Thoroughly Thrilling Thursday

Group 2: Day 2 Hill Walk

“Group 2 spent our last day at Lagganlia climbing a mountain.  It was a Munro mountain meaning that it was over 3000ft.  The mountain was 1,118m tall.  Rain started to pour down when we were climbing back down.  Food had never tasted so good!” - Hannah

“The mountain climbing was very tiring, sore, and challenging.  It was also very fun and the view at the top was worth it.  I’m glad I’ve done it.” – Jenna

“The hill walk was very challenging.  Pushed to the limits is what keeps me sane.  If I’ve learnt one thing on this trip it would be ‘don’t be attached to your phones and get outside’.  There’s so much more in the world, you just don’t see it.  Thank you!” – Alex

“Today we climbed a mountain.  It was hard on our legs and took us all day.” – Harvey

“We went on the hill walk and climbed a mountain called “Sgor Gaoith”.  It was wet and painful but I will most definitely sleep for days to come.” – Matthew

“We were all pushed to our limits.” – Tallis

“Today we went hill climbing.  There was a really steep bit which was hard but the view was so cool.  On the way back down I twisted my ankle 100 times.” – Aimee

“It was fun talking to Beck and Rafa (sorry if I spelt it wrong).  It’s sad we have to leave.  I can’t wait to tell my family about you and what we did.  This will stay in my memory forever and I will hang the certificate on my wall.  WINNERS NEVER QUIT, QUITTERS NEVER WIN.” – Erlend

“It was very challenging and I almost fainted.” – Eleanor.

Group 6

Our final day of activities – we went sailing.  There was three types of boats.  Picos, bath tub boats and a large pico.  The water was quite warm.  In the morning it wasn’t very windy.  In the afternoon it picked up a lot.  It got very windy and many people almost capsized.  Half way through we had to put another layer on as we were very cold at lunch.  Our rescue boat’s engine ran down so it had to be rescued by another boat.  By then end of the day everyone was very tired and overall did very well and used great teamwork.    Brogan, Michael and Ellie.

On our last full day – we all woke up tired and had breakfast.  Next we got our stuff ready to go for a full day of sailing.  We then had a long drive to Loch Morlich where Jerry showed us what to do with the sailing boas and how to put up the masts.  He showed us what to do and then we launched the boats.  There were 3 little boats (picos) and one big one.  The little boats were really rocky and kept nearly tipping out their passengers.  Emily and Isla crashed because the wind was too strong but that wasn’t their fault.  Some people didn’t want to get back on the boats after lunch.  The wind died down after that and we had a race in the picos.  Emily, Isla and Ellie vs Ade and Glen.  The boys won but that because the rescue boat broke down and the girls went to get help for its passengers.  Overall it was a lot of fun! (albeit SCARY!) Emily, Glen and Drew

Today was our last proper day at Lagganlia.  So far our last day we went sailing at Loch Morlich.  It was a 20 minute minibus ride from Lagganlia to the loch.  When we got there we had to put on a swimming costume, a wet suit, a special jacket and a bouncy aid.  Then we headed over to the boats.  We had to get some equipment for the boat.  There was a rudder, a dagerboard, a boom and the actual sail itself.  Then we had to attach everything together.  When we got on the lake we started on fine.  Then it started to get just a little bit windy.  But when we were half way out it got really windy.  Most of us nearly capsized.  When we got back for lunch we had to put on a big jumper because we were getting really cold. When we were getting back after having lunch.  Three of us went on the big boat and 6 people went on smaller boat.  The 3 people that went on the big boat were Jenny, Brogan and Drew.  The on one of the small boats were: Ellie, Emily and Isla.  Then on the other boat was Glen, Ade and Michael.  We all had fun. Isla, Jenny and Ade

Group 1 Thursday

Hill walk up Creag Nhigearhaidh 

We had breakfast and then room inspection, everyone’s scores went up! We then went to the main store to get our gear for the hill walk, boots, waterproofs and rucksacks, it was a beautiful day. We arrived at the start point by Minibus, we then checked the map and head up the hill, and we were in a Forrest to start with Brig and Gordon took us to a river where we got to drink some mountain water. Walking up the mountain was so tiring, we noticed as we went up the trees got less and smaller until there was none. We got to a stone built shelter where we got to have lunch. Then after lunch we walked to the top off the mountain.  We got to see a great view of THE Cairngroms and Aviemore and we got to eat chocolate from Mr MacKinnon. Then we started down the mountain on the way down lots of us fell or barrel rolled down the steep slopes. It was really difficult walk down but it was really fun as well.  We walked back to the centre and we all got drenched because it stared to chucking it down.              

