By community correspondent Amani Patel

Unlike any ordinary weekend, where the school is closed, empty and quite, around 30 Surbiton’s from years 10 to 12 ventured to the sixth form centre to prepare for their long anticipated expedition to Mongolia in the summer of 2011 with Wilderness Expertise. As the girls gathered early in the morning at 9am on Saturday 24th April, we were introduced to our leaders for the expedition, Jim and Elaine. After researching on some of the many breathtaking areas in the remote country, we were split into two groups where we began planning our itinerary for the four week trip. Towards the end of the first day, the itineraries for each group had been sorted. Both ended up being quite similar. The basic schedule was to fly to Beijing and remain there for two days while visiting the magnificent Great Wall of China and the black markets.

Following that, we shall journey on the Trans-Siberian Express to Ulaanbaatar (UB), the capital of Mongolia where we will spend five days helping young children at an orphanage nearby. After, we shall take a long journey towards the north of Mongolia where we will begin our trek across the beautiful Lake Khovsgol where we will spend one of our days attempting to kayak across its peaceful waters. Then we shall head back towards UB for our horse-riding trek for several days on the not so very comfy wooden saddles. After returning back to UB, we will fly back towards Beijing and eventually back home to the UK. On the Sunday, we discussed group roles and leadership skills and the importance of working in a team. Following that we also planned our menus for our UK2 training in the Brecon Beacons in Wales in March.

The weekend turned out to be a useful, interesting and enjoyable experience and we are all incredibly excited for our trip next year. But before then we will set off to master our horse riding and swimming skills and start getting used to the normal diets of a typical camper.