Kilvrough Trip - Blog 3

3rd April 2019

WEDNESDAY: CLIMBING and ABSEILING

In the morning we were all in a rush to get ready! After another lovely breakfast, including croissants, we headed for a morning meeting about our activity. It was climbing and abseiling! We were given clear instructions about what to wear including in depth conversations about how many pairs of socks to wear!

Once we had taken a trip to the equipment room to get our equipment, we drove down to Southgate to the beach (Foxhole) to begin our eventful day. We scrambled over rocks and boulders to the first cliff where our instructors, Sam and Piers, presented us with our first challenge (abseiling).

For some of us, abseiling presented quite a challenge, yet for others were feeling more confident, soon disappearing down the cliff. Some of us were shaking at the top but overcame our fears and showed great resilience and determination along with great perseverance and managed to make it down the cliff-face. Once we had all had a go and made it to the bottom, one way or another, we had lunch. Some of us were lucky enough to be in a bothy (a bit like a parachute) that we could sit under to be sheltered from the rain and hail.

Then our instructors broke the news to us that we were climbing back up; that was also when the weather decided to turn for the worse, and hail viciously battered us! Undeterred, we pushed through and managed to find finger and foot-holes to climb up the cliff before abseiling back down again. It was with a sense of achievement that, soaked through, we plodded back to the minibus and drove back down to the centre.

After showers and another delicious meal – Cottage Pie – we were faced with our evening challenge of den building in the woods. We were in teams of around six, that did merge and spilt throughout the evening, and all managed to build a successful shelter. Sadly, we then had to demolish our amazing constructions and head back for coco and bed!

By Mila and Jake