Group 1 Lewis, Andrew, Reagan, Charlotte, Eve, Ella, Zara, Alfie.

Group 4 – Kyle, Malachi, Freya

Today we began climbing up Craig ???????? Everyone felt some pain but some were in serious pain!!!! We finally made it to the top with a lot of bumps and falls Freya was the first one to get to the top of the hill. We had our packed lunches on the top of the hill and Craig told us about the things we could see and told us a story about reindeer moss. When it was time to go down the hill, we walked down the first bit because it was rocky, then we got to roll down the next bit. We finally got to the bottom then started the shortish walk back to get the mini bus. We did snowboarding next, we really enjoyed this even though it was raining.

Sam, Dillon and Callum

The high point today was walking up Craig ?????? When we walked back down we got to roll down it. It was really fun.

Today’s  low point was whilst going up the hill we got blisters. They came back to haunt us at the snowboarding.

Alannah, Serena, Isla B

Today group 4 did a big steep hill walk. It was good but tiring. Four of us went up ahead and somehow managed to go the wrong way, but it was all fine and got to the top. On the way down  we got to roll down. After we stopped rolling Isla tripped in a ditch, and when Serena tried to jump over she then tripped over Isla and accidentally pushed Malachi as she went. This made Malachi fall and he fell into Alannah. They ended up calling themselves ‘The Human Dominoes.’ Alannah got quite annoyed when she fell headfirst into a hole.  When we got back, Isla realised she had a blister and it was sore.

When we were snowboarding, Serena thought she was not doing very well, but she only fell once.

These are the thoughts from today. Dry this morning, wet but warm this afternoon. Some very tired children, but all had a great day.

Group 3 – Mr Peace

Today we did sailing at Loch Morlich. We used the smallest sailing boats, the Optimists. It took a peedie while to put them together, but we had help from Stewie! It was fun just bobbing about and crashing into each other. We had loads of fun playing a ball game, but it was annoying when the ball went under our boats. It was challenging at times, with the wind changing directions but we had oars in our boats to help with that. We went across the whole Loch to a beach where we played two running games in the trees. To cross large areas we got tied together and pulled by the speed boats. The legend Stew let us go pier jumping. It was cold but was probably the most memorable part of our day.

By Leah and Rhys

When the children met Stewart for the last time today, he put some precious gems on a table and asked the group to give a gem to someone in the group and say why. Here are the group’s responses:

Mason said that Murray was waiting patiently until he was given the tiller.

Murray said that Leah managed her frustration well today.

Leah said that Mason has tried his absolute best all week.

Rhys said that Conal persevered when he was sailing.

Grace said that Rhys kept everyone laughing at tough times.

Katy said that Grace has always been there for her and helped me.

Charley said that Katy had conquered her fear of canoeing.

Conal said that Charley has tried her best at everything this week. 

Group 5

Today we did skiing on a dry ski slope and gorge walking. The skiing we were told how to put on the skis and how to go up a slope. Then we were told to start moving and stopping. We also did a walk. We got to go under a waterfall and slide down a rock slide and we went up part a part to a waterfall to a place called the Jacuzzi. We had to jump over the place and swim to the edge and we had a very good day.

Leo, Jay and Andrew

Today we did skiing on the dry ski slope and gorge walk. We learned how to go up hill on skis by going sideways. We also found out you need to make a very large pizza shape to stop. We got to go on a ski lift and lots of people fell off it! We started off our afternoon by going on a Gorge walk. It was cold to start off with but then it warmed up. We had to jump into a place called the “Jacuzzi” and then swim over to the other side. We got to go down a water slide as well. We had an excellent day but are sad this experience is going to end.

