Category: Activity Groups 2011

Louise’s Group on Crimpiau – Friday

Posted on | By KYesil346 | No comments

Hi my name is Kaan. I am writing our last day in Wales, we went to Mount Crimpiau (Crinkly mountain) and we Abseiled down a rocky slope. We started our journey with a 20 minute bus drive, to keep ourselves entertained we all sang our songs sometimes songs that were not necessarily amazing but when we got there we were all in high spirits. When we got there we climbed the first part without many interruptions or delays but then we started walking in marshland and bogs that was when it all started to go wrong. Most of the way the path was full of mud and little ponds with more mud. We was half way through the muddy path but then there was a person crying for help (“THE MUD HAS EATEN MY FOOT!!!” was the cry), as we all went back to see who it was we found Martin waist deep in the boggy mud. Half of us spent a little time trying to pull him out as the other half was taking pictures and laughing. Soon enough we started scrambling and walking up the mountain, having a little lunch break in between our journey to get to the top of Mount Crinkly. Later on we found out there was more muddy paths we had to go through, but we got through those paths easily and we were at the top of the mountain.

We made our journey back down pretty easily, and then our instructor set us a task leaving us just a map to help us to get to a bridge by ourselves. We had done pretty well on that, taking our time to get to the bridge. After that we had one last task to do, we went abseiling down a short cliff which everyone found was fun. The bus journey back was another 20 minutes before we all got back, sodden, mucky but cheerful.

We had out last dinner at the Kent Mountain Centre, after that we had certificates given out and had a quiz at the end of the night.

My time at the Kent Mountain Centre has been a great experience and an enjoyable time, and I would recommend to come on this trip.

Jez’s Group On Tryfan

Posted on | By DGoodbourn399 | No comments

Hey it’s Dr. Dumbledore Goodbourn and Will Scarlett here and we’re talking about what we did on Friday. We started off getting ready to go and climb Mount Tryfan. We decided to leave the centre earlier than usual because we wanted to get the most out of the day (and we didn’t want to be the last back – again.)

After a driving to the car park, we set off and started our ascent. This mountain wasn’t as hard as Snowdon. We started up a normal, but boggy path which wasn’t particularly difficult. After a while the climb started to get steeper, but still manageable. We continued climbing for about an hour until we had a break, and at this time Greg realised that he put too much orange juice in so it wasn’t diluted enough. He wanted to get the water from the lake and the streams that ran through the mountain.

Even though the first part wasn’t difficult, we were still slightly tired, and we only about halfway up the mountain. Because of this, Mr Bright White thought of an idea similar to Tour De France, where the person in front would walk 50 steps and then head to the back, and the person behind them would do the same thing. At the same time, I (Dr Goodbourn) fell over (as usual) and pulled on Will Scarlett’s bag to get up. Because she wasn’t “ready,” I pulled her down and we fell onto either side of the rock.

We continued onwards, and we didn’t expect to fall over so much. Jess Combe was the first victim, where she fell into a bog and got COVERED in mud. Luckily Mr. White was there to take a photo of her (and it was luckily she didn’t hurt herself.) Generally we all slipped over. It didn’t help that it was starting to rain, so the rocks were getting slippery which would cause a lot of us to fall over later on.

Our slow but steady pace meant that we didn’t have to rest so much, which spurred us on to finish the mountain. Given our slow pace, you would expect that we wouldn’t fall often. That theory is WRONG, especially for Dr. Goodbourn, who slipped over MANY times. After about 2-3 hours of climbing, we reached the summit of Tryfan, where we sat down and ate our well deserved lunch in the pouring rain. We had a photo at the summit and we continued on.

Now that it had been raining for quite a while, the rocks were slippery which meant that we would be more likely to slip. It didn’t help that the route downwards was quite steep so we were even more likely to fall, which made our descent even more fun. The first part of our descent was climbing down rocks, which was like our ascent. We slipped but didn’t fall too much. After about an hour, we reached a man-made pathway which was still quite slippery and you were prone to fall. Us two were probably the two people who fell the most, but that was when we saw one of us fall, we saw the other person and started laughing at them and fell ourselves. We had a sense of déjà vu, because I (Dr. Goodbourn) fell and went to grab Will Scarlett’s bag and fell over onto the path – again.

