Mr Alderson’s group – Monday

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Raindrops – Mr ALDERSON & MR WHITE’S group

Yesterday when we first arrived we were greeted by a rather excited Jez. When we had been shown around the old building we ate dinner and went for a hike. On the way we were told some ghost stories and one of the instructors decided to try and make them more realistic. When we were about half way through Edward Baker fell into a ditch (IT WAS HILARIOUS). At the end of the walk we came to a derelict prison. As we walked up the steps the other group was there and they jumped out at us. We then came back to the centre for a little supper and then to bed at 11 o’clock.

When we woke up the next day we got showered, got changed and had breakfast. For breakfast we had sausages and a hash brown. It was very nice. Next we watched some Formula 1 in our free time and found out our groups. In our group we had the challenge of climbing three hills which was very tiring especially for the first day. We had flasks of hot chocolate with us and a nice packed lunch to keep us going. When we summited the first hill, we had to climb up these slate rocks. You just don’t realise how far up you are until you get up there. We then had some drink and set off again. We then had to go to the next summit which wasn’t as difficult this time. There wasn’t as much slate this time but finally the first person fell! We then reached the summit which took us 3 hours from the start, but then we couldn’t stop at just one.

After having a quick tea break we leaped into action heading for the our highest summit of the day this was very steep and about 1 metre either side of us was a 1500m drop. We stumbled up the steep hill and stopped for lunch at the summit. We then went down a steep hill with lots of scree (loose rocks) sliding under our feet. When we were at the bottom we could see massive slate quarries. Then we went through one of them and found out how the slate was moved around the quarry from top to bottom. We then got in the minibus and headed back to the centre for a shower and some dinner.

Charlie BURGESS and James BULLARD

 

Mike’s group – Monday

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Mike and Keith’s group.

This is Jasmine and Darcie writing to tell you all about our fantastic day out to climb the colossal Glyder fawr. We started our day with a very chatty journey to the rendezvous, where we would start our exhilarating fight with the mountain to get to the peak destination; where later we wouldn’t be able to see our starting point from the overwhelming clouds.

As we had started escalating up what seemed like a mountain in its self, I thought that I wasn’t going to be able to make it but by pushing myself to the limits and made it to the stop. At this point I had been huffing and puffing but still had my hat on, I decided I would remove the hat my mum had gave me ‘the magic hat’ one that would keep me warm no matter what the weather, as I took the magical hat off my friend, Ella, burst out laughing as I had the WORST hat hair in the history of the Kent Mountain Centre hat hair entries in all the years Dane court had been going. After the ‘situation’ at the stop we carried on moving and as soon as we knew it, we were standing on the middle of the mountain wondering what to do with Courtney’s ankle as on the way up she had caught it in-between two very tight rocks. Unfortunately she couldn’t carry on so she and Keith had to return to the cafe at the bottom.

We triumphed up to the part of the mountain where the clouds seemed to swarm over us and we looked down for the first time in a while and there we were on the edge of the mountain staring at our soon deaths (Keith’s comment – a little bit extreme perhaps!!). We had the first cry of the day… Ella had an emotional moment as she was scared as she didn’t believe that Mike knew where he was going, we reassured her that the man who had been climbing since he was 11 years old, knew what he was doing.

No sooner we were sitting with a fellow climber on a block of rocks eating our lunch and a nice hot cup of hot chocolate from our flasks. We headed on straight to the peak, only 90 feet further up, and we posed for a photo. All sliding down the side of the mountain, we had reached the place where we started… the bottom as we, (meaning the girls) slowly made our way back to the toilets as we did not want to go on the mountain, only seeing the boys in their seats as they had decided to run back to the van (no idea where they got their energy from) and we had a peaceful return back to the house.

