Education is a lifelong journey whose destination expands as you travel – Jim Stovall

A school environment offers an opportunity to learn in class while a field trip gives students an opportunity to spend time through living and seeing the real life itself.

To cater to this type of learning, AVM organised a three-day trip to Mount Abu for students of grades V and VI. The students occupied the three luxury buses that started at 8 p.m. from school. The first stop was planned keeping a short break in mind, along with the main idea of learning while traveling. At Unjha, near Mehsana, children took a light breakfast and then visited a soda factory, that was an added learning experience. Later in the day, the excited and never tiring lot, reached the very welcoming Hotel Hilltone in Mt. Abu.

Various activities were planned the next day and after a laid-back breakfast, the kids were divided into various groups to kick start the adventure activities for the day. The activities children enjoyed included: Crawling and Climbing the Tunnel, Horse Riding, Zip Line, Burma Bridge, Improvised Rope Ladder Climbing, Puzzled Tyre Twist, Tyre Tunnel, Commando Net, and Commando Bridge. After the activities, they relished a sumptuous lunch at the hotel. After some rest, in the evening, the students were on the way for night trekking – the most awaited event of the day. Trekking was done in natural light of the stars and the moon. The walk in the dark brought apprehension in the small but inquisitive minds. On the way they came across a narrow cave which was housed in the hill slope reminding them of the early man’s life. After crawling through the cave, students came out of the cave to a hill top with a spectacular aerial view of the valley, which confused them to decide, what was superior – the sparkling valley or the twinkling stars in the sky? Keeping these experiences and questions in their mind, they climbed down towards the hotel for dinner. The day ended with many adventurous activities and a night trek that helped the students get a hands-on experience of learning and living with nature.

Mountain climbing needs a lot of energy and guts. It is exciting yet difficult to climb the scary heighted pointy peaks, on the other hand, rock climbing heightens mental strength and boosts up confidence. To experience and enjoy the same, children were divided into groups and they performed activities like, rock climbing, rock rappelling and mountain climbing. The students climbed the hills and in one frame of vision, they could see the three important landforms together that is plain, plateau and hills. In the rugged terrain, they saw a temple too. After completing this task, the students were taken back to the Hotel for lunch followed by a small nap time. The young kids were very eager to do all these stunts, with unexpected easiness and in a well-disciplined manner.

The climbing activities continued post nap time with the same energy and enthusiasm, after that we returned to the hotel and had a delicious dinner. Then, it was leisure time for students to play in the open area of the hotel. Finally, they regained the spirit of joy by performing the traditional garba. The day ended with scrumptious ice-cream.

The final stop in our itinerary list was the highest peak Guru Shikhar on the Aravalli Range. It is a trekker’s delight and an adventure worth pursuing. The way towards Guru Shikhar was very thrilling with its serpentine roads. After climbing approximately 700 steps, the kids reached the top of the peak. First, they visited a temple of Dattatreya, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu. Then the kids enjoyed the captivating view of the landscape along with the cool breeze. Later, after a quick lunch at the hotel, we departed from Mt. Abu.

On the way back to school, we had our dinner at McDonalds. From there our journey continued back to AVM with a throbbing yet blessed heart, filled with happy memories. Thus, the tour of Mt. Abu came to an end with great satisfaction and moments full happiness, learning and joy.

Reported by: Binu Ma’am, Rashmi Ma’am