A photo with a lion. A photo with over 1,000 books in it. A photo of your team dabbing in Radcliffe Square. These are just three of the many labours with which students were tasked yesterday as they went on a scavenger hunt around Oxford. Congratulations to the Xtreme Ducks who triumphed with 21 out of 22 deeds done!

Students also took a more traditional tour of Oxford, stopping in to see the deer at Magdalen College, imagining themselves young witches and wizards in the Harry Potter hall in Christ Church, and taking in the many wondrous artifacts on display at the Ashmolean museum.

Another new experience was punting ―but they took to it like ducks to, ahem, water, and in their prowess gave the counsellors a bit of a rest to boot! Once back on dry land, students played hosts to a number of interesting and exotic animals: a skunk, a snake, a tarantula, and even an armadillo. ‘Animal man’ taught students about the habits and habitats of their new friends; he let them see them up close, and even to hold them, to get a sense of their skeletal structures and ways of movement. Quite a few fears were conquered in this informal and informative session.