At this time Jez (our instructor) went to grab the mini-bus from the car park because he knew we didn’t want to walk ALL the way back there again. The man-made path ended, so instead of rocks you could slip over, there was very boggy and muddy grass – which you could slip over. We wanted to make up time which we lost on walking down the path so slowly by jogging. We were lightly jogging and Dr. Goodbourn slipped on the mud. This caused Mr. White to turn around to see who slipped and fell over himself. Too bad we didn’t have a camera to capture the moment. We then generally got down okay, even though we did slip a few times and we put our feet in foot deep mud pits.

We wanted to show our appreciation for Jez by buying him a postcard from the Tuck Shop. We wrote on it and made it look nice. What we didn’t realise was that Suzannah had it in her bag the whole way up Tryfan, so by the time we realised it was soaked and a part of it was missing. Luckily, Mr. White had a spare postcard, so we used that instead. We still gave Jez both postcards though, and I think he appreciated them both as much as each other.

Overall we had a great day, and we had a great week. We would like to thank everyone who organised this trip.

By Daniel ‘Dr Dumbledore’ Goodbourn and Scarlett ‘Will Scarlett’ Eddy

Tryfan Terror

Posted on | By LRigney399 | 1 Comment

Hello this is Lauren and Alice here to tell you about our day climbing Tryfan. Lauren was not going to climb Tryfan because her ankle had been hurting all week and she didn’t think she could do it, but she was determined to and went anyway.

After the 20 minute mini bus journey we started the accent up Tryfan. Our ears hurt from having the radio full blast to block out Lauren and Poppy’s amazing singing and Alice and Lara’s great backing singing. We managed to sing louder than the radio and I’m sure everyone enjoyed our singing…

At first it was a slippery grass slope, but we could see the rocks ahead. With many slips and falls we had a stop for lunch and a drink then started the steepest part of the climb.

After this slope we started to scramble up the big slippery rocks, the rain wasn’t helping, but the rainbow was really pretty. For every 10 steps everyone took Robert would take one and did not help Poppy with the constant reminder that If she took one wrong step she would plummet to her death and go SPLAT!

We finally made it to the top and had a picture taken next to the Adam and Eve rocks. Lauren was pulling an interesting face. Also on the top we saw Boderick the eyeball eating seagull. Here is the story of how ‘Boderick’ started…

Halfway up Snowdon Lauren decided to feed the seagull her dried fruit to look good. Keith came up to her and said that if you feed the seagulls then when you get to the top they will peck your eyes out. She stopped feeding them immediately and another Welsh couple started feeding them so she warned them not to or they will have their eyes pecked out. They gave her a strange look and so she thought it was because they spoke Welsh. When Lauren and Poppy eventually got to the top ‘Boderick the seagull’ squawked at them and they ran the last 100 metres. When at the top they asked to kick him off the edge and Keith said no in case he falls on someone’s head and everytime we saw a seagull from that point we were in HYSTERICS! We all teased Poppy for her seagull-in-distress-like-laugh. THAT’S THE STORY OF BODERICK!

By this time we were all soaked and there were many slips on the way down. We were told that if a rock fell we had to shout ‘BELOW’ to warn people but Alice pointed and shouted ‘DHISFHDSODSUFBF’ and Lauren screamed ‘AVALANCHE!’ because we both forgot the word. Luckily no one got injured. Tom and Jack threw themselves down the hill on their bums.

BEST TRIP SLIPS: Alice falling into a stream, Lauren falling 17 times walking down one hill, Lara falling many times down the stone stairs, Robert falling into a waterfall trying to get water, Jack falling a massive hill along with Tom and of course when Lauren was dying for the loo and Poppy was wearing a new tracksuit and fell on a slope of mud and slid the whole way down.

