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
This year’s visit will depart from school on Sunday 28 October 2018 (the last day of Autumn half term) and returns on Saturday 3 November 2018.
Starting on Friday morning, we prepared ourselves for the day ahead, not knowing what was in store. After having breakfast we gathered in the lecture room for our briefing. After a weather check we were told that because our amazing teamwork in the gorge, our instructor was telling us we were climbing a mountain on our own; with our teacher and instructor a few miles behind. We were quite surprised that we were given the trust to carry out the activity.
Firstly, we arrived at the gorge and got kitted up into our waterproof gear and helmets, harnesses and wellies. Then we set off and were met with our first encounter with water. At the time the water was moving very slowly and we quickly made our way up to the first obstacle. We were met with two boulders with a small waterfall flowing through it moving very quickly it was called the ‘elephant’s bottom’ can’t image why [haha]. We all got through this with ease, on the way to the next hard bit, i would swim in any bit of water i could because i was loving it!
