warming, a growing population, increased farming, and other detrimental activities and side effects are affecting our planet more and more as time goes on. It makes me wonder whether I could have similar experiences in a decade or later. In hindsight, it made that trip, my wilderness experience, truly memorable, and something I will cherish.