Group 5 members: 

• Stephen, Henry, Riley, Joshua, Shay, Myles, Jack, George

Monday

After a 4 hour coach journey we arrived at Arete! After we were given bedding and a quick chat, we had a quick 5 minutes to make our beds. This was a challenge for some of us! We then had our second challenge of the week: putting on a wetsuit. Our first activity was rafting on Llyn Padarn. We had a great time paddling round then at the end, we were allowed to jump off the pontoon. 

We are now dry and back at the venue waiting for our dinner! This evening we are off for a walk in the local area. 

Tuesday

What a glorious day it’s been to be out and about in Wales. We started with white water rafting down the Menai Strait, working in teams of 6 to paddle to the eddies. We learnt about the different locations, including the fishing house island, where they hung the nets over the railings to catch the fish and then smoked them in the house to eat. 
 

After returning the kit back to the centre, we swiftly went rock climbing up Lion Rock. This involved pushing even more boundaries to overcome fears to climb the steep rocks, tied together. We all felt that we had accomplished so much today. 

Wednesday

Again, what a beautiful day in Wales. We started the day off with some bacon and eggs (thanks to Henry and Jack). After filling up at breakfast, we kitted up and headed out for our day in Caergybi. Our first activity of day was coasteering, where we hopped from rock to rock and jumped off some cliffs! 

After drying off and getting changed, we enjoyed our lunch looking out onto the Irish Sea. The final activity of the day was sea level traversing, which required the team to navigate a rope line attached to a cliff face using cowstails ropes to secure themselves. We overcame personal challenges and developed some lovely tans!

Three words to describe our day from team 5: 

George’s three words: Daring, rocky and adventurous. 

Thursday

The sunny weather couldn’t last forever, it was a bit of an overcast day here in Wales. 

Today kicked off with some cereal, hashbrowns, toast and sausages, which George decided to turn into a breakfast masterpiece. After eating all we could, we spent our day exploring a former slate mine: Rhiw Bach. Upon our arrival, we had a 20 minute walk up to the entrance, where we had to hop into a dinghy and navigate our way further in (working hard to avoid the eels). We got to zipline, rock climb, abseil and walk up and down a waterfall, which we all completed with determination and resilience. We learnt about caving history and the creation of the mine. We listened to the stories of the miners' superstitions and were given a demonstration of the reaction of quartz smashing together, in complete darkness, whilst drinking our hot chocolate. To escape the mine, we had to clamber up an air shaft!

Friday

This morning is a busy morning of packing ready for our departure after lunch. We need to strip our beds and tidy our dorms... I wonder how long this might take us? After breakfast we will have our final activity: Zip Wire!