Lake District Activity Centre
The sun was shining for our trip to Lake Windermere for a day on the water. With instructions we joined our vessels consisting of four aluminium fabricated canoes with wooden poles and heavy-duty Velcro straps to form two twin hulled canoes. It was great to see everyone getting stuck in and helping each other. We paddled across the calm water, working well as a team to the middle of the lake. The views were spectacular.
With our safety gear on we took on the mighty climbing wall. With wonderful enthusiasm and sheer determination, we all managed to reach the top with Richard completing it four times.
Overcoming our next fear, it was now time to abseil back down the wall from the very top. This required a huge amount of trust and communication from the ground. Carol screamed with delight as she slid down the rope and as Patrick ascended, he casually said “This is how you do it”!
It was down to the bike shed to pick our mode of transport for our active morning. There were balance bikes, two and three wheelers and we were soon circumnavigating the grounds on various tracks and through the tunnels made from willow branches. We all took it in turns to try all the different bikes and we were rather impressed with our cycling abilities.
With our equipment in our rucksacks, we hiked over ragged countryside, over stiles and stone bridges to our destination of an old slate quarry where we adorned our waterproof clothing and helmets to go into the mouth of the quarry into Cathedral Cave.
Continuing our walk up the mountain we came to another entrance along a tunnel deep into the rock where our helmets proved invaluable with the low ceiling height. Once in the darkness we had our head lights on, but these were soon turned off as we lit candles which is the only light the quarrymen would have had. We then blew out our lights and stood in complete darkness. What an amazing experience.
At the sports hall we participated in a team building game of crate stacking. Working together we had to pass crates to the person standing on the tower, stacking them higher and higher until we lost balance and fell to the ground in our safety harness. Patrick managed to get a total of 11 crated and Carol showed incredible determination overcoming her fear of heights. It was brilliant to see everyone being so encouraging of one another.
One evening was spent around the campfire, toasting marshmallows and singing songs.
At the end of our week we all received a certificate for our amazing efforts, completing all the challenges and activities. We were all very proud of each other.
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