On Wednesday the 21st of April, P5-7 went to a place called Rock UK in Newcastle ton for three days. Although there were many activities to choose from, we could only pick seven and that made our three days there have a jam packed schedule. The activities we chose were Raft building, Open canoeing, Abseiling, Stream adventure, Kayaking, Climbing and Zip line. The swimming pool, low ropes and scavenger hunt were activities that would be included in our visit anyway.
The bus that would take us to Rock UK arrived at Holywood at 11:00am which meant we had to wait a while for it to arrive. Before we went to Rock UK, we had to pick up the pupils from Duncow since this residential was a joint residential. The journey was roughly an hour. It felt long! Holywood and Duncow arrived around lunch time. Everyone went to their cabins then came out to get their lunch.
Once we had finished our lunch we had to get changed into something we could get wet because our first activity was Raft building. We walked to the Sports hall to meet our instructor. Her name was Lucy. Lucy led us to the loch where most of our activities would be held. When we got to the loch, we had to put on a helmet and split into two groups of seven. My team had Lucy as our instructor and the actual team had Nancy, Anneliese, Nia, Becky, McKenna, Grace and myself. To make our raft, we had to collect our materials. The things we needed were, six lightweight logs and four big barrels. The raft was built in a square that had two logs laid across the middle but close enough to the side that the barrels underneath wouldn’t push through. The four barrels would be placed two on each side under the logs in the middle. Before we went into the loch, we had to put on some buoyancy aids and get a paddle. Once we had done that, the group pushed the raft into the loch and then climbed on one by one. Lucy gave us many fun games to do whilst we were on the raft such as making a Jacuzzi with our feet on the inside of the raft. We also played a game where we had to swap sides with another person on the opposite side of the raft.
The next activity was open canoeing. We had to partner up with someone in our group to be in a canoe with. My partner was Grace. Once we were in the water we played a game called consequences where there was a consequences canoe. The instructors would give you a problem and if that problem occurred to you then you had to move to the consequences. Here is an example… if you have a birthday in either January, February or March, go into the consequences canoe. Since my birthday is on March the 21st I had to go into the consequences canoe. The next game was more of a challenge where you and your partner had to try and tip the front of your canoe as high as you can. Unfortunately Grace and I leaned too far to one side and we flipped our boat over and fell out. Despite the water being cold we still climbed back in and this time purposely tipped the canoe over again. We were also very warm so the cold water was soothing and cool rather than cold. It was funny!!!
After open canoeing, we walked back to our cabins and changed into something dry and warm for the scavenger hunt and low ropes. Once we had changed we went down to the kitchen and had our delicious dinner which was lasagne. Everyone got a bowl of ice cream and strawberry sauce if we wanted it. Next we walked up to the low ropes and split into teams for the scavenger hunt. Each group had to add an extra item to scavenge for. My group put in that you had to get an instructors autograph. Then once we had collected as many things as we could find we went into the low ropes for a wee bit. We then walked back to the kitchen and had our supper which was a cup of hot chocolate and a chocolate bar.
The next morning after breakfast, my group had abseiling first thing. My partner for the first time I went down the abseiling tower was my best friend Nancy. Here is a picture of us abseiling down.
Bye Mena
