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thought i would write a quick post about the last few days and post some pics

met the group of kids on weds morning we were expecting 12 15yr old lads, but were met by 8 young people 3 male and the other 5 female! the youngest 2 were 12 and the oldest 15. so not quite the group we had expected! oh well, the paperwork was all in order!

the first thing we did was archery (no pics available as i have to be careful using hte kids' images and have no pics without them in!) all the young people joined in and enjoyed it immensly.

then we went to a local woods that has an orienteering set up.first we sat and had a picnic lunch, then  the young people went off in pairs each with a map and a pencil..this gave us instructors time to discuss the group dynamics, individuals and problems we could forsee over the next few days. oh how good at our jobs we are, we had most of them sussed already!!! 

after orienteering, we traveled to the other side of the island to a piece of forest that we have use of. we drove over a few fields and parked the minibus pretty much on the edge of the forest, in the middle of nowhere!!!

this is when the first of the moaning started when the  young people realised that we now had to carry all the equipment into the middle of the forest! no easy access! and some parts near on impassable!! lots of goarse to walk through etc. when we got to the clearing , the first gasps of 'wow' could be heard as they realised the view across the top of the forest (we were now on top of a hill) and down and out towards the sea. the height of the trees above them were also astounding.

once we had struggled in with all the equipment and had gone back for their gear it was time to allow the kids to make their own 'shelters' with tarpauline and rope.

this one was remade later at a lower height once they realised how cold it was going to be!!! by now light was fading so after wood collecting, felling a few trees and letting the kids attack them with saws and hatchets! great fun had and much allowing of the inner man to come through!!! lol

the campfire was soon ablaze with the kids learning a bit of how to make a fire.

just to the rear of this shot is the shelter made by the chap next to the fire (my boss, whom i reckon is closely related to bear grylls AND ray mears, but he denys it!)

i stayed awake with the other staff sleeping and my boss snoozing, at 3am myself and one of the lads (who was determined he was not going to sleep all night!) went and felled another 2 trees as the wood pile was diminishing rapidly!!!  this gave me chance to have a good conversation with this lad who has quite a few issues.

at 4.30-5.00am all of the kids were asleep, so i got into a sleeping bag (ex military with a waterproof base and hood) and lay on the pine needle shag pile carpet . it was pretty soft and comfy, and as i had 4 layers on my top and 3 layers on my legs, some sealskin socks (very high in my reccomendations) and of course keeping my boots on incase of a speedy exit out of the sleeping bag in the night (incase of 'occurances' with the young people!)

this is me within minutes of waking at 8am the next morning

be afraid !!!!! (hmm looking forward to hopleys lol!!)

next morning after bacon wraps (if you are cooking over a fire for lots of people, bacon wraps works incredibly well, they are easy to assemble, and no plates knives etc needed, kids can walk away eating them- give them a go!!) it was time to take everything down , pack away and take everything back to the minibus!!

so began the ardeous task of getting the young people involved in the process lol!!!! (now they knew what to expect of the walk!!!)

it got done and packed back in the mini bus, then the young people and the other 3 members of staff were off on a hike to the local scout camp where we were to spend the night! it was only a short hike, around 7 miles, but having had not much sleep, there were lots of groans and moans about it!! even more when i told one of the girls to jump in my car as we would not be walking (she had a dance exam and had to meet her mum). so i went off and sorted the gear at the campsite in anticipation of the groups arrival.

i will just leave a few pics here of the camp set up-

the tent at the back of the folllowing pic is mine -lmore of an olive green.

and the inside, not so roomy as im used to-

it was very cosy!!  and you can just see my new alpkit wedge SIM peeking out from under the (excuse the camoflauge) sleeping bag!!! the wedge was fantastic and comes highly reccomended!!! very comfortable and stopped me feeling anything from underneath, it was also very warm. i used a sleeping bag liner too, which i think made a huge difference..no blankets needed. it was nice to remove my walking boots and change my socks after having the boots on for the previous 36 hours !!!

as the kids were all asleep by 10pm (!! ) us staff went to bed at about 11pm and i crashed straight away, not to awake till 9am this morning!!!

would like to add this pic of the shelter that we used, it is actually the canvas flysheet from an old wartime scout patrol tent!!! and may be taking it to hopleys in a couple of weekends time!

well...if you are still reading and havent dropped off due to boredom!!!  the day ended after breaking camp and the group went off kayaking .

all in all a fantastic few days had. i arrived back home, showered and sat down with the biggest coffee ever!!!

am now looking for my bed (come on kids, get to bed!!) ,oh and my eldest passed her driving test this morning!!! yay!!

Enjoyed the blog.  Do not know the circumstances why a trip like this is taken but very admirable.  People who put themselves out to help kids are to be congratulated.

Carol

lol...my boss is a cub leader personage!!! i prefer to work with the more errr...challenging kids..the ones that scouts /cadets / school is just too structured and would just never work! it is very hard work at times, but they are fantastic kids when you let them be!! (or when they let themselves be!!)

i like to think that even when most adults have given up on them, we are still there , listening to them and actually listening to them to hear what they have to say.

there is good in most....in the 15 years that i have worked with young people, i have only not seen it in one young man.... who ended up serving several stretches in several prisons, and will continue to do so in my opinion!

Yayyyyy you did pics and everything!

Bring the tarp to hopleys and camp under it, we can all take pics of you with ice hanging off you