Dartmoor
Day 5 – Friday 5 July
Today was an opportunity to do what you didn’t do on day 1. Here are some snaps of people on horses.
And here are some people Mountain-Boarding and Grass-Sledging.
As I write, we are on the M4, crawling back to school. Anyone who is still awake is pumped full of sugar and caffeine. I hope parents and carers are braced for the fall out.
Have a lovely weekend. Do not expect your child to wake up before midday tomorrow.
Until next time…
Day 4 – Thursday 4 July
Today was Surfing Day. We traversed Devon by coach and, despite not having passports, were allowed across the border into Cornwall. Widemouth Bay is a famous surfing location, but not when the sun is shining and there is a gentle north-westerly wind. The waves were rarely more than a couple of feet high, but we did our best to ‘catch’ them and I’m sure some of our moves were ‘gnarly’. When the waves became too tame we headed for the rock pools where we found crabs, shrimp and great white sharks*.
In the evening we had a scavenger hunt where the teams had to find objects whose first letters spelled ‘I LOVE OKEHAMPTON’. There was much creativity and teamwork on show – a great (nearly) end to the week.
And so to bed.
*one of these animals was not actually found in a rock pool!
Day 3 – Wednesday 3 July
Today was Meldon Day. We all cycled there and arrived in the appropriate number of pieces. Meldon viaduct was recently traversed by Bear Grylls and David Walliams, but far scarier and more death-defying was the Gorge-Scrambling which we undertook in our wetsuits and helmets. Sadly, we didn’t have a waterproof Go-pro with us, so no photos, but suffice to say it was cold, wet and heaps of fun.
While one half of the group scrambled, the other climbed rocks.
We cycled ‘home’ via the Granite Way and enjoyed an evening of Bushcraft. We ate some wild plants, lit our own fires using sparky-scrapey-stick things (like what Bear calls them), melted some marshmallows and played a fun trick on Liza!
And so to bed.
Day 2 – Tuesday 2 July
Today was Lake Day. We built rafts, we kayaked, we canoed. We slid, jumped and splashed. Everyone except Miss Beevor and Calum was soaked by the end of the day! The last photo is an upturned Canadian Canoe which makes an excellent water slide. The child in the photo voluntarily (yes, really) slid face-first into a murky, man-made pond!
After a dinner whose inoffensiveness (bangers and mash) caused a surprising amount of dissent from the general student palate, Mr Mann organised a quiz to stretch the minds which had been neglected all day while the bodies were exercising. Tough example question: name the ten chemical elements with fewer than six letters in their name!
And so to bed.
Day 1 – Monday 1 July
A trouble-free coach trip to Okehampton. Delicious packed lunches consumed – (no sweets at all!).
Half of our group went mountain-boarding (which should be rebranded as slope-gliding). The other half pony-trekked (Mr Mann’s smile disguises a man on the edge!).
After carbo-loading on pasta bolognese we ‘night-walked’ up on the eponymous Moor past multiple tors.
Everyone was in bed by 9:30, with lights out at 10. A great first day!
