Nomadic Hiking – experience Week for 30 school-age Students
During this week we become walking companions, we give ourselves up to the route we end up taking and build trust in one-another. We move through the countryside in search of food and suitable places to sleep. We do away with our cell phones and enjoy not being reachable on our phones.
The Hike
We deliberately leave the structured order of society behind, life is reduced to its bare essentials whereby nature alone sets the boundaries within which we find ourselves.
The hike lasts 5 to 7 days. We move along with the minimum of route planning and without set destinations or places to sleep. We take maps with us purely for orientation. We wander through the countryside, cook on camp fires and sleep under tarps that we set up ourselves. The experience is made up of the daring, the unplanned journey and being open to this allows for opportunities to unfold.
The gear we take with us ensures a dry place for the night and a hearty meal every day. We cut all ties that bind us by our smartphones – our press-button availability. We trust in ourselves and the people around us. We trust in serendipity.
Accompaniment rather than Leadership
It is really important that we accompany and not lead. The group always makes decisions as a whole. We create our own space, find structures that suit us and we stick to them. The prime motivation for “not leading” is the idea of self-responsibility. We want to give young people the opportunity to experience this self-responsibility.
Allow for “Not Planned”
In everyday life – at home and at work – our focus is on planning. On this hike, we make room for the unpredictable: We stop where we want to, decide on the way whether to continue left or right, sleep where we find a good place to stay – without a mobile phone, without a GPS and without a support vehicle.
Reduction to the Bare Essentials
Our journey begins before we set off: everyone carries what they bring themselves. What do we really need for these few days? How much or how little can we get along with? What am I going to carry myself – a sleeping bag, a tarpaulin, my eating utensils, what else?
Doing What Has to be Done
Duties are allocated among all of us. Each of us takes on what we can manage and where we feel we can comfortably take our place in the group.
A Borderline Experience as a School Project
Outdoors, together, offline. Without planned routes. Without reserving a place to sleep. What will the day bring? What do I really need for my and our well-being?
Age: from 16 years old
Duration: 5 days
Leadership: Ursula Sova and Jürgen Schneider
Price: €365 per participant (with 30 participants)