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16 CO-CURRICULAR
Adventurous Training 2018
Holly Cohen, U4W
During the 2018 Easter break,
Bancroft’s CCF set off to the Lake
District. After a tiring six hour coach
journey, we arrived and excitedly
unpacked our bags at the Thurston
Outdoor Centre in Coniston. This
would be our base for the next week.
Our first full day commenced with a delicious
breakfast, followed by our choice of activity
which included rock climbing and abseiling,
potholing, gorge walking, canoeing, caving
and mountain biking. I chose gorge walking,
which I thoroughly enjoyed. However,
jumping into a pool of freezing cold water
at the end and managing to lose both my
wellies was an experience I will never forget.
Thankfully our instructor Pete dived down
and retrieved the lost wellies from the
bottom of the pool!
The next two days were filled with further
new and exciting activities of our choice. I
personally was lucky to experience caving
and my favourite highlight was crawling
through “the cheese press”, a narrow crack
in the rock. I will also never forget the thrill
of abseiling down a 50m rock face or almost
falling off the giant paddleboard! After very
full days, our evenings were more relaxed.
After dinner back at the centre we had
time to chill, play table tennis or pool in the
barn or watch the sunset down by the lake.
On our fifth, sixth and seventh days, we
left the centre to embark on a two night
camping trip with our rations and supplies.
The days were spent walking mountainous
routes using our navigation skills, exploring
the breath taking scenery and taking in
memorable views. The whole trip was
an opportunity to experience different
and challenging activities, gain useful
skills, make new friends and take home
memories to treasure.
DofE Gold Expedition
As part of every Duke of Edinburgh award expedition,
the groups have to set themselves an aim. Rather than
just walking, they have to spend part of their time
working on fulfilling this aim. This year Group 7, one
of our girls` groups, set themselves the task of writing
as poem to catalogue their experiences in Snowdonia
on their Gold qualifying expedition. This is what
Maisie, Laeticia, Charlotte M, Lily, Elise, Charlotte R
and Lizzie came up with.
We spent half term climbing mountains inWales,
At first were worried about forecasted gales.
StormBrian was set to last,
As we had two days to practice using map and compass.
The practice days were a bit of a drag,
And we weren’t looking forward to walking with our real bag.
But it was useful to experience boggy terrain
Which was nothing like we’d see before, or ever again.
Day one we were off! Couldn’t say we were excited,
It was our last expedition though, and in that we delighted
But soon the rain came and hard it fell
Getting under our waterproofs - we were cold as hell.
So grumpy and wet only ten minutes in
The rest of the journey was looking grim
We continued onwards through fog
But our route soon changed from track to bog
The first Charlotte fell, which was a usual thing
Quickly Lily came to help as Lizzie stood by laughing
We wished we were on real paths, ha! In our dreams!
When in reality we were walking up streams
There were swamps under our feet and in our shoes
But we sung
Shrek
to lighten the mood
Here Lily went over the mud with ease
But Choggers fell in, up to her knees
To the rest of us all this was all very funny
As Charlotte tried to get herself up in a hurry
Elise tried to help pull her out of the mud
But didn’t want to fall in herself with a thud
We were all laughing too much to be of much aid
But we carried on to where our next tagpoint laid.
The weight of our bags was the least of our worries
As we waded through streams and scaled down quarries.
Slate cracked under our feet like broken glass
Soon we’d be back on the grass… nope, a marsh.
The wind whipped round, slashing our faces
As we struggled to see or tie our shoelaces.
We had to keep going, as our feet were sinking
And it was hard for us to keep up positive thinking
But team spirit was strong and morale remained high
And soon the wind blew the clouds from the sky
Finally, we saw our path ahead, nice and clear
This meant day one was almost over, camp was so near!
We arrived and sat round the trangia with wet feet
Wondering what it was we had prepared to eat.
We were missing warmth and comparatively fine dining
As it’s no fun when there’s holes in your waterproof lining.
Soon we were in our tents - bedtime at 7!
But the storm raging outside meant we were up again by 11.
“I didn’t like the shadows on the tent”
Comfort came and quickly went!
We thought the wind would blow away our tents
Or that the rain would come through and we’d wake up drenched
But in reality, next morning we were just a bit damp
Feeling sorry for those who’d completed wild camp.
7:45 they’d come, they said
But Brand, Goalby and Jones couldn’t get out of bed.
InsteadMr Poore was our knight in shining armour
As he shortened our route, saving us some walking drama.
The weather was dry on our day two
Shame the same couldn’t be said for the ground: soaked through
It was so boggy!
And our feet were so soggy!
On our way to camp, we passed some sheep
And at first it wasn’t that deep.
But very soon the sheep in fact
Made us all feel extremely trapped.
But not to fear
Maisy was here!
With her head held high
She walked on by
And she kept the sheep at bay
As we climbed the stile and continued on our way.
As we approached camp, out came the sun,
Just a fewminutes more and day two would be done.
Or that’s the thought we had in mind
But in reality, our camp proved hard to find.