Our bus journey took us from Cambridge to the Outward Bound Centre in the heart of the Lake District. After being sorted into our dorms and dropping off our luggage, we were introduced to the instructor of Chandi group, Tom. Our first activity was ‘Jog and Dip’ where we jogged (didn’t see that one coming!) to the lake a few minutes away and then jumped in the freezing cold lake. The next day, after a good night’s sleep, our group started to pack our heavy bags for the long and tiring expedition up Helvellyn.
We started our expedition with a 5km voyage on a rowing boat that was truly a highlight of the trip and one of the most fun activities that I did in the Lake District. After arriving in Glenridding at the bottom of the colossal mountains, we started our journey up to Helvellyn: our destination and the third highest mountain in England. The climb itself wasn’t the problem, the bags were, as they weighed around 13kg and carrying them uphill for around 3 hours really takes a toll on you, so by the time we got to the campsite, I was exhausted. Before we went to bed, we played some games and had a surprisingly good meal of military rations.
The next day we started to scramble up Striding Edge (if you don’t know, scrambling is rock climbing but because of the less vertical terrain, you don’t need ropes). After getting to the top and seeing an amazing view, where we could even see Scotland, we scrambled down, packed our things and returned to the town where the climb had started. We even bumped into a second group, who had also just finished their expedition and were celebrating, then we took the ferry and next a power boat back to the Centre.
The next day started with cliff jumping; we took another speed boat to Kailpot Crag and then jumped off it – I didn’t go as high as some other people, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Then we went gorge climbing, which was the best activity of the entire trip. That evening, every group joined together for the campfire and the marshmallows tasted great. On the final day we had more activities down at the lake, working towards the John Muir Award, and we finally got to push our instructor in!
What a fantastic trip! I had a wonderful time and really stepped out of my comfort zone, doing activities I never thought I would have done.
Wells VdW, Year 7
.