HW Year 8 -Wales

A few photographs from yesterday

Well, all the children are safely home now and that's the end of the Year 8 Expedition.  I will shortly be off to bathe and try to remove a week's worth of Welsh bits and bobs.  I trust your children will do the same and I'm sure they will have plenty of tales for you.  They were great, the week was great and I will just say "au revoir" now.  Thank you for reading the blog - a full set of photographs will be given to the children next week.

"Get off my land!" cried the old man with the white beard.  Dressed for climbing and abseiling with head torch he approached our group as we made our way to the blue lagoon.  Forward stepped Mr. Lloyd and all was resolved swiftly.  The gentleman in question had recently bought the old slate mine in which the blue lagoon is situated and is setting up an activities centre.  Despite his frosty reception he was most welcoming and we proceeded on.  Through a tunnel, past some slag heaps and there it was, the magical blue lagoon.  Unfortunately Tintin was nowhere in sight, but we did have Charlie R.  He was one of the first to swim, gained straights 6's for his dives and was the last to stop.

After the swim and lunch we left the mine and went to Aberdovey for a stroll round the quaint seaside shops and played games on the beach.  The weather was not great, but it didn't dampen (ha, ha) the spirits of our brave Year 8's.  The mixed game of football did degenerate into a form of rugby in the end, but it was all most enjoyable and entertaining.

Now if I can just be Victor Melldrew for a second and talk about PARKING.  Why do we get charged £30 to park three minibuses when we go to the whitewater rafting centre?  We won't again, because we told them what we thought of it, but it's unbelievable!  We have had to pay for parking at every destination and I begin to wonder if this is where the £150bn deficit is going to be paid off from. 

Now back at the hostel, we are into the packing up mode, which is no fun.  We will end with a great evening later with campfire (if the rain stops), marshmallows, prizes and no doubt a little groovy music.  The children have all been brilliant and I think they (you'll have to ask them) have had a fab time.  Just like any good Tintin book, this expedition has a happy ending.

PS - cold Welsh oggies aren't great for lunch.

Welsh is not easy to pick up.  We tried radio BBC Cymru today and didn't understand much apart from the occasional mention of Roy Hodson and Fabio Capello.  We have picked up the odd useful phrase from looking at road signs - knowing how to say "warning low bridge ahead" in Welsh will be a useful addition to our vocabulary back in Lymington.  So the radio was turned off and we changed to our new CD, Greatest movie songs instead.  I'm sorry to report that this resulted in an outbreak of crying as we blasted out "All by myself" by Jamie O'Neal.

So it was back to Bala today for more fun on the water.  In amongst the day's activities there were some spectacular capsizes (well done Jasper and Felix), Anya was a great windsurfer, Sandra was clearly having a brilliant time - her sonrisa was beaming and Eliza was saying thank you to everyone who came near her.  It was a calmer day, so I think the children learnt much more, especially those windsurfing.  Strangely the instructors here all have normal names like Steve or Mike, unlike the rafting centre where they were called names like Tiger or Fox.

A bit of quiet chill out time for the children now, which means games of cheat, chatting, football and showers.  Guy has again been a star helping us out with one or two supplies for tomorrow's sandwiches.  Most popular choice is Tuna Mayo, least popular is sandwich spread despite Mrs Keys' sampling efforts.

And finally, for supper tonight lovely oggies which are the size of melons.  Does he think we need feeding up!

I suppose you are all wondering what we had for supper last night.  Well, sadly the potage aux legumes had finally been exhausted, so instead we were treated to a fine potage aux cepes a la creme.  It was indeed magnificent with a light yet deep mushroom flavour.  This was followed by fish, chips and peas-  that classic of British dishes.  But the pudding capped it all - sticky toffee pudding!  Clean plates and bowls all round and the children were satisfied fully.

Sadly the weather had broken, so rather than the usual trip to the beach in the evening we stayed at base.  Everyone was tired so we thought an early night was in order.  Well that's what we thought, but we hadn't banked on a second wind passing through the children.  So a disco in the dining room it was and after hot choccie and bickies they went to bed happy.

