After successfully winning the Geographical Association’s UK Worldwise Challenge, Easter 2007, two Year 11 Geographers (Emily and Brigid) were selected to make up one half of the UK team at this year’s 7th International Geography Olympiad event in Carthage, Tunisia. The International Geography Olympiad (iGeo) is a bi-annual competition for the world’s most talented young geographers. Twenty-four countries participated in the 2008 iGeo event with students involved in three exams and two fieldwork tests. The teams also took part in cultural presentations and ceremonies. The teams travelled over 1800 km around Tunisia, visiting nine locations in seven days.
Wednesday 6th August: The UK team (including pupils from Sheringham School and Hymers College) made lengthy journeys to Manchester Airport from N. Wales, Hull, Norfolk and Monmouth. We arrived in Tunis in the early hours of the morning. Our first reaction was similar to that entering a sauna from a cold pool; it was around 45°C!
Thursday 7th August: After breakfast at 7 am, ‘team GB’ freshened up with a swim in the Gulf of Tunis. After changing our money to Tunisian Dinar we had mountains of couscous that never seemed to diminish. The opening ceremony followed in the evening and we were captivated by the different cultures and languages around us. We were encouraged to chat (in English and French) to everyone. At one point we found ourselves with a girl from Slovakia (girls were very rare in this competition!), two Saudi Arabian boys and a very excited boy from Beijing discussing the Olympic Games.
Friday 8th August: Up at 7 am for a geography multimedia exam. This was followed by a trip to Carthage Museum to see the most impressive mosaics in the world, and a tour of the Phoenician ruins. The three hour written exam was unfortunately delayed and started at 7.40 pm. A cramped room in 40°C heat made this experience almost unbearable! We crashed into bed around 11.30 pm.
Saturday 9th August: Wake up call was at 5 am in order to drive into the Sahara Desert! The aim of this fieldtrip was to learn about the causes and impacts of increasing aridity in Southern Tunisia. We also discovered there are three different sorts of Tunisian time: Normal Tunisian time, Tunisian’s Tunisia time, this led us to miss all schedules and be at the least two hours late. Finally, Tunisian Bus Driver’s time, this flashed by at speed with lots of beeping, hoping that we would stick to the original schedule. Before lunch we stopped at the amazing ruined Roman Coliseum of El Jem and its surrounding medinas. After lunch we went to a semi-arid farm to do our first geomorphology-mapping test. An hour later we went to a troglodyte house, (a traditional mud house built into the ground by the ancient Berber Tribes). The cultural presentations started in the evening, including Australia and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Sunday 10th August: Up at 6 am for a camel ride into the Sahara. Then we drove to Chott-el-Jerid, a reddish salt lake. After a couple more stops we came to an oasis for our second mapping exercise. Then we had a dusty horse and cart ride through a little village, not for the faint hearted! We arrived at our new hotel then headed straight back out into the desert. This time an hour’s drive by huge 4x4’s made sure we ended up in a remote area of the Sahara. We thought we were just visiting the Star Wars film set, which was fascinating and surreal, but our driver suddenly took us over huge sand dunes in his jeep, it was a similar feeling to a roller-coaster! We then headed back to the hotel for dinner and the second part of the cultural presentations including Latvia and the UK! It finished at 12 pm, with three of the UK team dressed in rugby shirts and Brigid dressed as Queen Elizabeth, reading Harry Potter, showing some artwork and playing the national anthem!
Monday 11th August: With all our fieldwork and exams over all that was left was to travel the long journey back to Carthage for the close of the Olympiad. We stopped on route at the holy city of Kairouan and the museum of Gafsa. We were treated to a surprise evening meal in Hammamet which included belly dancing and traditional Arab music. After this the medals were presented to the winning teams, with the UK team narrowly missing out on a Bronze medal.
Tuesday 12th August: Back in Carthage we attended the IGU Congress opening ceremony which sadly marked the end of our competition and time in Tunisia. After six days of exhausting, but exciting work our ‘once in a lifetime trip’ was over. We shall cherish our time in Tunisia and hope to return in the future.
Brigid and Emily
