This month’s Everyday Adventurer is Elaine Hibbs who is an Expedition Assessor for our partner charity The Outward Bound Trust. Elaine will be blogging about the adventures she’s having with Team Mallory who are currently enjoying a 21 day Outward Bound course.
In an attempt to avoid the rainclouds Mallory team headed south earlier this week to Cathedral Quarry in the Langdales, where they learnt to abseil and manage the safety ropes for each other with the support of the instructors. As it turned out the weather was the best day yet, with beautiful sun and blue skies. We enjoyed exploring the underground tunnels around the quarry and looking at the spectacular rock formations.
The students are beginning to take over more and more responsibility as the course progresses and each day they have a leader who organises the group. It’s fantastic to see them growing together as a group and trusting each other as much as they do. They’re becoming a very reliable group of young people.
Yesterday was a more relaxed day for them to store up some energy for their next expedition which begins at the weekend. We went out onto Ullswater lake in canoes and after some basic skills coaching enjoyed a journey around some of the bays playing some very silly games. More than one crew got an early bath during ‘Froggie Football’!
The day finished with a session on the high ropes course.. Lots of commitment and dubious balance led to several of the team being left hanging around! Later in the course I hope to take them up Jack’s Rake on Pavey Ark, so being familiar with using cow’s tails is a very important skill, and they picked it up very quickly.
All together, the first week has been a busy one, with lots of variety to make sure that the young people are as prepared as they can be for the next 2 weeks. Next up: another fantastic expedition- a 2 night wild camp in the Langdales!
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