Blog registration

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Anyone can read this blog simply by visiting http://indoorsout.co.uk/blog but
you must be registered if you want to:

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Parents are very welcome to register. It enables you to comment on posts and ask related questions.
Click here to register. For security reasons there will be a delay while I approve registration and confirm by email. This should not take more than 24 hours if either:

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NOTE:
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Trip payments

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A reminder to parents that payments for this year’s visit should currently total £130.
The next payment is due on 9 September 2013 (see below).

Please pay
On or before
£100.00 (total £130.00)
Monday 1 July 2013
£100.00 (total £230.00)
Monday 9 September 2013
£100.00 (total £330.00)
Monday 7 October 2013

Please note that;

  • Our on-line payment facility is not available until 1 September 2013.
    However, from this date, you are encouraged to use this method of payment.
  • Cash or cheque payments must be handed in to the school cash office only.
  • The cash office is open between 8:30am to 8:50am and again during morning break.
  • Cheques must be made payable to Dane Court Grammar School and marked on the reverse with the pupil’s name, form and the trip details.
  • Cash payments must be similarly identified on an enclosing envelope or attached note.
  • You are, of course, welcome to complete payment early if you wish.

Mr Alderson’s group – Friday

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Lou’s group – Friday

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Snowdon and the seagull

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Tim’s day started off very early with an early wakeup call and having to wake everyone else in the clyd (clid) up. Whereas Lauren woke up so late that her room were late for breakfast. The breakfast was a lovely bacon slice, potato waffles and a lovely spoon of beans (please read the above in a northern accent). So as breakfast went on Tim realised that today was going to go wrong and this feeling continued until he packed his bag ready for the day and lost his lunch, waterproofs and hats as he took a spare because it would be cold up Mountain Snowdon. After packing our bags and tying our boots (which if you were Ben was rather dodgy, who feels better now) we shuffled aboard the mini bus. Today was a special day for one of the members of our group, harry, it was his birthday, and what a way to celebrate your birthday 1000 metres above sea level.
When we arrived at the car park at the bottom of the mountain we were faced with the task that lied ahead of us. we stepped out the minibus the rain was imminent and we prepared our selves by pulling on waterproofs.
We set off on the long road ahead knowing this journey would not be easy. The path we followed to begin with was known as the miners’ road as the miners’ used it to get to and from their mines on the hill and the majority on miners would stay on cottages by Britain’s most poisoned lake. As we got to hear we realised how boring it was, honestly this track JUST WENT ON AND ON AND ON. Fortunately we decided to take the most dangerous route possible of climbing up to the summit. This route looked dangerous but as we started to ascend to certain death we realised this route wasn’t dangerous it was treacherous. As timmy prayed for his life he realised this could be the end. Lauren was in tears of how scared this route was going to be, she said to Tim “Tim… Can you tuck my gloves in I’m cold” which tim replied with “oh. Of course” so the ne3xt part of this scramble (just wrote this word and made me hungry now I want egg) route was the worst part as there wasn’t many wholes fo9r feet and hands to hold into.
After we all got up to the top of this we were relieved as well as concerned for our safety. The sheep poo we found of the rocks concerned us greatly as Lozza and Timmy we beginning to get worried that the ninja sheep up here might fall off the mountain edge. We got to the top of our scramble (hungry again.) route and were now faced with the worrying route ahead; this would be the most straining, the most tiring, the most…boring…
Walking.
As we set off Colonel Alderson(who was named this by Mr. White for some reason) leisurely said that we only had a 30 minute walk till we could stop. Tim’s faced was drooped. Walking along tim and lauren heard the squawk of one of the worlds most annoying birds, the seagull. Tim turned his head and just went” nooooooooooooooooooooo.”(This sentence doesn’t work unless you think about timmy doing this is slow motion) after hearing this the day was a little more depressing and as we carried on our long path it followed us up and up.
As we got half way the walk was getting ridiculous and Timmy was getting very tired. Lauren was being an amazing friend and incoraging Timmy to carry on. By now everyone was tired and dizzy and at one point Joe one of the team members slipped down the mountain however he wasn’t damaged.
As we closed in on the summit Timmy had a mental breakdown and was begginging to slow down as he group led off into the cloud base. Ben and Timmy were at the back once again and were walking so slowly I think that the rest of the team believed the zombie apocalypse was about to begin. As saw the summit time’s face enlightened and he thanked his prayers for saving his precious life. After setting up the camp at the top Lozza ate everyone’s raisins as she was very hungry for dried grapes.
On the descent Louis decided to be a ninja however his plan soon failed and he became one of us again. The descent was long and tiring however we eventually reached the bottom. Once we were back aboard the minibus and had set off we sung happy birthday to the birthday boy harry and went down the road. Along the road we met a bus and the colonel’s driving failed him as he took off the back of the wing mirror on a wall at the side of the road because he was speeding and not being a good Samaritan by letting the zooming blur of a bus through. We got back to the centre and all lolloped out the minibus and went to unpack their bags.
During the course of the day Timmy’s zombie symptoms increased and now lozza is sitting in the lecture room fearing for her life as Timmy is beginning to turn.
So this is lozza saying goodnight and of course Timmy too

