This morning, we were woken up by the teachers and got dressed in what clothes we thought were suitable for the outdoor activities. We came down to the dining room for breakfast; we had the choice of Sausages, baked beans and hash-browns or fruit, yoghurt and croissants. We then went into the green room to watch Justin’s House, Peppa Pig and Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom.

Afterwards, we were told our day groups and went off into different rooms and got told what to wear, pack and what attitude to have while climbing and while supporting people. We had fifteen minutes to change (if needed) and set off.

We set off in the mini bus of which our instructor, Simon, was driving. Our goal of this day was to reach the summit of Carnedd Moel Siabod *the big scabby hill.* Three members of the group were assigned jobs. Sam was the leader, deciding what pace to walk at and when we stop for a breath or food, Savana and Charlotte were navigators and Alex was tail-end Charlie, keeping at the back and helping others.

Walking along the muddy road, we encountered a big flock of sheep and spent most of our time –along that road- avoiding sheep and rabbit droppings. Once on the rocky part of the mountain, our legs were already hurting we started our assent on a good grassy patch to begin with but it soon got rocky. We passed three lakes and stopped every now and then to eat, drink and change the amount of layers we had on.

On the way up, Alex was in a very bad mood and said that the whole thing was really easy. We soon found that he was tired and wanted to save his energy. On the other hand, on the way down, he was his annoying but quite humorous self.

After stopping for a drink, Oscar realised he had accidentally taken Dom’s bag who was in the Snowflake group. So Oscar had to deal with Dom’s lunch and waterproofs and fleece. Oscar doesn’t like butter but Dom’s roll had butter in it so Oscar didn’t eat the roll.

After passing the third lake to mossy ground became very wet and boggy. We all avoided the first few but then, Simon joked about an extremely muddy looking bog being a ‘child-eating bog’ which most of us avoided apart from Savana who practically jumped into it. This particular bog was knee deep and she got stuck. Charlotte tried to pull her out towards the side she was but the rescue failed so she had to be lifted out by Simon and Alex. Savana’s boots were covered in mud but they dried off pretty quickly but her joggers on the other hand had only dried by the time we had reached the mini bus.

As we climbed it got colder and colder and we saw snow and lots of ice. We reached the top and we were exhausted. At the top, Mr. White was also eating lunch with us and got out some leftover pasta from last night’s dinner and in doing so, stated ranting about how he had the pasta like, “Pasta, pasta, I’ve got ‘de pasta,” in an Italian accent making lots of us laugh. We finished our lunch and took a few photos then we started our descent.

On the descent slips and falls were a common occurrence and especially for Devon. We passed a few sheep and icy puddles and then new jobs were assigned. Oscar was the leader, Devon was the Navigator, no wonder we got lost, and Jamie was the tail-end Charlie however all jobs were soon demolished as Oscar and Devon ended up at the back with Jamie Leading the front.

There was a very steep patch of grass we had to walk down but Paige thought she would slide down it instead. So she sat down on the grass and pushed herself forwards. She only went a couple of metres but unfortunately slid into a massive pile of rabbit droppings.

Once we reached the bottom of the mountain, Both Simon and Mr. White made us find our way back to the mini bus (coming back to how Devon got us lost) but Charlotte had to step in to point us in the right direction. We got back and with our feet aching and our energy depleted, we trudged –and for Savana squelched- onto the bus and set off on our way back. Someone said and I quote, “I feel like I’ve achieved something today!”

Once we got back, we showered and got ready for dinner, sweet and sour chicken or chicken curry, and dessert, angel delight or apple crumble and custard, before going to our rooms for ten minutes to relax or tidy our dorms. People who were going climbing left and everyone else waited another five mins to either go problem solving or blog writing (where we are now) and we can only guess what happens next.

By Charlotte Page & Oscar Annis

Friday was unfortunately the final day of challenges of our action packed and adventurous week. We were instructed, by our instructor Mike, to carry out a set of tasks. We were given maps and had to undertake roles of leader, navigator and back-marker; only this time with a twist! Mike wanted both our independent and team-working skills to shine through.
The first activity was both exciting and heart-wrenching at the same time. The group was tasked with abseiling off the bridge adjacent to the location of the KMC. Mike set up some tricky and spectacularly tight knots, which gave the rope a certain tightness to it. The group geared up and clipped on their harnesses before abseiling down towards the ground beneath the rusty bridge. Once we had reached ground level of the bridge, Mike waved us off before we set out on our journey towards the first marked point on the map; the coal mine museum.
We had decided between ourselves that Jake would be our leader, with Cobi and myself as the back-markers, and Sophie as our sophisticated navigator. We journeyed on a path towards the museum, slumbering past rocky roads and back- woods covered in foliage, with scattered leaves and animal defecation aftermaths.
We reached the first point a little over twenty minutes after we had set off and Mike stood eagerly with orienteering maps for us to acquire. The task was to find landmarks in a certain surrounding area of the coal mine museum from which we were able to collect letters that coincided with the numbers given out. We explored top to bottom with the aim of collecting further information for our task and uncovering a secret message/code. Due to the fact of our time limit to perform each activity, Mike frequently checked our progress on finding a fair ‘chunk’ of the letters. He told us we were to meet him at the ‘land rover track’ indicating a point on the map with certain landmarks on that route, such as the morgue and hospital, which were famous due to their ancient history.
Our journey started again with Tom as the head of the pack, as well as the navigator, and myself as back-marker, once again working alongside Cobi and Jake, ensuring no male or female would be left behind. The traverse started up a secret, meandering path in which the whole group had to work as a team, ensuring the right route was to be taken, to meet Mike. After a long, sluggish and stretching saunter towards the destination, we met Mike waiting, in a smug fashion, as he sat in the boot of his Mercedes.
The third and final activity tasked us with the challenge of rock scaling and climbing. With tight ropes fitted once more and harnesses strapped and ready for use we ascended a great boulder, in a tight fashion, with two going up at a time, until we had all reached the top and from which we would witness a marvellous, majestic view of the surrounding landscape; mammoth and mossy mountains, tight and compact roads where vehicles daringly drove past and an eerie and misty sky which masked the tip of enormous mountains.
Mike instructed us to return back to camp, giving us precise instructions on where to go, the whole group started to walk home in a bedraggled but satisfied manner in the knowledge that the activites behind and the experience of KMC, as a whole, were at an end.
Mike complimented but also constructively criticised each one of us on where we needed to improve. Overall the day was amazing and definitely a great way to bring to an end our fantastic time, of this amazing adventure, at KMC.

By Theo Athinou