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