By Lauren Palmer-Jones and Tim Norman

Mike’s group in the gorge (quite literally)

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This morning everyone seemed very tired and sleepy, we were exhausted from yesterday’s activities. We were woken at 7:30 and duty group even earlier at 7:15! Wednesday had slept in the corridor, her roommates had been snoring and coughing and just being annoying so she went with her blanket and sat on the chair outside her room until Ms. Hodgett brought her a mattress a few hours later (LOL).
Breakfast was really good and yummy! We had a cooked breakfast (bacon, beans and mini waffles), then we went into the common room and watched CBeebies. We watched the Tweenies which made a change to watching Judge Judy for most of the week. Then we split up into our different groups to find out what we were doing today. We were very happy that Mike had decided we were going to go sea level traversing instead of climbing another mountain that would have been too evil.
When we had all finished packing and getting all our gear on, we scrambled into the van, it was really quiet because everyone was half asleep. We got there and had a 10 minute walk down to the cliffs. We had some food while mike was setting up this rope course round some rocks. It didn’t look that difficult but once we got started it became tougher than we thought. Katie Hatt was so scared; she was reduced to tears before she had even started.
At the end of the course Wednesday barber’s foot managed to wiggle free of her shoe and it fell down on the rocks below. Mike had to climb down and retrieve it, even though Wednesday seemed to be doing better without it!
Though the course was rather hard most of our group managed to complete again, it was quite fun! However Gabby was stuck at the end of the course and caused a hug traffic jam because she couldn’t get down on to the ledge below.
Mike then unhooked all the ropes and we moved round to some other rocks further along the cliffs. Wednesday seemed to have a heart attack every time someone slipped. We had to do some quite big leaps across the sea which was a bit scary. Luckily no one fell in the water but lots of people kept slipping over and had quite a few scratches.

At the end of climbing the rocks, Mike told us that if any of us wanted to jump in we could. There were about four people who were really brave and jumped in straight away like Abbey Watkins, me (Niamh Elstone), Wednesday Barber, Jack Laffargue and Alfie Hatt. Once we got in we realised how absolutely crazy it was because the water was so freezing!
I (Christina Swaby), Gabby and Katie Hatt took a lot longer as none of us wanted to get our trainers wet or get cold but eventually I took up the courage to jump in and everyone else followed behind me.
As some of us got a bit warmer and more confident we started jumping on some high ledges! When everyone had jumped in and realised the stupidity in swimming in the Welsh sea we headed to the shortcut through the field and headed to the van to get changed.
The girls had to change behind the smallest bush ever in the middle of a field whilst the boys were on the other side further down almost in view of us :s. Everyone was finding it hard to change with a towel wrapped around us as the wind was very strong and came at the most awkward of times! We were all shivering so much and were more than happy when we got back to the van and finished off the rest of our hot chocolate. The journey home was simply a time to sleep and to eat food. When we got back we rinsed all of our clothes that had been in sea water. Once we had dealt with our clothes and hung them in the drying room, we ran to our rooms to get our towels and shampoo and went straight to the showers! That was the best part of the day. After we had gotten dressed and were happy and warm we had dinner and ate the best banoffee pie ever!