Heavy rain in the night woke us up - I thought it was Mr Lloyd snoring, but in fact it was torrential rain threatening to break down the hostel's roof.  By breakfast time it had ceased and in the end we were yet again treated to a glorious day.  Today was bike ride day to Barmouth (beautiful seaside town) and back.  Now, we had assumed that everyone could ride a bike!  How wrong we were!  Joseph G just about managed after a test ride in the car park, but poor old Iggy was never going to make it.  Never fear, the answer came in a flash, or at least a roll of the wheels - a tandem!  So brave Iggy was the rear gunner on a tandem for the day and perfomed superbly.

The children had an hour or two to kill in Barmouth.  So what did they do?  Go to the discount store and the factory shop and buy you all some lovely gifts.  I particularly liked the purchase of a packet of custard creams, pellet guns, water guns, paintings, money box (in the shape of a beer can) and lots and lots of sweets.  Special awards and mentions today go to Tash and Posy for bravery (a dip in the river), Alexei for being Alexei, Valentina for being bargain hunter of the day at the shops and Enty for best use of the brakes on the bikes (and causing the odd crash).  Tonight will be beach and tomorrow we are back to the water centre at Bala where the children can complete their water activities - windsurfing, kayaking, Canadian canoes and sailing.

The rain has replenished the hostel's water supply so no excuses for not showering anymore.  We also had a bedroom tidy this morning, which challenged one or two of our chaps.  Must go now, the potage is nearly ready and I don't want to upset Guy who is looking after us well.  He's awesome and I suspect he's reading this blog.

A photograph below of the relaxing trip down the river yesterday. By the way we're sitting in a cafe overlooking the lake at Bala where the children are windsurfing, sailing and kayaking.  Hope their wetsuits keep them warm - we've come indoors because there's a cold wind - is this the end of our good weather?  We're also being buzzed by tornadoes and other RAF jets - I think they're looking for Fabio Capello.

Breakfast today was excellent, cereal, yoghurt, juice, fry-up, toast, croissants, coffee, tea, cuddly toy, wine rack, toaster..... Some of the more unusual choices of sandwich by the children for their lunch - dairylea and marmite (Immy S) and melted banana (Keir).  Biggest mozzie bite award so far goes to Jasper, favourite group choice of music - Scouting for Girls, silliest instructor's name - Badger,

Anyway, today was white water rafting day and what a fab day it was.  Special mentions for Immy G and Arabella W for getting over some last minute nerves to have a go and boy did they (and all the others) love it.  We had 5 rafts and each raft had 4 runs.  Everyone was wet but "over the moon" by the end.  Lunch at the whitewater centre was followed by a trip to the beach for the afternoon.  Sandcastles, paddling, tennis, cricket, cartwheels, chatting, throwing seaweed, finding jelly fish were just a few of the exciting activities.  Special praise to Izzy M for being the paddling queen and Hugo W and Charlie P for winning the sandcastle competition.  We nearly got hit by golf balls on the way to the beach - thank goodness the golfers were not very good.  Back at base a few braved the river for a wash before a delicious supper of vegetable soup (again), lasagne, garlic bread (again, but now 2 pieces), salad (first time), jam sponge with ice cream.  The children don't seem tired at all and are very noisy.  We are contemplating senidng them on a 20 mile march to get them ready for sleep.  We missed the football, did England win?

Today we conquered the mountain.  Very little moaning, lots of drinking water (it was hot) and we walked across Cader Idris (893m) having started at 100m and ending up back at the hostel.  Chris H deserves a mention for "losing" his phone, making Mr SL walk back a long way to search for it with him and then it turned up in his bag!!!!!!  Chris now on washing up duty. Jasper was a true gent carrying lots of bags for the girls.  Hannah carried a rock for five miles because it had a heart shape on it (it wasn't a small rock).  Oliver J conquered his fear of heights and climbed all the way up, even wanting to go back for more - well done.  Still haven't sorted the photograph problem, but have a cunning plan for tomorrow.  Mrs Keys on blister duty aided by Becs.  Now it's time for BBQ and then back to the beach for more rock crushing.  The children will be able to get a career in mining later on.