Monday 30 August was the date of the annual apprentice excursion, which took place in Großraming. There were 24 participants, comprising apprentices from the first to the fourth years of their apprenticeships. They had the opportunity to experience a taste of adventure and build their own rafts, which were then used for a paddling competition.
Although it was raining, everyone was looking forward to an exciting day with lots of action and fun. The agenda included a fascinating raft building workshop. The apprentices, who had completed PCR-tests up front, built rafts from various materials at a romantic raft building site under a suspension rope bridge on the banks of the Enns river. As a warm up exercise, they first built very stable, modern rafts from floats and boards. Then it was time to get down to business – the task being to build original wooden rafts. Besides common sense, this demanded teamwork on the part of all the participants. <o:p></o:p>
Ancient skills in working with wood, iron and water were taught and the participants then had to apply the matching hand crafting techniques and cut wood, forge clamps, make oars, and build rafts. The practical test on the Enns that followed turned into a sporting competition with the DIY rafts. The participants were also given wetsuits, jackets and shoes, life jackets and paddles. The relaxing part followed the hard work of the workshop and the competition with the group taking the opportunity to chill out on a massive, wooden raft measuring 25 m from bow to stern and enjoy a delicious barbecue buffet. It consisted of pork chops, cheese kranksy, sausages, grilled vegetables, potatoes, homemade salads and bread. Everyone ate as much as they wanted. The AGRU apprentice excursion will be back again next year with a new, exciting destination.<o:p></o:p>
