A GROUP of students from Peel have undertaken a Duke of Edinburgh Award expedition to Greenland.
The students, who are aged between 16 and 18 and attend Queen Elizabeth II High School, travelled to Greenland for 12 days to kayak over 300kms.
The trip took place between July 19 and August 10 and was led by expedition leader Lesley Sleight. She said: "Very few youngsters get the opportunity to go into wilderness areas that are not exploited by commercial organisations. Students travelling with commercial companies usually have the same planned, tried and tested routes to follow.
"Because we work with our students over a long period of time we have a better knowledge of their abilities. We are able to use this knowledge to have a more flexible approach to our journey."
The group have been taking part in outdoor activities since year seven. They also undertook 18 months of intensive training prior to travelling to Greenland.
ILS Group Limited, a corporate services provider based in Douglas, donated tents, rucksacks and dry bags to the group.
Chris Eaton, chief executive of the company, said: "We were absolutely delighted to support these students in their expedition to such a remote part of the world and were pleased to be able to provide them with vital equipment for their trip.
"The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award is a challenging and worthwhile scheme which offers students a real adventure from start to finish."
During their time in Greenland the students were encouraged to keep diaries. The following are extracts from their time away:
Clare Fisher said: "Setting off must have been one of the best experiences. It was nothing like kayaking at home. The water was so blue and there were icebergs everywhere. I find the icebergs absolutely amazing I can’t quite get over them."
Rebecca Fong said: "As it was raining yesterday lots of water has got in the cracks in the icebergs, which meant they kept collapsing and huge chunks of ice dropped off. Constantly we could hear big rumbles like thunder and sounds of gunshot as the icebergs broke apart. Due to the fog we couldn’t see the icebergs or be sure of what direction the roars were coming from."
Richard Corlett said: "Just as everyone was getting tired we hit the narrows and with a strong current against us we had to paddle hard to get through it. We had to ferry glide thus zigzagging our way up.
"We went full steam ahead and crossed the moving water well. We had to cross again to get out of the strong tidal stream, but we got the angle wrong and got caught sideways nearly flipping us over. We just managed to keep upright and were in hysterics laughing and giggling through it all."
