Hugh H, Dexter S, Charlie W, Olivia E, Amara J, Lucy M, Ivy T, Zara S, Beanda B, Victoria G, Shanae S, Elsie W

Wednesday

This morning, Group 5 went and tackled the Crate Stack, trying to build and stand on the biggest stack of crates possible until it wobbled too much and they fell off. After showing a lot of creativity and a range of strategies, including swinging off the tower and coming back to it in one case, it was a victory for Hugh and Dexter who completed all 12 of their crates before being pushed off!

Our final activity was the Dual Zip Line. Everyone was buzzing to get on and fly down the line, and we did it with so much enthusiasm (though there was far less for the walk back up the hill to the start point for our next turn!). Once we had done a couple of individual turns, we got on in pairs, holding hands, spinning around, waving at the tiny people below and even travelling backwards at one point! In the end, everybody had at least 4 turns and there was so much excitement throughout. A fantastic experience for us all!

Once we'd had one fin group photo, we made our way back to camp for our lunch and to get ready to leave.

Group 5 have been totally amazing for the entire trip, doing themselves so proud and making many wonderful memories. Well done to all - from the screams to the smiles and for everything in between, it has been a fabulous trip away!!

Tuesday

The first activity of our second day was the indoor climbing wall.

Group 5's first activity was the Indoor Climb today, and there was a lot to admire about their commitment to scaling the heights, their ability to fly and also the screaming that went with it! We all made it to the top of the first wall, traversed the hardest climb like skilled professionals (with Lucy scrambling rapidly like a little monkey, Ivy and Beanda showing their creativity (and doing great Spiderman impressions, Elsie being incredibly resilient and Hugh and Victoria making light work of the hardest climb. Then we all trusted in the rope with an auto-belay down the final wall.

Next, we tackled the Fan Descender, an activity which we also volunteered Mr Treadwell to do as well. We had to climb a large metal pole before walking onto the platform and taking the ultimate leap of faith! Everyone was absolutely amazing, with some conquering fears brilliantly (Dexter), some showing absolutely no fears at all (Olivia) and others displaying incredible levels of resilience (Amara) so that the entire group reached the top and had a turns. Special shout-out to Shanae for throwing the tennis ball off the platform into a bucket on the ground!There was one interesting plunge involving accidentally sitting down and then improvising a shimmy off (great job, Zara!) and one... enthusiastic kick & scream from Charlie, but overall it was so much fun and we all totally loved it!

After lunch, we went swimming and joined up with Group 6. They all relished the chance to get together with some of their other friends and spend some time playing games, using pool noodles and floats, underwater racing and gymnastics, as well as throwing multiple things - including water balloons and rugby balls - at Mr Treadwell who was sat on the bench. Everyone was so active and involved and it was lovely to have some free time in a slightly different way. Fun if a little chilly!

Our final group activity was another one we combined with Group 6 for: laser tag! Though things didn't quite go our way - because we are far more "make peace not war" in our team and besides, who's keeping score anyway?! - we all had a fab time running, hiding and sneaking up on people, and shooting so, so many lasers at them! Both of the teams then had our ammo taken from us and instead had to use our powers of stealth to go and hide from Mr Treadwell and Mrs Eaton, who were armed with instant-kill guns. We didn't quite manage to hide for the 15 minutes (Elsie came so, so close though and was so unlucky to be caught at the very end), so unfortunately the adults won the last game... BOOOO!!

Perhaps most excitably, we headed to the shop before dinner and gained ourselves more sweets than perhaps were necessary! 

Brilliant day, amazing activities and so many stories to share!

Monday

Today’s first activity was archery. 

Group 5 have had a superb first day here! We started off with archery, and everyone definitely improved as we went on, hitting the target more regularly and some (Amara, Olivia and Victoria in particular) almost smashing the bullseye! There was also an incredibly sassy celebration from Charlie during this activity! 

After that, we went into the Tree Trek, navigating a tricky obstacle course high in the trees. From tightrope walks to step bridges and climbing ladders to an amazing zip line, everyone threw themselves into it and did a fantastic job overcoming fears, nervousness and a difficult wind! Ivy and Beanda flew around the course and set a great example to the others!

This afternoon, we did the High All Aboard, climbing up a tower 1 by 1 in our groups of 4, with the aim of making it to the top and completing challenges up there. We all gave it a really good go, but Dexter and Hugh were unbelievably quick in their climbs to the platform. Zara and Lucy were incredibly competitive in seeing who the last one standing would be (well done, Zara!) and Elsie, Olivia, Shanae and Victoria were the only group to manage a 4-out-of-4 climb-and-rumble on the tower!

Our final activity as a group today was the Abseil, which was far higher from the top than it looked from the floor! "Put your heels over the edge and lean back" seems a lot scarier up there! The entire group absolutely smashed it and completed their turns, getting down very effectively and quickly, stopping for poses on the way down and some of us even breaking out a much better spin attempt than Mr Treadwell could ever have dreamed of!

A great start and lots of excitement for tomorrow's activities already.