Motoring (safely) down the M4

We're coming home!

M4 service stop negotiated and enjoyed by all; I think the KFC staff gulped in trepidation as their queue quadrupled in size upon our arrival! 

Students are in good spirits looking forward to seeing parents, carers, brothers, sisters, cats, dogs and chickens. 

We are making good time and will see you all soon.

The Glasbury Gang of 2014

P.S. Please keep checking the blog as we will upload more pictures next week, when we're back at school.

Photo's

Having fun in the forest on Waterfall walking day:

 

 

 

The hot chocolate when you get back to the bus SOPPING wet is the best:

 

 

Views over the beautiful Welsh mountains:

Day 4: The students say...

Adventure day.

Today we ended up being soaked to the skin! Most of us must agree that it was our favourite activity. So what made it so special? Well, we started off in the in the Brecon Beacons, working our way down a hill (there are lots of those here). The very first challenge was to walk through…THE TUNNEL OF DOOM! (Actually an abandoned rail way tunnel but we prefer our name). It was pitch black and you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face…spooky much?

To follow up THE TUNNEL OF DOOM! We then went ventured a short distance to THE ZIP LINE OF TERRORRRRRRRRRRRRR! After several painful jokes from Stu, the instructor, we were sent across a short yet exciting trip across the river, helping each other get off the zip line at the end. This took more effort than you may think!

Once everyone had two goes of the zip line we made our way to the final activities of the day. This was the most fun we had all week and consisted of sliding down rivers (mostly on our bums!) trying to shuffle across waterfalls and bobbing around in pools.

At the end of the day, much soggier but still smiling, we made our way back to the bus all looking forward to a hot shower.

Cleo Doncaster, Ava Lawrence and Chloe Kyriacou

Day four and we're still smiling...

Good Evening from Glasbury,

Today was our last full day and some of us are definitely feeling the effects of four very full on days of activities. We are still very much enjoying ourselves though and returning to the centre (often soaking wet)  full of success stories.
Tonight saw our final dinner and the duty group did a sterling job of table preparation and serving, this was followed by the seemingly gargantuan task of packing and preparation for our final day and the journey home.
Once packed and clothing choices prepared, the final game of football was started and, in fact, still plays on now! We need an offical referee to give the "bad light" call I think...
Tomorrow will be very hectic, however with military style operation we will all be able to have our final activity day and be back in time for a shower prior to our very long journey home. We will, as per the journey down, stop en route for re-fuelling and I will update our progress at that point. We will ask all students to make contact with parents/carer's when we are half an hour away so that you can all be there to greet us upon arrival!

See you in 24 hours (or thereabouts)!!

Day 3: The students say...

Team Jordan

 

Our trip so far (by Evie Lawrenson, Ellie Fitchen and Molly Curtis)

After 4 hours in the coach on the way to Wales, we finally arrived at Glasbury. We were shown to our rooms in the main house and bunker house. Our rooms are really spacious and we are really happy with our roomies. Our group has voted Molly and Cameron as the best Cavers and Ellie as the most improved Caver as she was terrified at the beginning and led the group by the end.

Today (by Angus Baker and Isaac Moore)

Although only getting 7.5 hours sleep, we were up and ready for another day of adventure (water falling). It was tough to get up, but we persevered and achieved an accomplishment of beating the Niagara falls (Glasbury falls). We both had very sore legs because of football injuries and orienteering injuries but instead of complaining we conquered the pain. We got ready and after we were on the road. The drive was about an hour, but it felt like a week. We had arrived after stopping off at the caving site and filling up our petrol, as Stu forgot. We departed from our minibus, walked down to the Glasbury falls, sat down and eat lunch. After lunch, we geared up ready to face the waterfalls. Our first challenge, to walk across the falls, go under the waterfall, crawl to the boulder and be taken out of the falls to safety. There were many little pool crates that we could go and bathe in, however as the they were freezing we couldn’t stay in for long. That’s not all though, at the end of the good day we were treated to go down a nice waterslide and it was very fun. As we thought everything was sky high, Stu, the forgetter, decided to reject our request of ice creams. He claimed to have no money but we all knew he did. So, therefore he should be getting them for us tomorrow otherwise he will be facing a few unhappy students...

Day 3: The students say...

Day Three: Mountain Hiking

Today, I went to Crippin Mountain to do a day of fun filled mountain hiking and climbing. We took the bumpy journey in the van and landed in a field just below the mountains. Looking at them, it was slightly daunting considering I knew I would be climbing to the summit. We were given two maps and a compass, and Group F and I found our way around the rocky lanes using our (terrible) navigation skills. Our Instructor, Steve, and Mr Tillet gave us a talk on how the rocks were formed, and why there were so many sheep! After we had walked for about a half hour, we started occupying ourselves by telling each other riddles, and we were also talking about how tired we were. Little did we know, we had an even tougher journey ahead of us. We took a long time to get to the rockiest bit, and then the real teamwork arose. We lined up, and took turns in going at the front to blow the wind off each other. After a long time, we got to the summit. We were all very proud. It took an incredibly long time to get down, and all our feet hurt! We were just walking the last part when we came across two farmers with unnamed puppies, and they named one after me!

By Nina Honey

Today started with getting up at 7.30am which was very hard for me! The first challenge of the day was breakfast I had to make sure I got to the cereal before everybody else. After that came job checks and tidying my room! We then found out what we were going to do today, we were told we were going to be walking up a mountain. I felt very exhausted by this but happy and excited at the same time. We set off in the mini bus, after half an hour we arrived at the bottom of the mountain. OMG how am I going to make it to the top without falling over? As it got steeper and steeper I got more and more tired as we got closer to the top. About 60m from the top we had to scramble using our hand and feet to get to the summit. The summit was 768m above sea level. When I got to the top I felt like I was the king of the world. We then began to head back down. We finally made it back to the minibus and I felt hot and tired. I found today hard, fun and exhausting.

By Joseph Roche-Ward

 

 

 

 

Day three and we're in high spirits

What an amazing week so far! After the first day of activity which included adventuring through an abandoned railway tunnel in the pitch black, zip wiring across a stream and scrambling down the river and over small waterfalls, and the second day which entailed a walk behind a waterfall it was time for team F for FABULOUS to take on challenges of day three. Todays challenge consisted of hiking up a mountain in the Brecon Beacons. The challeng was to reach the summit of Crippin (768m). Off we went to begin our ascent. The challenge began with a steady climb to the fist rest point way in the distance (will we make it?), we managed to reach the rest point for a well-earned rest. We soon realised that making the top would be no easy feat! We pushed on rest point came and went and somehow we mustered the energy to reach the base of the last steep accent to the summit. We had lunch to regain some energy before tackling the last 60m scramble to the top. After what seemed like forever we managed to reach the summit. A look of elation and exhaustion was fixed on each member of the group as we took a moment to take in the stunning views and soon realised what all the hard work had been most definitely worth it. We then began to make our way down and let gravity do the work as we enjoyed a pleasant decent back to the van. Every member of my group has stepped up to every challenge that has been put to them and with determination and team work managed to overcome them. Everybody is in high spirits and looking forward to the rest of the week’s activities. Bring on the next challenge!

 

 

Mr Tillett