On the 20th of March we went to Kergord Forest. I hadn’t gone before, because last year when we were going I was off ill, so I was really excited to go. The man that took us was Pete Richardson; he took us in his red minivan. When we were getting ready we needed hats and waterproofs and rucksacks because it was going to be freezing. I had one t-shirt, two jumpers, trousers, waterproof trousers, waterproof jacket, two pairs of socks and some boots. It was like I was going into a blizzard
When we got there we went through a path near the trees and saw little yellow flowers called celandine. We did a thing where we had to follow exactly what Pete did and we went over things and under things, sometimes we had to put our backpacks over the tree just so we could fit. Everyone always tried everything. It was really cool because at first it was just walking, then going around trees, then going under trees, and eventually between their branches and over them.
We went to this tree where we had to either go over or under the branch. I went under at first because I was the first one to go and I wasn’t sure how easy it looked. Only Nicol and Lewis went over the tree first. The second time we all went over it, it was really scary but I felt really proud after I went over.
Even after that we went on this broken tree and had to walk up it and then down it. It was really arched and it was scary going down it. After we had gone over it once, we were all ready to go under it, but then we had to go back the way we came, which had more going-down time. It was really scary going up and down.

After that Pete said we should lie down and breathe, to see what the forest was like when you were really concentrating and paying attention. We sat in quiet and breathed for five minutes, and after we got up half the class had been kicking and pushing the ground so there was a lot of the grassy and muddy ground kicked up into piles, it was funny how one half was perfect ground left yet on the other side it was covered in mud. It was peaceful when you were sitting, watching the trees and hearing the birds. I don’t think I could have done it for much longer though, because I was really excited to go walking again.
We went over rivers and stuff until we came to a bench where we spread out, and we made shelters in two teams of four. I did my shelter with Nicol, Erin and Emma we made our one camouflaged next to three or four piles of sticks. There was loads of mud and we all kept falling over, it was really fun. There were two sides we built our shelter on, and a river separating them so we had to go across a bridge to get either side.
We went to a small house for lunch part 1. We had two lunches, one before and one after we built our shelters. It was good knowing after we had carried big sticks and ran up and down the hill looking for sticks that we still had food and drinks to have.

On the way to the bridge there was a pathway and grass, when Pete told us to go on the path Erin thought he meant the grassy bit, so she slid down it and it was really funny because she came out covered in mud while the rest of us had gone down the path. From then on we went down that path and it was like a slide.
At me, Nicol, Emma and Erin’s shelter there was a pile of little sticks it was like a really big bonfire. We made our floor out of sticks and grass so I was looking for sticks. I got to the other side of it and then I suddenly fell in a hole. It was about half a metre deep, it didn’t hurt when I fell and I was laughing really hard. It took me five minutes to get out because there wasn’t much space and it was 2 metres to the hole out. I think I made a pathway through there, it’s really cool.
After that we went for lunch part 2, and when we were there we kept talking about the shelter. Pete had lit the fire in there and it smelled of smoke, he told us the story of Lucky the lamb. Lucky the lamb was a lamb who fell down a crack into a cave, and he was stuck and couldn’t get up. Pete saw it and went to touch it, he thought it was polystyrene but realised it was alive. He found it was a lamb and took it up to the top of the cliffs, where Lucky ran to his mum. It was a really nice story.
After lunch everyone was really excited to see the other groups one, and when we did it was amazing. The other group, Lewis, Nicola, Loui-Bo and Jason, made a really cool shelter, they even had a roof and there was a lot of space. I loved the place they built it in; our place was surrounded by fallen-down trees and sticks. Their place was open, by the water and was really nice and clean compared to ours. After we looked at theirs we came down to our one, they came inside and said nice things about our one. It was really nice getting our shelter complimented since we had spent ages making them.
After we had done that we went to the bench and played the best game in the world. The best game in the world is a game where someone stands in the middle of the benches and everyone else hides around them in the trees. The catcher can’t move, and they count to 20 while everyone else hides. Then they have to look for the hiders, and if you see them you shout their name. Then the catcher counts down from 15. Then they still look, and count down from 10. After they’ve done that, if they haven’t found everyone, they tell the remaining hiders to show themselves. The person who is closest is the winner, and is it for the next round. It’s a really fun game. There were rocks and trees and piles of grass to hide behind, I hid under a rock once and wasn’t seen even though I was only three metres away. Some of us even hid behind the big tree only a metre away, sometimes we weren’t seen even though we were so close, it was really fun.
After we played those games we started to head back after a really fun day. We had to go down in pairs to the fence and tell our partner our favourite part of the day. My favourite part was when we were building the shelter because we worked so well together. We walked back to the bus and went home. My first time in Kergord was a really fun day and I hope we go back some time to build shelters and walk again.

By Stephanie 25/3/14