Our day started when we ate our Breakfast, it was then followed by a meeting with our instructor. We were told that we were going to go on a hike by ourselves. we were going to be using a map and our own navigation skills. when we were told I was happy because i knew it would be fun!

Before we set off we went through what to do in case of emergency or if we saw someone who was in trouble. we also got given a ‘group shelter’ and a first aid kit.

when we got to the town where we started we walk along-side of the river and then departed the river and followed the path past some cows and sheep and a statue in memory of the dog Gelert, who was killed by his owner because he thought that Gelert killed his masters baby heir, but really it was Gelert killing the wolf that attempted to attack the heir,  then to a car park and ate some of our lunch, we then went walking again up another path towards a hill we eventually got to the other group(rain drops). just ahead of the other group was another hill, when we got to the top there were two turnings so we rested for a while whilst debating on whether we should turn left or right. after a while we turned right and walked up three more hills, until we got to the top then we turned left and walked until we saw Jez, we then sat under his shelter and ate the rest of our food and then Jez watched over us as we scrambled up the very small mountain. we then collected our bags from Jez and we walked down the path all the way back down to the road where we got in his minibus and drove back to the Kent Mountain Centre.

In the evening we had a massive quiz that everyone did. Our team was called ‘Mountain’ and we came 4th.

we all then sat in the common room and watched Outnumbered together and went to bed all packed at 11pm.

By Anna Craven

The weather today was very cold and torrential rain, it didn’t really make a huge impact on our day as we were visiting the Afon Ddu gorge which was a wet activity anyway. We started to pack our safety equipment before we left and made our way to the activity. We slowly arrived at the Afon Ddu (black river) after a 45 minute journey in the mini van, so we started to attach our harnesses and buoyancy aids to ourselves ready for the day ahead. Our team had to walk up a slope to get to the river, however many people slipped on the way as it was very muddy and steep, luckily no one got too hurt. Then we got to the destination after a short trek with slow people slipping behind (Amy, Spencer).

Our day in the Gorge started off as us walking across a river on slippery stones, and scrambling up through freezing cold waterfalls along the fast-running gorge water. Halfway through our trip Magic Mike (Our Instructor) had to lower us down into a dip in the gorge so that we could continue our day. We all had to attach our harnesses onto a rope with our ‘cow tails’ so that we were able to be lowered down, a few people had trouble getting down and slammed against a rock on the way! To climb up the next bit we all had to haul ourselves up over the other side of a slippery rock, Jasmine couldn’t get up so Keely and Olly had to keep trying to push her over it. When we reached the end, after many slips and falls, we were faced with a massive waterfall which we were allowed to walk through. After jumping in at the pool at the top and walking through the waterfall, we began to make our way back the way we came. On the way back Amy slipped off some rocks and fell onto some more before slamming her chin into another rock, it started bleeding a lot and left a dent in her chin which swelled up a little bit, Keely couldn’t stop laughing! After Amy’s chin was cleared up Magic Mike let some of us slide down a waterfall instead of climbing rocks. By this time we were already wet so didn’t care if we walked through water or jumped in anymore. By the time we got back to the mini bus everyone was soaking wet from falling in and our wellies made squelching noises as we walked from all the water that had gotten into them.

Magic Mike sent the boys and girls separate ways to get changed into dry clothes within the forest before meeting us all back inside the van where we ate our lunch and drank our hot chocolates to warm ourselves up. Then we made our way back to the Kent Mountain Centre and had showers to warm us up after our eventful day.

By Keely Fright and Jasmine Sayer

The day started with a nice sausage, eggy bread and spaghetti. This was shortly followed by a meeting in the unisex common room in which the groups were told to go to their instructors and find out what the activities for the day were.  Mike (our instructor) gave us the opportunity to either climb Snowdon or go Sea Cliff Traversing in Anglesey.  The choice was easy for everybody as we climbed the mountains ‘Cnicht’ on Monday and ‘Tryfan’ on Tuesday. We arrived in Cable Bay, put on our waterproofs, buoyancy aids and harnesses.

We then set off to climb the interior of the surface that lay there before us. We then spent the remainder of the next few hours traversing through trickling waterfalls, slippery rocks and sharp objects which stood in our way. We carried on scrambling until we came to a fairly large gap in the rock called a Tyrolean traverse which the only way to cross was by a rope which we attached our “cow tails” and set off for the cliffs.  Roughly 20 minutes of Traversing later, a pupil tripped roughly three metres down a rock on the side of a near vertical cliff.   The first time we pulled ourselves along the rope to the other side normally, however the second time around Mike let the group try and do a backflip whilst still attached to the ropes.  Mike then noticed another group of Dane Court students with their instructors Jez and Karl also traversing on another cliff face around the corner.  We then attempted their rope course which was tricky at first but as we gradually got used to it as time passed.

