Today after a filling breakfast we set of for Straiton Hill. We explored the woods before tackling the final steep stretch up to the monument. We had some superb views of the Ayrshire countryside – in between the showers of rain! On the descent we went off the path and explored – just like John Muir. We followed a stream down through the woods before heading off to the Galloway Forest Park in seach of gold. We tried our luck at panning for gold – unfortunately we didn’t find any! However, we did find some fool’s gold. 

Do you know the correct name for fool’s gold? Post your answer in the comments.

We had great fun this evening exploring the rock pools. We found several different types of crab and starfish and tried to learn some of their latin names. There were also some small fish and shrimps. The diversity of creatures we found suggests that the sea around Culzean is clean.

This afternoon we took part in two activities. We contributed to our John Muir Award by helping to look after the beach environment at Culzean. We found lots of examples of plastic that had been washed up on the beach and also found out how whales can affect the climate! We also explored the caves under the stables and had great fun getting really muddy and experiencing what true darkness is like!

This morning we put on wet suits  and headed over to Maidens to go rafting in the harbour. The two rafts carried all of us and we played a lot of games that mainly involved us getting wet! We also had fun jumping in. Mr Hardy and Miss Gunning  took the plunge too!

Luckily the sky cleared in the evening and we had a fire on the beach. There was a really colourful sunset and we toasted marshmallows before watching a film, having hot chocolate and going to bed. We are looking forward to rafting and caving tomorrow.

After we arrived this morning, it started to rain…and rain…and rain… We did not let this stop us and after a hearty lunch we started on some team challenges, mastered the climbing wall and then headed off for a forest trek. We stopped to have a relay sliding down the grass bank before exploring the woodland environment and finding out about the trees and rocks along the shore. We are hoping for a break in the rain so that we can have a fire on the beach tonight. Keep your fingers crossed.