Caving, canoeing, leap of faith and Bingo!!

The week is flying by.  Everyone is happy and enjoying the trip.  Nerves are kicking in amongst staff and students alike as we set off caving.  This is always a tough activity even for staff who have been coming to Edale for the last 7 years.  Our instructor Robin is a geologist who always makes this an interesting activity, he knows all the tight spots that students can squeeze through on our underground journey.  At one point we all sit down and Robin tells us all to turn off our head torches, he then turns off his light and we are in complete darkness.  This is real darkness and is a massive challenge for students and staff.  The groups handled this challenge extremely well and we continued into the cave finally reaching the cathedral cavern with its limestone walls and waterfall.  There are no pictures of this activity as we could not take the ipad into the cave.

After lunch we were off rafted canoeing at Bugworth Basin.  This is always a very wet and fun activity.  Sadly this year we were not allowed to push each other into the canal so had to settle for splashing each other. 

 

 



Leap of faith is a pole with a tiny platform on top, students are expected to climb to the top stand on the platform and jump off!!  They were all amazing and this is the best leap of faith session I think we have ever had at Edale.  Joseph was hilarious and had everyone in stitches with his antics.  We were all impressed by Louie who has overcome his fear of heights, Perry again was excellent, Keirce is our new spiderman, Ellen who threw herself off backwards and was trying to come up with new ways to launch herself off the platform, Z who backflipped off (a first for the instructors!), Lucy who wobbled more than anyone we've ever seen and Anthony who was extremely brave.

 

 

When we got back to the cottage we settled down for an evening of Bingo, this is now a tradition on West Heath residential trips and is a favourite amongst students and staff alike.