RYLA 2023 in North East England will be a truly invigorating event this August, providing even more opportunities to develop the young people who take part. We have cherry-picked highlights from our previous programmes and added loads of new features to offer the best RYLA yet.  It’s so good it has its own video! https://youtu.be/arj_xQALvYQ

Location

RYLA 2023 will be located on a farm in Baldersdale, alongside the Pennine Way, Hannah’s Meadow and the Blackton and Hury reservoirs. It is a private and secluded “off-grid” woodland site and offers a stunning location for our camp, brand new for 2023. From the site we can access a vast array of activities & venues to offer the best possible programme.

Accommodation

Our tented camp offers sleeping accommodation in luxury, separate gender, canvas tents. These tents include beds, lighting, flooring and super-comfortable sleeping bags that will create a wonderful experience for the young people. Toilets and hot showers are provided and communal working areas are covered by an assortment of stunning canvas structures.

As in previous years, we will be splitting the candidates into mixed gender groups. These groups will be allocated two neighbouring tents.

We will, as always, giving considerable responsibilities to the group to manage their stay. Candidates will contribute to the running of the experience to develop their leadership skills and maturity. Each group will be allocated camp tasks where they must work together. Examples include collecting and processing firewood and helping to prepare meals.

Adventure Activities

Of course, we will be running a series of adventurous activities for the candidates to take part in. These activities will aim to build confidence and self-esteem as well as encourage resilience. We will be adding some new activities this year at our superb water sports venue.

We have taken the previous Rotary-themed team challenges and made them even better. The Polio Vaccine transport challenge has evolved from raft building to a bridge building exercise, which will require much more planning and teamwork.

The Clean Water challenge, where the candidates attempt to make water purification filters using only naturally-occurring materials (including making their own wood-charcoal) will become an evening activity to free more daytime space for other activities.

The ShelterBox challenge has become an overnight expedition.  As part of our 2023 RYLA, we were keen to have the groups embark on a mini self-led overnight expedition. This is an ideal opportunity to update the ShelterBox Challenge. So although we are proposing they once again transport the ShelterBox, this time it will be to a wild site where they will spend the night, using the ShelterBox tent itself to provide some of their accommodation. We hope that this will inspire the young people to learn even more about the initiative.

As well as the ShelterBox Challenge which will take up one night, and the Filter Challenge another, we intend on the first night to take the group wild swimming.  This will be a wonderful, immersive introduction to the programme! Finally on the last night there will be a BBQ and an evening around the campfire while we debrief.

Contact rylanortheast@gmail.com to find out more about RYLA 2023 and prepare for RYLA 2024.

Go to www.wildernessoutdooreducation.com for more details of the course operators (as seen on TV).