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Monday 13th August 2001
Arose at 8.15am to find it was raining yet again - at least this morning it was keeping
the midges away. After a breakfast of cereal and eggy bread, we were tidied up by 9.45am
and headed to reception to find out where the archery would be that we had booked
for 10am. It looked like we had been forgotton about as we had to wait a short while before
someone arrived to set things up for us. As one of our Leaders had the appropriate archery
qualification, we did not require one of the site's own instructors. We all had several
shots during the hour, some initially did well whilst the rest improved considerably.
Throughout the session it rained constantly, heavy at times. To get a break from the rain,
we booked an hour of table tennis to follow the archery. We took it in turns to sit
out while the rest played doubles - a lot of practise still required by everyone
as we struggled to get any decent rallies going.
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| Back to the site for some sandwiches, crisps and cake to prepare ourselves for the afternoon's water activity. | |
Coypus had been put in the programme for the afternoon, but we were unsure as to what they were other
than 'pulling' boats. We discovered they were actually rowing boats, with room for up
to 4 rowers and another 2 passengers, so the 5 boats we booked was rather excessive. Instead
we opted for 2 Coypus and a single canoe. The rain had actually stopeed by the time we arrived
at the jetty (2pm) but all was locked up, and there were others waiting as well.
By the time Gemma arrived (later to be joined by Sophie) and we sorted out exactly who
was going with who in each Coypus, it was 2.50pm before we hit the water. Strong gusts of wind
made progress up the creeks slow at times, but the return journey was far less strenuous. A
challenge was set to see who was the quickest to the buoy at the end of the creek - the Scout
in the canoe came first, followed by the Leaders in one Coypus and then the Scouts in the
other one.
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Whilst we were playing on the water, there was a college group on a team building
course trying to relay each other across the creek in an Indian style canoe, but unfortunately
had mastered how to get out of the boat without capsizing it. We had been told there was a
viewpoint further along the shore which 2 of the Scouts went to investigate but could
not get close to it due to thick trees and marshy ground. Our session on the water
finished at 5pm, after which it was time for dinner.One of the Scouts had volunteered to cook the dinner of spaghetti bolognaise. Unfortunately, the bolognaise sauce had been forgotton, so the Leaders added a tin of plum tomatoes to their mince whilst the Scouts were happy with plain mince. This was followed by creamed rice (with no jam, which had also been forgotten). The rain had stayed off all afternoon and a gentle breeze was picking up which made it a bit cooler, but this was a pleasant trade off as it kept the midges away. Some of the birds became interested in what we had been eating and they got friendly and paid us a visit. Things were tidied away by 8.45pm and it was free time for the rest of the evening so we did some exploring of the site and ended up sitting by the reception area and then off to bed at 11.30pm...and it was still not raining. |
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