Orienteering and Raft Building!

We ventured out for another full day of activities today. Our minibus arrived high up the side of a valley with great views all around. We found this unusual pod sculpture / shelter which was apparently designed to resemble an atom. From inside we got some fantastic views of birds of prey hovering and swooping. 

 We took a long march down the hill and over ancient bridges to finally arrive at the site of our orienteering activity.

 Firstly, we located north and used the maps and keys to find our way around.

 We also found quite a few over-excitable cows which made us feel slightly uneasy!

 Determined to carry on, we studied our OS maps....

 In this shot you can see the pod in the top right of the picture - that is where we started so it shows how far we'd trekked!

 Some serious map skills going on.....

 .....but wait. What's that? A massive cow. Unfortunately, this actual cow didn't want to stay still like normal cows do and was intent on running around all over the place so we decided to abandon that part of our task and head to a cow-less field instead.

 Here we are in full flight mode.

 Hiding behind trees....

 We now found time for a bit of 'bush craft' which is our instructor Dylan's speciality.

 Here is an edible plant.....

 Hmmmmm....quite tasty I think......

 Actually.....maybe not.....

 No I don't like it.....

 Yuck! That's foul! Not everyone was a keen on the edible plants it seemed although most of us agreed this particular one tasted of apple!

 Now it was time to head back, stopping for lunch along the way.

Avoid this one.....

 Almost back at the minibus now.....

 We then took the minibus to a large reservoir. Walking up to the hut to get changed, this was the first sight that greeted us! It sat there for quite a while until Mr Lee scared it off....

 ....which is hardly surprising.

 We carted all of the equipment down a long slope towards the reservoir. A bag of ropes, four barrels, six large wooden poles and paddles.

 After some instruction we set to work....

 ....well after striking some cool poses!

 The children were briefly shown the knots before having a go on their own.

 Impressing knot skills Year 6!

 It was all starting to come together.....

 ....and Mrs Wraighte certainly seemed pleased with the progress too.

 A final tightening of the knots....

 .....then it was time for the barrels to be brought in. People took turns sharing suggestions for how to place the equipment and then the group would agree on the best design.

 All hard at work....

 ....until I asked them to smile for a photo! Poor Ben (our other instructor) is left doing all the work here!

 After a tremendous team effort we are ready to set sail!

 Overall, it has to be said that the girls won at paddling. With a chant of 'feet, bum!' they managed to synchronise their strokes meaning they glided through the water effortlessly.

 The boys, however, who had been most confident before we entered the water, were somewhat more chaotic in their approach, which from what I could gather involved them all doing their own thing and shouting quite a lot!

 Then, much to their glee, the children were challenged to switch places on the raft which meant only one thing - getting really wet!

 I also jumped in but being the photographer there is no evidence of this sadly. I was wearing a pink helmet and a massive green waterproof coat if that helps you imagine it better. We were all drenched and then had the task of dismantling the raft! Some came up with clever systems for transporting equipment back up the hill....

 "This is a lot heavier than it looks!"

Well done Year 6 - another superb day of adventure. Even rampaging cows can't thwart us!