Lauren, Cadence and Jasmin

Skiing – we started off by all coming as a group. Zoe our instructor told us what we were going to be doing. We went out to the ski store. After we got all the equipment we went on the ski slope! We started off by stepping up sideways up the ski slope hill. After we did that we tried stopping in a pizza shape. We all got to go up the ski lift and got to go down the hill several times and then we went back to take our equipment off. It was very fun!

Gorge walk – We started off by putting on our teddy bear suits and our waterproofs and our bog boots. We went on the minibus for 15 minutes. Once we got there we went on a long walk to get there. It was very mucky and Zoe said “watch out for the bog mud”. After we walked for a bit we all sat down and took a break. Zoe went over more instructions, she told us we had to go in single file because the path was too thin. Once we for past all the bog mud we had to go and line up for going in the water. We all did really well to get past all the rocks and branches. We all had to jump in the Jacuzzi water. It was really freezing and we were dripping with water and all had loads of fun and we all thought it was the best activity!

Eszter, Eilidh and Finn

P7s Orkney Night OOT

Papdale was joined with Stromness and Dounby Primary Schools for a mass orienteering event on Wednesday night.  It was great fun and at first the mixture of kids were cautious with each other but by the end, some bairns found it difficult to leave each other.  New friendships were formed and great memories!  Here are our 1st, 2nd and 3rd placings.

Wilting but Wild Wednesday

Hello everyone, some very tired children woke up this morning but that didn't deter them from another exciting day at Lagganlia.  The weather improved minute by minute with no rain in sight and breaks of warm sunshine for some.  Here is what we have been up to...

Group 4 - The Great British Bakeoff and the Gorge of Doom (not)

Today we were trying to bake a cake –archery style. We used lots of skills like strength, aiming and yes (this is for the adults) we also spent a lot of time learning all the safety rules.  What we thought was funny today was how seriously we took this competition, we almost felt like it was a real cookery show, but there were lots of burnt cakes!!

So, you are probably wondering how this game works. Each colour of the target represented a cake ingredient, except the colour black which meant ‘You have burnt your cake.’ The aim was to hit each colour(ingredient)and that meant your cake was baked. If you burnt your cake(black) you had to start all over again. Unfortunately some of us baked more cakes than others.

Her are words from our group to describe the archery: roasted, burnt, lit, fun, ingredients, wooden cake(this refers to the number of arrows that missed the target and ended up in the wooden frame) hard, delicious, good and MIDGIES.

That  was our morning, warmer, dry and NO WIND.

After lunch, we went GORGE WALKING, now known by our group as ‘George the Gorge.’

(Note from Mrs Coltherd here. It was great hearing the reaction of the group when they first set eyes on the water cascading down the rocks. Lots of oooos and aahhs and ‘I didn’t think it would be like this’ could be heard. )

The highlight today was ‘The slide.’ It was part of the gorge that had flat rocks on a slope that were covered in moss ‘stuff’ that was really slippy. Quite a lot of people plunged into the water and their head went right under.

A magic moment was getting trying to get under the waterfall so you could kiss the magical moss. Some of us managed but it tasted green!!fishy and salty.

Funniest bit today was when three of our group ended up in very deep water at the bottom of the slide. They ended up with arms and legs everywhere.

To do the gorge walk we had to be really good at balancing, listening, helping others and following instructions. At the end of this activity, someone said ‘When I empty my boots there will be a new ocean formed!!’

The only low point of the gorge walk was walking back in our wet gear with boots full of water and feet that felt like ice.

Our words to describe the gorge experience: banter, sore, wet, drenched, slippery, oceanic, extraordinary, heavy, cold, watery.

We had a really great day today and the weather was lovely in the afternoon.

This blog was a group effort again by: Dillon, Alannah, Freya, Callum. C, Malachi, Isla.B, Sam, Serena and  Kyle  

Group 2: Day 3 – Ski-ing and Kayaking

This morning we did ski-ing.  We started by getting our equipment gathered and had a talk with our Instructor about how to use it properly.  There were ski boots which were really hard to walk in. Once we got to the ski slope, we got our skis on and played a few games.  We played “What’s the time Mr Wolf?” and did some races.  Our instructors were very helpful teaching us lots of new skills and tactics.  We learnt the new skill “edging” when you walk side-ways UP the slope! Then we did some ski-ing from halfway up the slope.  Tallis and Harvey fell over a lot!! We also learned how to ski in different ways such as the “pizza” and “chips” style! “Pizza” is when you turn your skis in to a V-shape, and “chips” is when your skis are in straight lines.  Sometimes we had to be very patient whilst everyone was taking their turn.  Ski-ing was a challenging activity because we all fell over a lot.