We’ve had a great week and a great ending with a quiz and photos shown on the screen including one of Lauren with 14 starburst in her mouth and many more mugshots. We’ve made great new friends and we’ll always remember our memories together. THANK YOU KEITH AND MIKE WE’VE HAD A GREAT TIME AND IT WOULDN’T HAVE BEEN THE SAME WITHOUT HAVING YOU AS LEADERS. No Mr White, you are not the best leader, ours were and we also had the best team!

Mike’s team went to Tryfan…..

Posted on | By Mr Taylor | No comments

Today Mike’s team went to Tryfan, a really good day out was had by all. This is a mountain measuring 915 m and it requires ‘scrambling skills’ and its fair to say, alot of courage. Poppy and Lauren saw Broderick again at the top – it’s a long story, and we established that Tom has a soft spot for the actress Emma Watkins. We saw Prince William again flying his helicopter but thankfully all made it back down safely again without needing his assistance.

Thanks from me to all of the group I have worked with during the day activities and all of those who have been present on the trip. A big thanks to Mr Alderson for arranging such a great week away where Dane Court Students have yet again shown that they are a positive group of young people.

Keith

Wheels on the Bus

Posted on | By RNoone157 | 1 Comment

On this fine day or not so fine in the morning we woke up at the breakfast bell. Today we were probably the most tired we’d been so far when waking up, but the idea of getting soaked in the gorge changed that.

After breakfast we were told that we were going to go gorge walking. It was about a forty-five minute drive to the gorge, we were so tired we (Charley and Róisín) fell asleep. After a bit of lunch we got off the bus and had to get on our harnesses which like yesterday made Charley feel like Spiderman…

We went through the forest and found the bottom of the gorge, which was full of rocks and lots of small waterfalls with a huge one at the end. It didn’t take long before we started slipping off Elliot, being the first man down. It was pretty challenging to get up at parts but the worst bit was definitely the first time you fell in one of the pools and the cold water got into your boots! When we were about 1/3 of the way up Louise set up another zip wire thing between two of the rocks which was really fun.

Next we went up a few more waterfalls which were hard because we couldn’t see where the next rock was and sometimes we had to pull ourselves up. Next Louise said we could go the easy way or the hard way and we ended up going through the elephant butt. It was basically just two huge rocks leaning against each other half in water with a pretty small hole in the middle. We had to sit down up to your waist in FREEZING water and slide through the hole which was quite scary because we were worried we couldn’t get through half way. It was optional but most of us did it anyway. We then climbed up another small waterfall slipping another few hundred times. When we were pretty close to the top, we took off our harnesses and left them on a patch of grass, it was great not needing to carry them anymore. Going up the last few waterfalls was hard as there was so many deep parts which we didn’t know were there so we fell into pools almost up to our chest. D:

Once we got to the top we climbed along some of the rocks and slid into the water. We walked underneath the waterfall on stepping stones and there was a gap which was the shape of a chair which was really cool because we could sit in it and stay dry for a few precious seconds before getting into the really deep pool. We thought there was more stepping stones but there wasn’t so we were both on the last one screaming at each other not to let go because we didn’t want to get cold. Eventually we manned up and pushed each other in. We were standing neck deep in the freezing water as Kaan floated past us on his buoyancy aid and couldn’t get back up. We wish we could say that we helped him.

Then we swam and walked awkwardly full of water to the water fall we had recently climbed and slid don it like woooossshhhhhhhhhhh and then we climbed back up for another go! We then climbed down more of the smaller waterfalls that we had climbed up to start with. Once we had finished and Kaan had finished floating we got back to the grass patch where we had put our harnesses previously. Then we walked down the slope where we met the other group and we walked back down to the car park. We got dressed in the woods, the girls on one side and the boys on the other.

Back in the coach we had more lunch before driving back to the centre. Today charley decided to sing the wheels on the bus again in attempt to get them to put the radio on of course every one joined except an odd few (Kaan bashing his head against a window).  After the tenth verse we admitted defeat and gave up. Kaan was hitting Róisín with his hat so she stole it and he went metal but he EVENTUALLY got it back.

