A wonderful thank you to our generous members from Ruby for helping her towards her incredible journey and experience of a lifetime .
Ruby is the daughter of our fab club member James Garstin who kindly offered to host (on several occasions) a refreshment stop for our Saturday club rides at their family home in Sibford Gower to assist Ruby in her fundraising campaign for an incredible expedition to Cambodia in July 2025 with Camps International.
As part of her fundraising campaign Ruby made an amazing selection of homemade cakes and goodies along with tea, coffee and cold drinks for our club members. All Ruby asked in exchange was for donations to help her in supporting the expedition .
Here’s what Ruby has sent in to us.
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Hello everyone,
Thank you again for your support that made my amazing Cambodia trip possible.
We began in Phnom Penh, visiting the S21 Prison and Killing Fields to learn about the Khmer Rouge’s impact. I spoke with four survivors, which opened our eyes to the country’s history and the people we’d be helping.
From July 16-24, we worked at Camp Beng Pae with daily schedules from 7am-4:30pm. We dug a 13ft well and planted gardens for a local family, made 12 concrete well rings (exceeding the typical 9-10), and began building an English school that will take three more years to complete. We also taught English to local children aged 8-12 and played football against the under-18s team in the rain.
At Camp Beng Mea Lea (July 24-29), we made concrete water pots and built chicken coops. Due to Cambodia-Thailand border conflicts, our camp received additional groups when northern camps closed for safety.
The four-day jungle trek was my favorite part. We completed day one (7k uphill) faster than any previous group, slept in hammocks, watched sunrise from a viewpoint, walked through cashew tree fields, meditated with monks at a temple, and visited a waterfall and lying down Buddha.
In Siem Reap, we enjoyed a circus show, visited Angkor Wat with its monkeys and carvings, took a boat to the floating village, toured a silk farm, and explored night markets.
Our final camp involved a 4k daily walk to a school where we made and installed cement tiles for three days.
This trip taught me so much about a completely new part of the world. Despite initial shock at the noise and traffic, everything quickly became familiar. The welcoming people and our guides taught me valuable new skills. I received the “most resilient” award, though I think we were simply too busy working to be homesick.
Thank you all for enabling this incredible experience.
Best wishes,
Ruby