After lunch we went kayaking and it was so much fun!!  We learned the main skills on how to paddle, and played some games.  We had to stand up in our kayak whilst floating in the middle of the pond which took a lot of skill and balance.  Our group had to take our kayaks to the island and climb up on to it taking our kayaks up with us.  It was the hardest part but everyone managed it because we worked as a team and helped each other. Some of us fell in to the water and then had to take our boat out of the pond and empty it.  The best part was being allowed to swim back to the island! Everyone had an exciting day.

Highs

·         Skidding fast down the ski slope

·         Swimming to the island

Lows

·         Falling off the skis

·         Pulling kayaks up on to the island

·         Having to wait during the ski-ing.

Group 5

Today our group went on a hill walk up to Dun-da-lamh fort. We had to drive in a minibus for 45 minutes to get there and then we started our walk. Our group voted to take the steep route to the top which took us up through the forest. It was shorter but much more challenging with the track being very slippy and muddy. We stopped at the top for lunch and played a catching game called ‘Scram’ which we all really enjoyed. After our hill walk we stopped at a museum that had old fashioned houses that you could look in and see how people used to live. We also went to the school called Knockbain which showed you a typical day in the 1930’s. We had to sit at old fashioned desks and write using a quill and ink pot. When we had finished our writing the teacher of the school had to give us a mark out of 10. He also showed us the old belt that badly behaved children were hit with which was really quite terrifying. Then Zoe let us go to the playpark to run about before getting back in the minibus to come back to the centre.

Highs

Getting to the top & bottom of the hill, playing ‘Scram’, falling over and being able to get back up and carry on! Nobody complaining, going to the museum, going to the old fashioned school

Lows

Slipping on the muddy track, falling over near the start of the walk, getting midge spray in my eyes, having to go up the steep forest track           

3 words to sum up our day

Eilidh - good, excellent, successful                           Cadence - fun, hard, tiring

Jasmin - sore, fun, laughter                         Andrew - hard, really fun, determined

Finn - windy, fun, tough                                Leo - good, fun, tiring

Eszter - falling, exciting, climbing                               Lauren - tiring, great, successful

Jay - fun, exciting, funny

                                         Group 1 Day 3 Bouldering, climbing and abseiling

We had morning wake up, breakfast and room inspections. We the met our instructor Brig, who issued us with our equipment; we were given helmets and harnesses and showed how to put them on. We were then driven to a Forrest, we had to walk up to a high area in t

he Forrest boulders where we were told how to do bouldering, Brig showed us how to spot this is when you stand behind someone in case they slip so you can stop them. The boulder area was slippy so this made it hard to get up, the hardest part was called the overhang only Zara managed to get up it, and the rest of us went up an easier part. When at the top we were taken to a large Rock face, where we met Gordon who had set up ropes for us to climb up and abseil down the instructors showed us how to rope up with a carabineer, It was hard work finding foot and hand holds climbing up, abseiling down was a little freighting as you have to lean right back over the rock face and walk down it but we all still really enjoyed doing it.

Group 1 day 3 Mounting biking

After lunch we went to the bike store where Brig issued us with bikes and helmets. After attest run on the hill Catherin we were taken on the roads and tracks around the centre we all had to learn how to use our gears for going up steep slopes and coming down the hardest part was going up the slopes. Some areas were really bumpy and muddy that we all screamed out . Raegan led the group and Ella kept going well at the back covered in mud. When we got back to the centre our legs were very very sore.

Group 1Lewis, Andrew, Raegan, Charlotte, Michael, Eve,  Ella, Zara and Alfie.  

