Austin Shares His Expedition Experience in South Africa

Austin, 19 and a care leaver from the UK, volunteered on a Raleigh Expedition in South Africa from June to August 2024. As a Raleigh SES Bursary Award Participant, Austin joined Expedition through our bursary scheme, set up in collaboration with the Scientific Exploration Society to fund 15 young adults to join Expedition over the next three years.  

On his 10-week South Africa Expedition, Austin took part in a community and environmental project, as well as a 19-day adventure trek and says the experience built his confidence and helped set the direction for his future.  

Here are Austin’s reflections from his experience on Expedition in South Africa! 

On joining a Raleigh Expedition

“Before applying for the Raleigh SES bursary, I was at a bit of a crossroads between education and finding a job. My previous job ended up leaving me in some debt and I was looking at going back to education when this opportunity arose. I signed up as I believed joining Expedition could help me grow as a person and see more cultures, and also help me get a bit of headspace from all the chaos of living by myself.”

Conquering my community, environmental and trek phase 

“I started off doing my Community Phase, in which I built an educational bus for a school nearby and supported our project partner Nourish to develop a school vegetable garden. We visited a school nearby and the rest of the community and played sports with some of the local children.  

This was all very rewarding. I worked hard to give back to a community that had only been around for 5 years, and I could feel how welcoming and accepting everyone was to us being there. They could see the impact we were making on our project.”  

As part of his Expedition, Austin also took part in a 19-day Environmental Phase in Sawong in the Greater Kruger area. During this time, Austin aided in important projects that support essential wildlife and conservation work.  

“My environmental project involved taking down old telephone wires and removing very old razor-wire and barbed-wire fences in Sawong Reserve. We also took part in grass and tree surveys which involved us driving through the nature reserve spotting endangered trees and figuring out what type of animals would be grazing nearby. 

We also took part in game drives which was one of my highlights as we would play a game called ‘Bush Bingo’ to help us learn about new species we hadn’t seen before.” 

“I finished with my Trek phase, where we guided ourselves for 19 days using a 16-year-old map and only the stuff on our backs. This helped us grow our map reading skills and our social skills as we all learnt we were in it together regardless of the situation at hand.”  

What I learnt on Expedition  

“I learned the importance of working for the communities and environment around us. I also developed knowledge about new species and plants I never knew about before. On top of that, I also gained a lot of social skills, especially with people my age, which is very valuable. 

I would describe myself as a person who is eager to learn and experience new things, but also sometimes slightly nervous about new social experiences. However, being out here on Expedition, I have found I have a voice within a group of people. I now know how and when to tell people certain things and so much about different cultures and ways of life. It’s incredible.” 

My Expedition highlights

“There have been so many that I can’t just put down one. The mixture of making lifelong friends, seeing loads of animals during the environment phase, and hearing how grateful the primary school’s headteacher was for our hard work during the community project, makes it almost impossible to pick just one highlight!”

Life after Raleigh 

“I will be heading back into education and trying to live a new way of life where I incorporate the small things I learned during my Expedition, like persistence and solitary time. Raleigh has really given me the motivation that I needed to continue pushing in life and exploring the world.”   

My message to others about joining Raleigh Expedition 

“If you’re thinking about it, just do it! 

Every experience is so unique and you will learn and develop much more than you could ever imagine. If I had to describe my Expedition in three words, I would say: Mind-blowing, unique, exhilarating!”