Prince William was a royal who spent most of his childhood in the comforts of castles and palaces. He did spend some time in a different environment as a teenager. William spent his gap year in Belize and learned how to live among the jungles of Central America.
Prince William took a gap-year when he was 18
William, who graduated from Eton College 2000, decided to take a gap years before he started university. There are many things you can do in a gap year. William wanted to backpack South America.
Katie Nicholl (royal author) says that this decision caused some friction between William’s father, Prince Charles.
Charles sighed and noted in frustration how stubborn and determined Nicholl’s elder son could be. William and Harry. To [Williams]Charles was furious and vetoed Charles’s suggestion. William complained that it was unfair. It’s not fair that everyone else can go backpacking. Why can’t I?
The father and son came to an agreement: William could spend his gap year on a different continent, but he would have to engage in safe, vocational, and educational activities.
Prince William spent his gap-year in Belize, where he was exposed to harsh conditions.
One year of Williams’ gap year was spent in Belize. The prince joined the Welsh Guards, and went on an adventurous expedition through the jungles. It would soon prove to have been a difficult environment.
Nicholl wrote about how he learned to cook and kill food. William and Harry (via ExpRetire). Instructors slaughtered a pig and hung it from a pole to butcher it in an exercise code-named Native Trail.
The author said that the soldiers, William included were given a live chicken to dispatch. They had to cut off its head and feet using a machete. Then they had to pluck its feathers and gut the bird before cooking it over a flame. This was exactly what they would do if they were living off their land in a jungle conflict. They were shown how to make a termite stew – and then made to eat it.
Williams’s sleeping environment in Belize’s jungles was very different from his home in royal palaces. Nicholl wrote that William tried, at night, to get some sleep in the rain by using a hammock strung between two trees.
William reportedly also used his gap year for explorations in Belize, Chile, and Rodrigues, an Indian Ocean island.
Kate Middleton also took up a gap year
Kate Middleton was also a student at university and took a gap year, just like William. She went to Chile with William’s Expedition Program just weeks after he left.
Malcolm Sutherland, the expedition leader, had positive words to say about Kate. She was certainly one of the fitter, stronger members of her group, which helped her greatly. It was sometimes physically demanding, he said to the Standard. She was very easy to get along with.
RELATED: According to Royal Expert, Prince William was drawn to Kate Middleton because of her stability.