Group 6 – by Drew, Brogan, Ellie, Michael, Jenny, Ade, Emily, Isla and Glen

Day 3 activities: climbing, abseiling and gorge walking (otherwise known as walking gorgeously)

Highs – walking the whole way up the gorge, falling in the waterfalls, having a pond in your boots and going in the shower at the end.  We thought our adventure was over when on the short bus ride back, we saw a large bird swoop over the road ahead of us and land on a bra  We quickly stopped and reversed so we could see it better.  It stayed for a few minutes whilst we looked carefully, we think it was a juvenile golden eagle.  Wow!
nch.

Lows/challenges – wet, cold, mucky and lots of spills (a rock coming back for revenge on Jenny, Drew falling over a tree and Brogan going for an extra swim she wasn’t meant too!)

Magic moments – going under the waterfalls with the sound of the water thundering over you, sliding down the waterfalls, Glen hugging a tree but basically lots of falling over by everyone. 

Skills – listening today was a 7.5 out of 10.  Much stamina needed to keep going.  Optimism was necessary in such a frightful and personally challenging day.  There was lots of great teamwork which helped to pull us through the tough times today and plenty of new found confidence to take away from a very tiring day.  Highly skilled at getting wet on a pretty dry day today with no rain – 10/10.

Words – it’s cold, nervous, are you ok, that was fun, fancy a dip and finally cough, cough, cough!

Isla – I think this is the best week of my life!

Ade – very sore feet, especially my heels!

Brogan – fun, active and cold!

Ellie – It was a bit cold but I had fun!

Jenny – I tripped over another rock today and Drew tripped over a tree!

Emily – I fell over in every single pool in the gorge!

Glen – It was challenging at the time but it feels good to have done it!

Group 3 – Mr Peace

Last night we threw a surprise party for Mason’s 12^th birthday.  We had some music and played some party games and then we had Mason’s birthday cake for supper. One of the party games was musical statues and at the end there was a dance - off between Drew and Rhys and in the end Rhys won.

Today we went canoeing and snowboarding. First we went canoeing in Loch Insh. Stewart made two rafts out of canoes so we went into two group of five. Today we worked on balance, rhythm and communication. One of the groups was speeding ahead and the other group couldn’t catch up. We played a game of boat basketball.  Rhys was proud of Conal for scoring loads of goal in our game. One of the groups used ‘’YA YEET YA’’ as their rhythm chant to paddle at the same time. We also saw a huge Osprey nest with one Osprey in it and we were all surprised at the size of them. Stewart told us that the nest was about the size of a double bed.

In the afternoon we all went snowboarding and got all our gear. At the beginning of the lesson we all started working on our balance and even did some yoga. Then we learned how to break and put our feet in the foot spaces. As the afternoon went on, we learned the basics of snowboarding and began to get more confident.  A few of us thought that they had done better in snowboarding than they thought they would. After we all gained some confidence, we moved up the slope bit by bit. “Rock on” was something that Murray shouted when he made it down the slope without falling over. At the end of the lesson, we were all very pleased with what we had achieved and we all had tried as hard as we could. We were all very proud of Stewart for being such a good helper.

By Conal and Grace

Torrential Tuesday

Wow what another day - wet doesn't describe it but just know that we didn't really notice.  Apologies as we are having technical difficulties and cannot upload any of our great photos to this page but will put some in our folder.  Click on the link to the right on our blog page.  See you tomorrow....

Group 5

Today we met our instructor called Zoe and she told us we would be doing a mountain bike ride, tree climb and kayaking on the Lagganlia pond. Before we started our cycle we had to do a test to show we could stop safely and knew how to use our gears. We set off on a track through the forest. Our instructor told us to look out for Golden Eagles, red squirrels, Ospreys, baby deer and Capercaille. We cycled on undulating track through the Glen Feshie forest. Even though the conditions were hard we managed to keep going, showing determination.  When we stopped for our snack Andrew dropped his apple and Eilidh said that Lauren had a “yummy seat” because she had borrowed Ms Dufort’s gel cushion seat. Eszter was complaining about being wet, cold and muddy and had brought a towel for the bike ride – we decided to call her Princess Eszter!

