PUPILS of Wootton Bassett School have returned from an expedition with a lifetime's worth of memories.

The team for World Challenge Bolivia was made up of 23 students aged from 15 to 18.

In the two years prior to setting off, they did everything from paper rounds to car washing to save the £2,900 fee they each had to pay to take part.

With them on their trip to the South American country, which they reached via Miami, were World Challenge expedition team leaders Tim Cox and Steve Gorman, along with teachers Hester McCunn, Dave Scott and Pat Moore.

The World Challenge organisation is devoted to giving people the chance to experience other cultures, as well as becoming involved in useful projects.

One student, 18-year-old Katy Lemon, said: "It was fantastic a really different world which made me appreciate all we have here.

"The most memorable aspect was a self-build project in which we helped to build houses for two families.

"Their children's faces when they saw their finished homes were a picture!"

Highlights of the expedition included:

Taking gifts of equipment to two needy Bolivian schools.

Visiting an Inca burial chamber.

A 16-hour bus ride to Sucre, whose gleaming white buildings and central square have earned it acclaim as the country's most beautiful city.

Joining Independence Day celebrations.

Trekking in mountain ranges whose highest peaks reach almost 3,000 metres.

Visiting a market and buying dynamite to donate to local miners.

The party's first port of call was La Paz, a city so far above sea level that its air is as thin as that near the summit of Mont Blanc. The visitors from Wootton Bassett were amazed at the airport by the sight of several people carrying their own oxygen supplies in cylinders.

The self-build project, in which the party helped local people put up housing, was a particular favourite of the month-long expedition.

Andrew Allcorn, 15, said: "The Bolivian people were very friendly and kind.

"I used a pickaxe to help dig a hole at the building site, 1.8 metres deep. The soil was soft on top, but then it got harder."

Ruth Bunting, 18, added: "That community project was excellent, and as well as helping on the site, we enjoyed working with the children."