Sur cette page, vous trouverez la mise à jour des aventures quotidiennes vécues par les participants et les participantes inscrits sur l’expédition de 2010.

5 adolescents et adolescentes sont parti s’entraîner à la pratique de l’anglais dans le cadre d’un séjour de journalisme scientifique sur le thème de la biodiversité et des interactions entre visiteurs et écosystèmes au Parc de YellowStone, Wyoming.

 Tuesday the 26th of july 2011

We woke up at seven thirty. We ate breakfast with bagels, marmelade and peanut butter. Lucie and Louis washed the dirty dishes. We looked for Buffalos but they weren’t any around. So we went to the Visitor Center of Moose Junction. We did goups and little reports on différents subjects. ( Lucie and Louis : the animals seen by the visitors ; Leo and Manuel on Buffalos ; Fanny and I on Grizzlys.) We ate next to the museum. After lunch, we went to Phelps Lake for a walk. We swam in the lake next to the iced mountains. We went back to the camp, and on the way we saw two mooses and an elk. We did a barbecue for dinner ; Grilled sausages, tomato salad and potatoes.

Jade.

 Wednesday the 27th of july 2011

We woke up at 7h30, and after the breakfast we cleaned the camp and drove to the norh of the Grand Teton, to the camping of Colter Bay. We set up the camp and ate lunch, rice salad with watermelon. During the afternoon, we chose subjects to work on to make a short newspaper : Grizzlis vs bears, the supervolcano escape plan, how to count animals in the park, and what happens in case of a car accident between animals and drivers. After, we walk in the forest and we swam in a lake. We were attacked by mosquitoes, and then we took our first shower in 3 days ! Finally, we prepared the fire and the supper, (bolognese pastas), and play the game “guess who“.

Louis and Valerian.

 Thursday the 28th of July 2011

We woke up suddenly at the sound of the music porc epic,sang by Valérian,we’ve eaten toasts, apple juice and strawberry marmalade. Then we cleaned the camp and put the bags and suitcases in the car .We’ve interviewed some people in the visitor center of Colter bay about car accidents with animals, and about the super volcano in Yellowstone. In case of eruption, everybody ran and some people pray. Then we’ve eaten another time and Marc, an American went to talk with us, poor marc… Then we took the car an arrived at Grant village ; we’ve installed the camp and built the tents. After that we’ve looked for wood and wrote an article. Finally we’ve had dinner and had a “Time’s up” around the fire. The team of the terrible Lucy won the game and we went to bed. Leo and Manu

 Friday the 29 of July 2011

We woke up at seven thirty and we had breakfast : toast, marmalade, tea, milk… Jade and Manu washed the dirty dishes. We went to the “Old Faithful”, the most famous geyser site. After a short walk, we saw the eruption of the “Old Faithful Geyser”. It was very impressive and beautiful. We felt insignificant. We had lunch and we bought souvenirs. We ate ice-creams in the All Faithful Inn, a hostel made of wood. We visited the rest of the “Old Faithful Site” and we made two photo stories. After, we saw the spectacular eruption of the “Grand Geyser”. We went back to the camp, and we went to the launderette to wash dirty clothes, and we took a shower of just six minutes. Back at the camp, Manu, Leo, Jade and I went to look for firewood, while Fanny and Lucie were cooking dinner. After dinner, we played at the “Liar Game” around the fire. At midnight, Leo, Jade and Manu went to sleep next to the fire, outside. I was all alone in the tent !

Louis.

 The 30th of july

We woke up early and ate breakfast, with grilled tortillas. We worked on the photo story of the YELLOWSTONE PORCUPINE and finished the newspaper until noon, thanks to Fanny and her strong motivation. Then we ate and went to see more geysers, fumaroles, and mud pots. We saw also the third biggest hot pool in the world, the Grand Prismatic Spring ! That was great ! We returned to the campsite, ate dinner and slept outside by the fire, after playing a mime game.

Read the Yellowstone Porcupine

 The 31of july

We woke up at 9h30 ! (because it was Sunday). We cleaned the camp because we had to leave by 11 am. We at next to the Yellowstone lake. We talked to a biker about the necessity of the helmet in USA. After lunch, we presented the funny photo stories we had been working on 2 days before After that we took our bags and started to walk to the backcountry camping. That was a short wlak, around one hour. In the camp, we installed the tents under the rain, and started a fire when the rain stopped. There were thousands of mosquitoes and we saw a bear a couple hundred meters from the camp. After dinner, we had to hang all the food and smelly things to a pole, one hundred meters from the camp, so that the bear won’t attack us. We ate dinner (raviolis), talked, and went to sleep.

 The 1st of august

At 5 am , Manuel, Leo and I woke up and went in a meadow where were a herd of elks, maybe 50 of them ! Around 8 am, everybody was up and we took breakfast, it was still raining from time to time. We prepared bags and returned to our car, and looked for another camping. We arrivec in the Norris camping, where we are going to stay 3 nights. We ate under a tarp because of the rain, and then cleaned the tent in a cold river. Then we went in the town of West Yellowstone and bought souvenirs and gifts, while Val and Lucie were doing the grocery shopping. We returned to the camp and ate hamburgers on the fire, then we went to bed and slept.

 The 2^nd of august

We changed our camping site in the morning, to be closer to the river in a better area of Norris. We spent most of the day hiking the Yellowstone canyon and took pictures and recorded sounds over there. During the evening, our neighbor sans and played the guitar during a beautiful night concert.

 The 3rd of august

In the morning, we took some time to relax and swam in the ice cold river by the campground. In the afternoon, we drove to see the Mamoth hotsprings and went to the backcountry office to reserve our site and did dome interviews with rangers and volunteers. We then visited the town of Gardiner, north of Yellowstone.

 The 4th of august

We drove to the Norris rangers office and the Old Faithfull office to do some more interviews with rangers for our reportage on backcountry camping. In the end of the afternoon, we walked to our new backcountry camping location site, on the banks of Shoshone lake, and were eaten by thousands of mosquitoes !! We too a lot of pictures on the way and bathed in the cold water when we arrived. Here, we are not allowed to do any fire, it’s the rule !

 The 5th of august

We left the backcountry camp this morning under a nice sun and a light breeze and walked back to the car. We did some campers interviews on the way. We drove to Colter Bay for showers and finally reached Gros Ventre, in the Grand Teton Park in the aftrenoon. There, we set up our last camp ! While traveling in the ca, we worked hard on our final multimedia reportage.

 The 6th of august

Bye bye Yellowstone. We just left the Jackson Hole Airport this morning and parted in Dallas. Some of us to Paris, others to Montreal. We finished our multimedia reportage about backcountry camping in the plane !

Rencontres de l’Excellence ! Chaque automne, les jeunes âgés de 13 à 22 ans bénéficient d’un séjour hors du commun durant lequel les participants et les participantes bénéficient d’ateliers de haut niveau habituellement réservés aux adultes. Pour en savoir, suivez ce lien dédiés aux Rencontres de l’Excellence

Jerome MATHEY, valerian.mazataud,
date de publication : 27 juillet 2011,
date de dernière mise à jour : 26 août 2011