Abernant Residential 2024 - Day 2

Greetings from Abernant on Day two.

The children were up and at them, bright and early this morning! Fuelled by a cooked breakfast and fresh fruit the group headed to the lake for a morning of water-based activities Canoeing and kayaking were the activities, awaiting us, with the prospect of chilly water motivating us to stay dry.

The group worked in groups to canoe firstly, paddling around the lake, dodging the wildlife and getting to grips with working as a team to go in the right direction and straight line. After a while, the children were motoring around the lake and playing games. A quick paddle back to where we started and the group exchanged their canoes for kayaks. Now working individually, the group got to master their new paddling skills, learning to spin their kayaks in circles and moving forwards and backwards quickly. After a game of tag, the group were challenged by the instructors to: kneel, lie down, stand up on their kayaks and finally turn their kayak around without using the paddle. The children were fantastic at taking on these challenges!

After lunch, the group enjoyed bivouac building. Working in teams, the children were challenged to firstly make a mouse house and then a dog-sized bivouac (for Meg the centre dog) out of natural materials. After initial concerns about getting dirty, the group flung themselves into the challenges using all the natural materials they could find, especially mud, to help secure their structures.

Next session was the obstacle course, queue the motivational music and competitive personalities. This was another muddy challenge, but the children were fully engaged and up for conquering the obstacles: climbing over, crawling through and swinging on ropes to be the fastest team. I think the tyre obstacle was the children's nemesis, however they were all able to succeed and squeeze their way through.

After dinner, the group enjoyed a great session of abseiling. The wall is a whopping 10  metres high! Each member of the group completing the descent at least once, with some even going back up for a second go.

It has been a packed second day and the children are enjoying their hard earned rest, ready for tomorrow's activities!