Packing time

We're now at the end of our last full day here, so it's time to pack our cases. Tomorrow morning we must vacate our rooms after breakfast so that they can be cleaned ready for the next visitors.

Tomorrow's activities are:

Miss Gayson's group: Climbing then Abseil and Vertical Challenge

Miss Childs' group: Vertical Challenge and then Climbing

Miss Laughland's group: Caving and Archery

We will then have our packed lunches before we depart - we hope to be away by 12:30 but we will let you know when we depart (and, of course, the tracker will go on too so you can follow our progress home).

Good night, sleep well!

Games

Dinner over with (Sausages with mash and beans followed by ice cream since you ask), there's time for some games before bed after a long day.

Who is it needs a lot of concentration:

Jenga, patience and a steady hand:

And twister - well, that needs flexibility and deep thought too, it seems:

But some of us are just having some fun:

Miss Laughland's group bouldering

 Sometimes, before they climb proper with harnesses etc., the children have a go on the bouldering wall. This is nowhere near as high as the main wall (6' off the floor at most), and has crash mats all round it just in case someone loses grip. It's good training for climbing proper:

 

Miss Laughland's group hillwalking

Miss Laughland has just passed me some pictures of her group on the hill walk, which I will share with you now:

A lovely sunny day for a walk in the hills, for sure!

 

This evening . . . .

The day's activities over, and the children are currently showering and getting ready for dinner at 6pm. We're all quite hungry after a long day's activities in the fresh air, so are very much looking forward to that.

After dinner, we will watch the second half of our movie as a way of winding down before bedtime. 

Hill walk - more pictures

 Miss Childs has just passed me some pictures she took on the hill walk. In this first pictures, the children are pausing to check their position on the map:

As you can see in these subsequent pictures, the views are stunning. If you zoom in to this first picture, just left of centre you can just see two of the centre buildings (the biggest being the climbing wall building) just in the shot.

Abseiling

Abseil - by far the hardest part is at the beginning, where you have to bypass everything your mind is telling you about steep drops.

First, you come out through the gate

Then you stand, feet on the edge of the tower

Then you go down as close to horizontal as you can

After that, it's a much simpler matter to descend the tower 

Vertical challenge

For vertical challenge, you must scale the net:

Scramble through the tyres

And then climb to the very top

Hill walk

 

Climbing

 Our first group to try climbing is Miss Laughland's group.

Climbing needs a team to support you:

And with that team ensuring your safety on the ground, anyone can climb!

Hill walking - afternoon

 The two groups of hill walkers have set off:

Archery - Miss Gayson's group

 

Swap over

Half way through the morning, the two on site groups swapped over activities.

Here are Miss Childs' group preparing for caving:

And here they are going into the cave:

We will be having lunch at about 12:00. Afternoon activities start at 13:00. Tis afternoon, Miss Gayson's and Miss Childs' group will be hill walking, Miss Laughland's group will be doing Climbing, Abseil and Vertical Challenge.

Great shot!!

 

Hill walk

 Finally, Miss Laughland's group are hill walking. Here they are (with activity leader Stefan) at the entrance to the centre about to leave - have a great time guys!

Caving

 Meanwhile, Miss Gayson's group are preparing for caving. As the cave is sandy and may be wet, we put on protective suits:

After that, they are fitted out with helmets with lights. In this picture we see the children checking that their lights work properly:

  

Archery

 Miss Child's group are preparing for archery:

And once that's done, they're off to the range to shoot some arrows!