– Charley and Róisín

Our GORGEus day

Posted on | By CMay800 | 1 Comment

Today we went to the gorge. It took about a 45 minute drive in the minibus. What we had to do was walk and climb up a gorge without falling in, unlike Robert who spent most of the day in the water up to his waist…

What we had to wear while we were there was; wellington boots and waterproof trousers and jacket which Robert didn’t have so he had to wear a black bin bag (Which didn’t keep him dry at all).

The whole day was really fun although about a third of the way up Mike our instructor got kind of angry with us so we had to go and sit in a circle and think about what we had done! After that we apologized and promised to listen to what h had to say. Afterwards we climbed further and did some really fun activities. Like Falling backwards into the water, sliding down the rocks like a water slide and the press up challenge – which is where you hang over the water and move along trying not to fall in.
But the one thing they all had in common was that the water was cold.
Very cold.

After that we climbed further until we reached a waterfall. It was really funny as Mike tricked all the boys into believing that they had to either throw the smallest person over the top so they could throw tie a rope and we could climb up or that somebody had to swim through an underwater passage and climb up to tie a rope so everybody could follow them up. And yes they believed him.
We also had to sit underneath the waterfall and talk to the Goddess of the Gorge and say “Hello Goddess of the Gorge, my name is (Charlotte), Thank you for keeping me safe”.  But don’t worry there was a path that lead up around the waterfall to the top.
At the top there was a small pool of water that we could jump into which was really fun!

Overall the whole day was probably the best out of all of them, which we all agreed on. When we were walking back Mike made us all stand in a circle – shoulder to shoulder then rate the day out of ten. In teamwork, overall fun and how good we felt and all of them had an overall high rating.

Today was probably the best activity as it involved a lot more different and challenging things also they were a bit more dangerous that made it more fun to do!  It was more challenging as the was really strong in some parts so you had to hold on tighter or would end up falling in, which a lot of people did! So we all had a really good day and wish we could do it again, although we can’t  🙁

By Charlotte May and Robert Dew

To The Top

Posted on | By ETerziyski478 | 3 Comments

An early start began the day, when we found out we were going to be climbing Tryfan, a small mountain nearby. We were all really excited and couldn’t wait to get started. Molly, Maria and Dan provided us with entertainment on the minibus to start off. Although their singing was funny it wasn’t the best singing we had heard. On the bus certain people were given some safety equipment to carry with them, Maria was given a rope, and Ben was given a yellow safety shelter for emergencies.

When we arrived at Tryfan, we tried to work out the route ahead of us. We thought it would be best if we just made our way to the top, using the hardest route possible! Mr Alderson warned us that the last half of the walk would be climbing.

To begin with the walk was very tiring, but we were all determined to reach the top. The regular short breaks helped a lot and allowed everyone to regain their breath and strength. The walking part took us roughly an hour. We then reached the long climb up the jagged rocks all the way to the summit.

The climb was challenging and took us longer than expected. Mr Alderson took the lead and found the most safe and sturdy route. We stayed in a single file line helping each other to find foot and hand holds along the way. The summit seemed decades away, but before we knew it we reached the top (with no casualties, just a few wet trousers!!!), it was very scary and high.

At roughly 1 o’clock we sat down in a sheltered area at the summit to stop and eat lunch. We were all really hungry and relieved that we were allowed to eat at last. When everyone had finished their lunch we started our descent. Mr Alderson gave us some tips about how to stay on our feet when climbing down the loose rocks and stones.

When we got about a quarter of the way down Maria realised that she had left the rope at the top, Mr Alderson was not best pleased L, as the cheapest climbing ropes cost £60.There wasn’t time to head back up, so we have asked the groups who are going to Tryfan tomorrow to look for the missing rope.

The descent was tricky and Ellie fell on her bum 19 times (God knows how many bruises!!!). On the way down we saw jet planes speeding low down along the valley, not a sight you see every day! Also Will and Ben decided it would be a good idea to be blessed by the Welsh water. This meant lying down by the riverside and shoving your face in the ice cold water and getting brain freeze, it was so tempting to push them in!

