Today was definitely full on for me. Three sessions, all as part of the BBC Thrill Seeker campaign, was enough to keep me on my feet. The morning started off with an adult canoe session on The Mere in Ellesmere. Surprisingly there were only 3 takers this time, which was disappointing, but meant that we [...]

It’s always nice to be invited along to someone’s birthday party and today was no exception. We had actually been due to have the canoeing party at The Mere in Ellesmere yesterday, but the weather was so miserable for the time of year that I mentioned the idea of postponing it a day. Amazingly, all [...]

Today I hosted a visit from the Base 25 Youth Action Team from Wolverhampton. This is a newly formed group of young people who aim to encourage others in and around Wolverhampton to get involved in volunteering. The Youth Action Team is still being put together by Base 25, who do a wide range of [...]

Wow – what a scortcher! Following Oswestry School’s Bronze DofE training weekend a fortnight ago, this weekend was an opportunity for the candidates to put everything together during the course of a 2 day practice expedition. Due to the fact that many of the pupils are due to have a GCSE exam at the start [...]

This weekend was spent working with a group of 6 aspirant Bronze Duke of Edinburgh candidates from Shrewsbury School on an expedition training weekend. In total, there were 8 walking groups from Shrewsbury School, each with their own instructor for the weekend, working out of Brow Farm campsite at Ratlinghope, on the north-western side of [...]

Adam is a local outdoor instructor who is preparing to do his SPA (Single Pitch Award – Rock Climbing) assessment next month. This will be a 2 day assessment, looking at his personal climbing abilities but, even more importantly, to ensure that he can set up climbs and abseils safely for other people and manage [...]

The Duke of Edinburgh expedition season really seems to get going each May, and this weekend saw pupils from Oswestry School getting stuck in to their training with a weekend based out of Carrog Station campsite, along the River Dee to the west of Llangollen. As is normally the case, they came with varying degrees of [...]