Yesterday night Archie and a few other classmates went to the ‘beacon’ climbing wall with our instructor Jez. We brought with us harnesses and climbing shoes that we got from the store room just outside the main building of the Kent Mountain Centre. We drove over in a ford transit with around 9 other people (excluding Jez) it was a large building in an industrial park, when we went inside we saw that it was very popular with around 40 people in there. The walls were 20 meters high and they were packed with multicoloured routes. All of them had manual belays because all the routes went to the ceiling. I had fun as I went on some of the harder routes but they were descent. After that we went on some fun routes using auto belays they were called CrAzY cLiMbS, they may sound babyish, but they were so much fun.
In the morning, Aiden and four other members were woken up early as we were on duty; it felt too early for me. Fifteen minutes before breakfast (breakfast is normally at 7:45), I had to be at the centre’s dining room for duty (duty means serving everyone else and helping the kitchen staff with the washing up). It went very smoothly and all was well when we were briefed for the day. Our instructor Mary told us that we were going to go to a great mountain called Bwlch y Sygyn and then go past a beautiful river and woodland. Everyone was feeling ready to go when we finally were on our way.
Our first stop was a lake named Llyn Dinas (meaning Fortress Lake). Here Mary told us that we were going to have to fend for ourselves. She gave us some maps and gave some short but much needed directions then drove round to the other side of the mountain to meet us at the top. She also left us a tent like parachute for when we got to the top (as there were high winds) and a first aid kit. Our Teacher (Ms Webster) was meant to wait five minutes but then follow just in case we needed her help.
We set off with our maps and food we followed a rocky trail that zigged and zagged. When we were following the path, we had many stops to have a breather as it was very steep. We kept going until we found a ‘throne’ (a large seat shaped boulder) and Stopped as one of our group mates was tired and twisted his ankle. We then continued on after a long break and then stopped at a ‘building’ made of rocks. From here we could see Ms Webster but we soon moved to the signpost where we finally met back up with Mary. After having most of our lunch in the yellow parachute, we then continued to the summit of the mountain where it was very windy!
After that cold experience, we went back down the mountain where we begun the second part of the adventure. From here, we followed a path to a derelict copper mine where we used rocks to ‘mine’ through to some copper nuggets. A few of our group, including ourselves, found some and we were very pleased with ourselves when we were allowed to drink from the river. It was great and we didn’t want to stop, however we still needed to follow the bulk of it to our final destination.
After following the river for a little while, we reached a small village called Beddgelert. It was named after a famous dog that protected a duke’s son yet the duke thought the dog had killed his son and slayed the dog. Here we did a little shopping and headed back to the coach for a trip back to the KMC.

By Aiden and Archie