After lunch at the centre we got kitted out for the tree climb. We had to put on a harness and make sure that the belts were in the closed position to be safe to climb. The aim of the tree climb was to get to the top of a very tall tree and ring the bell. There were hand a foot holds and branches that we used to help us up. The wet weather made the tree very slippy and challenging to climb. When we were climbing one person helped to give advice on the best route to climb and they were called an ‘advisor’. Everybody else had to hold the rope and this was called ‘belaying’. Not everyone made it to the top but everybody was motivated to try and Zoe was very supportive when we tried. We had 5 minutes after the tree climb to get into our wet suits ready to kayak. They were really tight and difficult to get into. We went down the trail to get to the pond and had to test the fit of our kayaks. We launched our kayaks into the pond using teamwork to them safely in. Zoe challenged us to be able to turn our kayak in circles and then let us experiment with how to use our paddles. We played a game of Sharks and Fish where the catcher had to hit the kayak or person in it with a ball. Eilidh capsized and swallowed water. We had a great day again and are excited for what tomorrow and the rest of the week brings!

Eilidh – Yummy seat and proud of myself!

Lauren – Proud that I managed to handle a kayak!

Cadence – Happy I reached the top of the tree and rang the bell!

Jasmin – I am happy that I tried to climb the tree.

Eszter – Everyone calling me Princess Eszter because I had a towel, it was funny!

Andrew – I got to the top of the tree!

Group 6

Day 2 at Lagganlia – activities – kayaking, tree climbing and mountain biking.  Highlights – when Glen fell out of the kayak three times and Jenny went once even before we started.  Drew, Jenny, Brogan and Ade all got to the top of the tree and rang the bell.  Isla, Ellie, Emily, Michael and Glen went as far as they thought but then went a little higher than they anticipated.  Everyone got thoroughly soaked and muddy in the mountain biking along with a sore bottom.  Our instructor is very nice and called Simon.  We hope to play Simon says with him ha, ha!    Our most common word written in our idea/reflection sheet was wet, wet and very wet!  After lunch we had a discussion about skills and how they transfer into everyday life …. Some thoughts from us

Balance/determination – reaching over half way up the tree, can’t do it. Why is it important?  Wouldn’t  get to our personal goal.  Stamina – needed in both climbing and kayaking, having enough strength to keep going.  Taking responsibility for yourself and others – no one tells you what to do.  Keeping everyone safe – using bouncy aids and making sure we were helping each other tighten up.  Listening – we did ok, maybe 6/10.  Staying together and looking out for each other – in biking keeping together as a group and not leaving anyone behind.  Risk assessment - making sure we had good teamwork. Making decisions about what choices to do based on how dangerous = good to do/fun.  We surprised ourselves with what we have achieved and look forward to tomorrow. 

By Ellie, Isla, Brogan, Emily, Jenny, Drew, Michael, Ade and Glen.

Group1 day 2 skiing

We were awakened by our teachers we got ready and went for breakfast, after breakfast we had our rooms inspected by our instructors. We then had to meet up with our own instructors Brig and Gordon they told us we were doing skiing and gorge walking. We then went to the equipment stores to get our equipment for skiing, it took a long time as we had to be measured for our skis. We had to walk to the slope in our big boots it was hard, we found it hard to put on the skis and taken them of again. We were showed how to use our skis properly, we had to do  different things to get our balance and we had a one ski race that the 2’s won. We then got to go up the slope and stared to ski down one at a time, we all fell over quite a lot but with practice we all managed to get down the slope without falling over, and the better we got the higher up the slope we got to go. Michael got up the highest as he was the best at controlling his skies. We worked hard and had lots of fun falling down and getting up that we didn’t notice the rain.

Group 1 day 2 Gorge walking

We had lunch we then met back up with the instructors and got our equipment for the Gorge walk we had to wear warm suits, called teddy suits, waterproofs, and big rubber boots. We then went in a mini bus for a short trip that took us to a path, where we had a long walk through puddles to the Gorge, on the way Lewis found a frog we called it Fredrick the newish member of group 1.when we reached the Gorge the water was going really fast and loud because off all the heavy rain. We had to get into the water and start walking up the Gorge it was fun but hard going it was cold and very wet. At one point we had to lie down in a waterfall where Alfie let out a big scream we all laughed so did Alfie. When we eventually got to the top we all felt we achieved a great feat. When we left the Gorge, we all shouted goodbye gorgeous Gorge.

Group 1 Lewis, Andrew, Raegan, Michael, Eve, Ella, Zara Alfie and not forgetting Fredrick the frog.