The weather forecast was not brilliant and thunder and lightning was expected. Whilst we were making our way down we were shocked by a massive crash of thunder. This was then followed by two curtains of visible rain closing into us in the middle of the valley. We all scrambled to get our waterproofs on before the rain hit us, unfortunately, we were not quick enough and we got extremely wet. The rain didn’t last very long, even though it was very heavy.

We all carried on walking back towards the minibus. The path was reasonably wet and muddy. Several members of our group became very muddy, very quickly. Will managed to fall face first into to a mud puddle, funny to watch but not so fun for him. Emily felt it would be fun to jump in every puddle in sight, splashing Esme with mud in the process.

After a fun and exciting day, we made our way back to the minibus. We took off our waterproofs and packed them in our rucksacks. Molly, Maria and Dan began singing again and they made the whole minibus sing along with them. When we got back to the centre we were desperate for showers and dinner, we didn’t have to wait too long. After dinner we were all told where to meet and the majority went outside to do activities. One group was taken to a local climbing wall and our group was taken to blogging in the lecture room where we are now. It’s been a great and enjoyable day, though we are now looking forward to bed.

Written by Ellie and Esme xxx

Born Slippy

Posted on | By JVoss735 | No comments

We started our journey to Cable Bay (Anglesey) for our sea level traversing. It was very… amusing with the anonymous Human Jukeboxes providing a very O.K.ish performance. As we got to on the bay Jez (our instructor) provided us with a safety briefing after that we started climb up a wall and started to traverse

To start off it was really slippery and got worse as we went on.As we came round a corner there was a few big waves that nearly took us out. Just as we thought everything was going alright someone slipped in and got soaked up to the waist, it was quite funny. We also had to go on some stepping stones which were also slightly slippery and not very stable. Which also meant more people started to slip over.

Next we had to go through a cave to reach the cliff top. It was a bit of a tight squeeze which made us have to shuffle up to the top with our backs against the side of the rock. Once everyone got up we went back to the minibus to get some extra equipment for the rest of the activities and lunch.

Today’s lunch was not as good as yesterday but the shortbread was AWESOME!!!. Next we had to put on our harnesses, some people to soooo long but we got it done in the end. Jez took us back down and set up the next challenge for us…We went a different way than to begin but still had to traverse along a wall. This one was mostly climbing up rocks and over rock pools eventually we got to a grass area where we stopped and until they called us over. There was a rope leading us up to the cliff top for support which we attached to our cowstails and helped us get to Mr White who was taking mug shots(again)

Mr White, probably the best American I have ever met!!!

As we got to him we walked up a tiny bit and got straight to the terylene which was a bit like a zip wire but you were pulling yourself back. We had to try flip over the top however only one of us managed to do it.

There was friendly bet going on between one of us and Troll. If he couldn’t flip over the rope in 2 tries we got 2 Yorkie bars but if he did we owed him one. Obviously we won but as him being such a sore loser he tried to divert the bet. Which he didn’t let us agree on and he won anyway. Jess Voss the ninja flipped over and made it look easy whilst the rest of us tried and failed.

Then the weather went horrible but we were able to take pictures of a rare double rainbow 🙂 on the way back the human jukeboxes were making O.Kish music until the girls joined in. When we got back we were very surprised, after being last back every day so far, we were first back!!

Written by Jess Voss and Pepee le Peui

Spy teachers…

Posted on | By GWhatley711 | 2 Comments

WOW!!! What a fantastic day!! Only day 3 of our adventure and we have all ready Concord Mount Snowdon and have made it all the way up the gorge and even been saved from the evil pixies by the goddess of the gorge, but today has been great!..

We managed to clamber over a hill through the muddy pits of doom and all this on our own with just a map and a great team of young people. Me, (Jess); me, (Gregory); Dan; Tasha; and Lucy, stayed at the back to keep everything moving (or Greg was keeping me, (Jess), Tasha; Dan; and Lucy moving!!)

The day got off with a great start with Jess V leading the way and Gregory at the back helping everyone who were lagged a bit behind. We slid through the trees and mud on our way to get to the other side. We all thought we were on our own until we realized Mr. White was watching every single move we made just like a spy! We made it all the way to Mr. White in his little roofless house to have some of our snacks, and then carried on, this time Jez watching our every move like he was on a secret mission to make sure us kids were ok.