For the final activity we were allowed to plunge ourselves into the ice chilling temperatures of the Irish Sea which lay there before the rocks.  As some of the students ran in their dry clothing to the minibus others squelched in their drenched clothes.  Some students got changed into dry clothing and we then had lunch a little late and set off home for the Kent Mountain Centre.

By Spencer Longley, Elizabeth Gibbons

Our hike began up this rocky, steep, mountain it didn’t look too hard but we soon realized we were wrong!! As we set off, about 5 minutes in, we saw the other group arrive (hailstones), although they went a different route up, we ended up beating them to the top with about 20 mins between us.
As soon as we started walking our legs began to ache and we realized how tough this was going to be. We had to trek across a stream, gladly everyone crossed without falling in! But this was only the beginning, little did we know by the end at least half of the group had fallen over or was wet! After a long 40 minutes of Steep climbing Mike (our instructor) let us sit down and have our hot drink. We sat by a large lake which some people say it looks like a dolphin from above, while sitting having our long awaited drinks, we saw the breath taking views from below, with the clouds covering the mountain tops. Once we set off again re -energised and feeling prepared for what was about to come.
Once we climbed the steepest part of the walk, after our short break Mike then told us about the part of the hike we were all looking forward too SCRAMBLING! We had done a little bit of scrambling on the walk yesterday up Cnicht but none of us had realized how much pain and effort we were about to put in. With Mike safely pacing us up the hour long scramble with a couple of quick breaks to steady our balance at one stop we were asking mike if he had anyone before that had injured or died from scrambling up Tryfan, he said no one had died but he had people who got injured from this trek which made me (Amy) felt worse about what we were climbing. After reaching the top of Tryfan we sat and had a relaxing lunch at the edge of this spectacular mountain looking down at the magnificent view of below some people of the group wanted to sit on the Adam and Eve the very top rocks of the mountain. Just as we were about to start descending the mountain we saw the other group (hailstones) heading towards the top.
On our way down we passed a few people over taking us they seemed to reach the bottom faster than Usain Bolt running the 100m. Like yesterday Keely’s fingers seemed to puff up again. We called her snowman fingers. Although it wasn’t as wet and slippy as yesterday at least everyone seemed to slip at least once getting their bottoms wet leaving them uncomfortable for the rest of the descent towards the mini bus with Amika leading the way. On the way down one of the people in our group fell over and landing on his finger leaving him lagging behind in pain!!!
Once arriving at the mini bus everyone was relieved to finally sit down and relax as we drove back, whilst we sang in the bus and looking forward to our warm showers and telling everyone of our adventures.

By Amy Srivalsan-Jones and Lucy Munday

Our marvellous day began with us arriving at the base of the mountain, the first thing that we saw was sheep, all of the sheep were marked with orange, blue or pink dots to show which farmers they belonged to. I (Oliver) had spotted a large object in the flowing river, I stepped closer to the river to then realise this is no object it was a large salmon battling the progressing current.
Unusually instead of the stereo-typical cold wintery weather it was a very sunny beautiful day, but this soon became a terror instead of a pleasure as we became extremely hot and uncomfortable. Our colossal mountain confronted us as we started to edge our way into the deep boggy mud, People started to slip as the mountain became more harsh and the steepness rapidly increased! The Rocks where sharp, dangerous and were extremely slippery. The decrepit ruins made a versatile base for us to rest and snack on are well packed lunches, Mike our instructor helped us reach our goal of climbing to the top of the mountain and was determined for us to carry on to the jagged peak so we then left.
The side of the mountain was nick named the knights head because from a fantastic sea view it appears to look like a knight’s helmet, the journey to the knight’s head consisted of a tiring trek through a Jagged cliff face, it was treacherous, however we knew it would be rewarding for some to conquer their first mountain. After a long, demobilizing hike to the top of the mountain we finally finished our journey upwards and we had some time to rest and re-energize, we got to take beautiful pictures and experience the wonders of the mountains.
Our filling lunch had given us the energy to carry on back down the mountain, this may have been one of the hardest parts of the journey as the land was very unsteady and uneven but we succeed to walk over it even though everyone managed to fall into a puddle or a stream! by this time we were back to our initial path and soon arrived back to the mini bus and drove back home.

By Amika McAvoy and Oliver Hampton-Saint