Group 4

Our adventures  today were all about facing our fears. This morning we went mountain biking in the lovely rain! It was slippy and puddly (new word from group 4) and FUN. We all had different skill levels in cycling, roots of trees caused problems. Hills were another problem, some of us had to walk up them. We were not very good at spacing out, there were some collisions – BUT we are all okay!

In the afternoon we were climbing THEN abseiling. Although some found it easier than others everyone managed to climb up. The person in our group who surprised us most today was Dillon. He thought he wouldn’t manage but he did. Despite the rain, we still enjoyed our day.

Everyone has had a great day, lots of wet clothes but a lot of smiling faces too.

Dillon, Alannah, Malachi, Isla B, Kyle, Freya, Serena, Callum, Sam

Group 2: Day 2 – Archery & Gorge Walk

Today we did archery and the gorge walk at Lagganlia. We thought the archery was boring compared to the gorge walk.  Jenna said she finally managed to get the bullseye but unfortunately their “game” had finished so her points weren’t counted!

Once we’d finished the archery and had our lunch we then got our kit ready for the gorge walk.  We had to wear our swimming costumes/trunks, t-shirt, wetsuits, waterproofs and boots!  We walked for a while before we got to the gorge, but we could hear the water from far away.  We were excited when we saw the gorge! Some of us felt scared, but our team used words of encouragement and helped each other by taking turns. Everyone worked together as a team and listened carefully to instructions so we were all kept safe.  Matthew slide tackled Harvey, and Eleanor fell 53 times! At one point we all had to sit down in a deep part of the water, under a waterfall so it was like having a shower!! Once we’d finished the gorge walk, we carried on to the flat path back to the bus.  Rafa, one of our Instructors, then took us up a mini gorge that no group has done before! We were excited to be the first ones to do it.  We had to commando crawl up and water kept hitting us in the face.  Once we got back to the centre we had to tidy away our wet clothes and finally got to shower! The wetsuits felt like we were vacuum packed ham! Alex said the whole day was an exhilarating adventure

Aimee – The gorge was really cold, but the wetsuit’s kept us warm.

Eleanor – I thought my toe fell off during the gorge walk.

Harvey – It was an adventure because we didn’t know what was going to happen, and we didn’t know what Matthew was going to do next.

Erlend – It was a real adventure doing the gorge walk.

Alex – It was an exhilarating adventure.

Jenna – When I first saw the gorge I was a bit scared, but I got used to it as I went on.

Hannah – The gorge was very wet but still a good experience.

Tallis – The gorge walk wasn’t cold and I wasn’t scared at all.

Matthew – Harvey fell in a hole, so I helped him back out again.

 

 Group 3 – Mr Peace

Today was Mason’s 12^th Birthday (Woo!) and what a day it was! We did bouldering and abseiling this morning with our instructor Stuart. It was slippery walking along the rocks. As we were abseiling down the big cliff, we had to watch out for the tree that we nicknamed “Spiky McTree Face”. We were determined to abseil and have a go. Some of us were scared but we all tried our best!

After lunch we got ready for the Gorge Walk. The Gorge today was cold, challenging, mesmerising, wet, slippy and fun.

“We sang Ocean Man as we climbed the Gorge.” – Charley

“It was wet, cold, slippy and we made a dam using ourselves. I can’t feel my feet.” – Rhys

“I fell over constantly! Four times walking there and an uncountable amount on the Gorge.” – Murray

“My toe nails got drowned and we made up a song called “I Can’t Feel My Feet when I’m with Stu” on the way back on the bus to Lagganlia. – Conal

“I was amazed by the waterfall because it was a VERY strong current and my boots were full of water.” – Mason

“It was mesmerising how high the water level was, we had to go a different way! Halfway up there we made a human dam and I got swept away by the running water! Thank goodness for Grace saving me!” – Leah

“I was wet and cold until we got to the woods. When I saw the waterfall I was determined to go in. When it was my turn to do a push up in the water I couldn’t do it because I was getting pulled back. On the way back I fell in a hole!” - Katy

“HOLD ON LEAH! Leah got swept away. When we were building a dam and I held on to Leah. I’m glad that I did the activities.” – Grace