By Mike Niamh Elstone and Christina Swaby

Sea level traversing with Jez’s group

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At 7:30 we were woke up by Miss Hodgett, it was not great because we were all very tired! We had 15 minuets to get ready, and be downstairs to breakfast at 7:45 so we quickly got dressed and ran downstairs, after a nice breakfast of bacon, potato waffles and beans. The waffles were tiny and ridiculous. Then we had our meeting with Jez to find out what adventure we were going on today, today’s activity was sea level traversing. We were looking forward to all the exciting things Jez was telling us. Sea level traversing is scrambling along the seal level on the rocks Alex fell in first and got soaking wet and then we headed back to the minibus where we had an early lunch, after this we put on our helmets, harnesses, buoyancies and clipped on our cow tails to our harnesses, getting ready for our second part of our activity. This is a rope attached to 2 ropes either side of 2 rocks (which were about 10-15 metres apart) we got clipped on the rope by are harnesses and karabiner and squatted down and pulled ourselves across the rope using our hands and arm strength. If you were brave enough when you got to the middle you could do this thing called ‘twiddle’ its were you do a back flip on the rope and bring yourself up so the rope is on your stomach and your balancing on the rope on your front with your ankle hooked over the rope, you then pulled yourself along the last part of the rope and unhooked your self from the rope once reaching the other side, all of this is called a Tyrolean Traverse.

After waiting for all the others to complete the traverse we did a bit of scrambling on the rocks and then we arrived to a place where we sat on the edge of the rocks facing the sea. Jez told us that this is the place where we could jump in, everyone was scared at first but soon enough everyone was wet! Libbie jumped in first, followed by Gabriel, then Maxine and Caroline, then Alex and Libbie, then Malgozarta, and then Georgia was finally persuaded to jump in and get soaked. Then Jez showed us his skills and did a front flip into the sea, Libbie followed with another front flip and then Gabriel ATTEMPTED a front flip, as did Maxine tried to, but instead failed and was more like a roly poly into the water, then Caroline tried but accidentally slipped in with a loud scream, after everyone was soaking wet Miss Hodgett was persuaded by our group, because she wanted the show Mr White who’s the boss around here and on a count of three she bombed into the water #trololololol~
We headed back to the minibus and once we got back to the minibus we took of our harness, helmets, cow tails and buoyanciades. We were instructed to go and changed along a small narrow path behind the tiniest sand dunes I’ve ever seen. It was absolutely freezing and didn’t help that we were soaked! Alex’s toes went blue and we were all shivering like a hex bug! We all finally got changed into our spare warm clothes and headed back to the minibus for a nice hot cup of hot chocolate, tea or coffee and maybe a bite to eat. We headed back to the Centre all falling asleep in the minibus on the way. When we got back we had to collect all of the equipment and dunk it into a big bucket of water several times and hung up to clean them as they have been in the sea and needed cleaning. Everyone was tired and hungry so after doing this we headed upstairs and had showers.

At 5:45 the bell went for dinner, finally! We had a Turkey roast, with roast potatoes, pigs in blankets, stuffing, vegetables and gravy. Almost everyone had cleared there plates and most people wanted seconds! After this the table was cleared and the dessert was brought out. The choices were either fresh fruit salad or Banoffi pie, which also went down as a success. Apart from being colder than ice and wetter than a whale in the sea we really enjoyed our day it was been one of the best days so far. We’re looking forward to what adventures await for our last day tomorrow!

– By Alex Somers and Georgia Pennie xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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