Team building

 After that, it's straight into a set of team building activities, aimed at making each of those new groups a true team.

In order to this, the children select a challenge, and then someone has to read out the instructions to the rest of the group. Then they actually have to do it.

This first one is to get the ball out of the maze, by having a person on each rope and then tilting the tray (very, very gently) to get the ball out:

While here, smaller groups have one person blindfolded and the other guides them through the laser maze. They cannot touch their friend, and must not touch the ropes (sorry, lasers) either.

 

In this task the children must cross via one single path that they need to figure out. Their opposite half do the same but their path is a mirror image. One wrong move and you're out!!

Finally this group are trying to remove the toxic waste from the (imaginary) shark infested lake. It's tricky when all you have is a few ropes and one step in the lake and you're a gonner:

Activity groups

 It's now time to get into our activity groups, shown here with their respective leaders:

Site tour

 We've been right round the site, learning all about where we can (and can't go). Here we are outside the climbing wall building:

And then we went round the rest of the building until we got to the dining room:

Site induction

It's now time for a site induction from our lead instructor, DJ:

Settling into rooms

 We've now all been given our room numbers and a set of sheets etc. - so it's time to get beds made and generally settle in:

In front of the centre

As I look towards Merthyr Tydfil, the sun is shining over the hills that we will hill walk over during our stay. 

Although the sun is out, it's a bit cool here right now - but the forecast shows no signs of rain before Friday.

We're here!!

And it's lunchtime

Into Wales

We're just crossing the bridge into Wales

Break over

After a welcome break, we're on our way again. The current estimate suggests that we should arrive at about 1pm, and you can still follow our progress on the tracker.

Break time

We've stopped for a break in the glorious autumn sunshine, snacks being enjoyed by all:

On the M4

The M25 hadn't been great but we're now on the M4, heading West.

We're off!!

The tracker is on, so you can follow our progress to South Wales

It's nearly time

The coach is here, soon we will be off!!