I travelled over to Capel Curig last night with a group of 17 students, and another instructor, in preparation for hill walking on Snowdon today. Staying the night meant that we were there for a reasonably early start in the morning. So it was breakfast at 7am, ready to jump in the vehicles by 8am. Being fairly early, there was still space in the Pen … Read More »
Trip on the River Severn
I found myself working for Arthog Outreach today. Based in Wellington (Telford), they are a branch of Telford & Wrekin Council's outdoor education centre on the Welsh coast, and provide a wide range of activities for schools and college's in the local area. Today, I got to spend the day with a group of nine Year 5 pupils from a local primary school that wanted to … Read More »
2 Star Paddling Course
I've done a number of Adventure Education weekends with Oswestry School cadets over the last few years. More recently, I seem to have spent more time in boats, coaching canoeing and kayaking skills. This week, the senior cadets, that have given a lot of time and commitment to instructing younger cadets over the course of the year, were rewarded with a week of AT. I … Read More »
Canoeing on the River Severn
With the weather forecast uncertain this morning, I set off to pick up a group of primary school children for a canoe trip down the River Severn. The sky was suggesting a lovely day, but the Met Office were hinting at a marked change late morning, bringing rain and increased winds. I knew that the group had done the ideal section of the river before, … Read More »
NNAS Bronze Course
I started running the NNAS Bronze syllabus several years ago. It seems to be growing in popularity and, on occasion, I've had people travel several hundred miles to access the course. This time was a bit different. Having set up the dates for a couple of more local people, I found myself just working with one, that hadn't even been in the original group. However, we met … Read More »
DofE Practice Expedition
After a productive weekend of training a fortnight ago, this weekend was an opportunity for the candidates from Oswestry School to undergo their Bronze DofE practice expedition to put their new found skills into action. Once all the necessary kit checks were done, we dropped the three walking groups off at the Ponderosa Cafe, on the Horseshoe Pass above Llangollen. Each group had planned their own … Read More »
DofE Bronze Training
This weekend marked the start of this year's DofE Bronze expedition season for me. Oswestry School's DofE programme has become a regular fixture in my diary, and one to look forward to, so it was with a degree of expectancy I headed out for the weekend. We actually spent the first half of Saturday on the school site, looking at how to put up (and take … Read More »
National 3 Peaks Preparation
Several months ago I was approached for some advice about an attempt at the National 3 Peaks Challenge. This has become very popular for charity events over the last 10 years and involves walking to the top of the highest mountain peaks in Scotland (Ben Nevis), England (Scafell Pike) and Wales (Snowdon) within 24 hours. In this case, it was a local church group looking … Read More »
Families & Parties at the Adventure Rope Course
It was a busy day for me at the Adventure Rope Course, just north of Shrewsbury, with a combination of a family and group of boys this morning and a girls party this afternoon. It meant an early start to get down there and get everything set unready to go. With little idea of what the families would want to do, it meant getting everything … Read More »
A Harsh Day on Stac Pollaidh
After completing 5 days of quite big outings into the Scottish mountains, I thought we'd end the week with a slightly different sort of day. A short day on an iconic hill that would involve more rope work, giving more of a climbing feel to the day. With this in mind, we headed north, through Ullapool, to Stac Pollaidh on a clear morning. Stac Pollaidh can … Read More »
