Navigating the jungle with a compass, battling leeches and scorpions, scaling a cold mountain clad only in shorts - does this sound like a description of the Survivor series?

In fact, these are only a few of the myriad challenges Bermudian Ben Beasley faced last month when he participated in an Outward Bound International (OBI) course held in Borneo.

Mr. Beasley joined a dozen other young people between 18 and 30 from around the globe in Sabaa, Borneo for a two-week challenge intended to build goodwill and develop survival skills.

Sharing his observations with Hamilton Lions this week at their weekly luncheon, Mr. Beasley said, while he hated to rely on the cliche, "it was the experience of a lifetime".

And he introduced the club to his best friend from the trip.

"We slept together every night.

"I couldn't have made it through it without her," he said, before unveiling "Annette", his large, drab olive mosquito net.

While at first, Mr. Beasley said he felt he had little in common with his fellow adventurers, over the two weeks they would form bonds that would last a lifetime as they proceeded through their three-stage challenge.

And, he told Hamilton Lions, the experience also gave him cause to reflect on Bermuda when confronted with the simplicity and richness of village life in Borneo despite the poverty.

"They are celebrating having running water and that their kids live past the age of three, while we're arguing about the size of our cars in Bermuda," he said.

"I was humbled almost to the point of embarrassment."

Since Outward Bound was established in Bermuda in 1970, over 2,000 local students have participated in overseas courses with the organisation, Bermuda officer Mark Norman added.

And tens of thousands have participated in Bermuda-based courses running from one day to five days.

Mr. Norman said some 1,300 students participate in Outward Bound each year in Bermuda.

"That is quite a high percentage of students for the population," he said, adding he was told at a recent OBI summit in Singapore the number "is significantly higher than any other country in the world by some distance".

He would like to see Bermuda's place in OBI expanded perhaps through running a course similar to that Mr. Beasley attended here on the Island in the next couple of years.

"We'd like to try and run one sometime soon," Mr. Norman said.

"It would be similar but with very different activities because of the very different terrain in Bermuda."

OBI now operates in 30 countries around the globe, he added, with countless participants.

When it was originally founded in the UK in 1941, it grew out of the founder's (Kurt Hahn) observation that many young men were being sent to the frontlines of World War II and dying - often because they lacked wilderness survival skills.

Today its mission has changed to focus on personal development and the organisation even offer City challenges fixed on survival in the urban jungle.

"Outward Bound is a non-profit education organisation created to stimulate personal development and generate understanding between people," the mission reads.

"This is achieved by impelling them out of familiar environments and setting a new challenge; a safe but demanding adventure experience which inspires responsibility, self-reliance, teamwork, confidence, compassion and community service."

All the challenges and courses undergo safety reviews at designated periods to ensure the safety of participants, Mr. Norman said.

Outward Bound was launched in Bermuda during a period of civil unrest in the 1970s when local Police officers approached it as a way to build better relations with the youth, he said.

While early groups travelled to the UK to participate, by 1974 it was decided more young people would be allowed to benefit from locally run courses.

Today, former participants often return to the Island to run the lead the courses and challenges.

For more information on Outward Bound please contact Mr. Norman at 515-5736.