We made it to this picnic type place and had the rest of our lunch with so Michael ate about 5 and a half Alpine bars that no one else wanted, except, Mr. White who, had mine, (Jessica C), and some other people’s blueberry muffins ;)…

We then got moving with Jez this time to get over the , and then he went off…

We got to the end of the track and made it! Jez told us a story about not jumping to conclusions and then we were off!!!!!

High five’s all round!

On the way back we made a little stop at a little place where you could do abseiling! We all clawed and scratched at each other fighting who would go first but in the end we decided to go in lunch box order. First it was Scarlett, but she passed, being scared of heights abit!All then went Lucy first, then a bunch of other people. When I (Jess!) went down, I was well pleased with myself. I managed to make it all the way down without hurting my part of my body! I even managed to jump once or twice! Scarlett was scared she was going to die, so Mr. White came up with a bet, if she lived, then she had to give him a high five, she took the bet, and also took about half an hour to get down with Jez, but she got there eventually, well done. Me, (Gregory), well I got down the classic way, bounding down the cliff as if I had done it like a hundred times before, Michael virtually fell down, and Dan, almost imbedded his face in the rock. I found Will Scarlett with a small, and thought it was because she now had to high five Mr. White. Ha! But she was happy

All around, what a great day we all had and well done Mr. White for getting a high five off of Will Scarlett.

Thanks for reading!

By Jess and Gregory

(Jesse’s) P.S: hey Mum hey Dad (Ollie, Ben, Nellie, Tim, Simon and Jack!) thanks for letting me go on this trip I am really enjoying it and can’t wait to tell you all about it, see you when I get home, love you lots xxx

(Greg’s) P.S: Hi Mum, Dad, David, Ash, how are you, can’t wait to be back home soon, and I’ll tell you more then… Bye!

Sustenance, Sea and Soggy Socks

Posted on | By ELoft711 | No comments

Eight teenagers, one teacher and one instructor plus cliffs, waves and a windy day equal’s terror, aching muscles and plenty of slips. This is an equation many of us learnt today. Wrapped up in waterproofs and thick fleeces we marched down the beach to our doom….

Okay, so here is what happened next in the easiest way possible:

  • Slips
  • Screams
  • LOTS of screams
  • Grief
  • Relief
  • Small holes- big squeezes!

And now for………………………… LUNCH!

After our lunch we strapped ourselves into safety gear (“Anyone feel too safe?” “I feel like some sort of spy…”) and started our adventure on the cliffs. Scrambling our way across wet rocks and seaweed we were yet to realise what was to come…

Now; for the best part! Tyrolene! (For those parents that just went ‘huh?- Tyrolene?‘ a zip wire)… so our instructor Louise amazingly tied a rope from a rock to another rock – you have to see it to understand ‘LOL’ we zip wired (Pru manically humming the Indiana Jones theme tune…) from a to b and Holly’s shoe fell off!!!!! So well done everyone we did it! Then ………….. The bubble bath, willingly I (Elliott) went first climbing back up – you have never seen a wave like ours! Everyone laughing watching me get bombarded by the ocean’s weapons …

I decided to go second and since I’m not the tallest, I was up to my shoulders in foam and seawater. Because of the foam I couldn’t see the rocks I was meant to stand on and had to hang onto the wall whilst I was buffeted by waves and foam. Screams and squeals were popular ways of communicating. “I never want to have a bubble bath again! Aaaah!”

Now, it’s sadly the end. Well , what do we finish off with?! Well I (Elliott) gladly convinced everyone INCLUDING the instructor to BAYWATCH RUN into the sea! Now that was an experience!

Best part of the day :

zip wire AND bubbles

Worst part of the day:

Bubbles! and slipping LOL.

My best AND worst part of the day had to be the bubbles, I never knew something so innocent looking could be so horrible! My quote has to be “Don’t put that on the blog! My mum reads that!”

by Elliott Loft and Prudence Vary

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