Hello, my name is Boss Cheung and I’m a first year medical student and I wanted to share an insight into my adventure to Aviemore with the Wilderness Medics – my first residential trip away.
Last semester was a busy time for us Year 1’s with freshers, adapting to medical school and meeting so many people. But as I started to settle in, I began to engage with societies with my first being Wilderness Medics.
Wilderness Medics is a society which combines the outdoors and nature with medicine! They explore scenarios ranging from aeromedicine to military medicine in a setting such as a hike, camping, climbing or a residential trip just like I was on!
When I began to look into societies, I wanted to join something new and fresh. Being a fresher and new to university it felt a bit intimidating joining societies but when I went, I felt encouraged to engage and managed to meet a lot of new people.
Day 0: Getting to Aviemore
The first part of my journey was getting there! I knew a few people going on this trip, so me and my friends planned to leave on the bus to Aviemore together. This was my first trip away without family, so it was quite an exciting moment to just go with my friends and the new people I met at Wilderness Medics.
On the bus I remember looking at the beautiful scenery as we ascended into the Highlands. Fun fact: it was my first time in the Highlands even as someone that is Scottish!!! I got many scenic photos and good memories of having an anything and everything conversation with my friends. It was just such a wholesome moment where I got to forget medicine, spend time with people that I want to and love to be around – an amazing distraction from the mounting work and the upcoming formative.
When we arrived, our second part of the journey took us from the bus stop to the Aviemore Youth Hostel where we were staying for the night. We got to pick rooms, and we picked a room of 6 with four of us who knew each other but two others we didn’t know, which was a bit nerve wracking. However, I was still excited to meet even more new people.
Day 0 involved a chill evening with nothing but a debrief at 9pm planned, so we decided to get a chippy. Nearby the hostel was a local chippy named the Happy Haggis which had massive portions for a surprisingly cheap price! With the friends I came to Aviemore with, most of them hadn’t tried a deep-fried Mars Bar before so decide to do a deep-fried Mars ar taste test. It was the little things like sharing meals and just talking to friends which I believe was the highlight of my trip.
Later on, was the debrief which covered our activities for the next two days . The plan for day one consisted of a group hike up the Craigellachie National Nature Reserve whilst covering different emergency medicine scenarios along the way. To end the night, me and my friends decided to stay in the common room to socialise with the others on the trip and to relax before our activity filled first day.
Day 1: Main activity day
We woke up bright and early to start the day with a set-off time of 9am. So, after getting changed into the right gear we set off on our hike. The forecast for the day was a snowy and windy day which matched the winter scenery of the highlands and made for some breath-taking views. Throughout our hikes I got to speak to different people throughout the years in the medical school which let me see what things were like in clinical years, but also just how it is in the senior years for example do you always feel behind? Or how do you manage your work-life balance? As a Year 1, coming into medical school it was quite overwhelming with having to cook and clean for myself whilst keeping on top of work and social gatherings. But talking to the older years and how they’ve grown throughout the years has made me more confident and understand that everyone takes their own time to adapt to university life and medical student life.
As we progressed through the hike, the committee of Wilderness Medics would suddenly begin an emergency medicine scenario. We would be randomly allocated groups and attended to a different section each time. I was in a group of two second years, a fourth year and one sixth year. Let me set the scene, one of our scenarios involved an injury to the leg which was most likely an open fracture. Being in my pre-clinical years I felt like I didn’t know much, but the people around me and the committee made me feel confident enough to say any sort of knowledge I could apply to this situation. Slowly engaging in situations like this where I’m out of my own depth made it easier when it came to the next scenario along the way and overall, it made me feel positively about joining and engaging with a society.
One of my most memorable moments during day one was when we stopped by the loch, it was just a slight snow overlying a frosty landscape and water. Time felt slow and it was one of those moments which just made you admire the moment and take in the nature. By the end of the hike, it was around 4pm when we made it back to the hostel with a planned dinner at 7pm at a local Italian place. After a hearty dinner it was time to have a relaxing evening where me and my friends just ate a lot of food, played games and talked, all in front of a fireplace in the hostel’s common room. Reflecting on the day, both of my interests of the outdoors and medicine was combined whilst also time spent not doing these activities – it was just like if I was on a little vacation with my friends.
Day 2: A scenic walk and return to Edinburgh
Although there was no set plan, we still had an early rise and awoke for 9am again. Day two was the day we left the hostel, so we packed up our stuff and left it at the hostel for a bit whilst me and my friends decided to do a little scenic walk around the area. Although we’ve seen parts of Aviemore and the surrounding areas, most of it had been when it was dark so it was nice to see the town when it was quite sunny. Similar to most places, there were a lot of local businesses as well as houses dotted around the place, but besides that was a lot of nature surrounding the whole area. During our wander we managed to stumble across a local garden café which was serving fresh Highland produce and food made from that produce. I vividly remember looking at souvenirs and what caught the corner of my eye wasn’t a Highland cow plushie – but a small bag with a freshly made cheese scone accompanied by a simple butter and jam.
After this little adventure – with cheese scone in hand – we made our way back to the hostel and collected our stuff just in time to take the 12.15pm bus back to Edinburgh. The bus on the way back was long but relaxing, we got to reminisce on our time in Aviemore and all the memories we’d made in the past few days. Not only did I get to spend a few days away in a new place with my friends – but I got to explore something that I was passionate about in a really fun and involved way. Something that I didn’t think I’d get exposure to until the clinical years but by just simply reaching out and interacting with a society got me this experience.
So, if there was something to take away from my little adventure – it would be to just do it. Although I had times where I was a bit nervous to go on a trip without family and join a society primarily made up of senior years – I managed to push past that and got to do something I came into university thinking I wouldn’t do! As an end to this entry, I again encourage you just to do it – make timeless memories and everlasting friends to accompany you for not just these six years but for life.
