Day 4

Today was a tiring day! A day of getting really wet and having so much fun! Group 2 and 3 had the challenge of Gorge Walking, Canoeing and the high ropes.

Mrs Norton's group began the day on Derwent Water in the canoes. It took us a while to carry all 4 of the canoes to the banks of the water! Eventually, we got to the the step of riding the canoes! We found it hard to be able to row the canoes in a straight direction and kept going round and round in circles! After a while, we sorted it out and successfully paddled to an island where we were allowed to get out off the canoes and explore. On our way back, we kept stopping to play games. The first game was jumping up and down in the canoes. It was so scary; we felt like we were going to fall in! We had a game of fetch the ball! our leader, Chris, threw the ball and we had to paddle the canoes as fast as we could to get the ball first! On returning to the marina, we then had to put the canoes away before walking back to Derwent Hill for lunch.

After lunch, we got ready to face the gorge!! We were driven to Honister Gorge and were soon knee deep in freezing cold water. We climbed our way up the Gorge ducking under trees and dodging waterfalls on the way. We were lead to a 'slide' and we slid down in groups of five with the water behind us pushing us down into a pool of water. It was great fun. We carried on climbing until we came to a deeper part of the gorge where we could stand on the rock and jump in. We had an amazing time but were very wet and our wellies were full of water. Our time quickly came to an end and we had an uncomfortable, wet drive back to Derwent Hill. However, we were soon happy again after nice hot showers.

Miss Rawling's group also started the day off on Derwent water in the canoes. We paddled out of the harbour and played as a group. One of the games was heads, shoulders, knees and toes with a twist. Another one of our games was tig. We took it on turns to catch the other boat.  Our challenge was to race to one of the islands so we could have a cup of hot chocolate. Once we were finished, we got straight back into the canoes and started padling for shore. We even bumped onto Mrs Norton's group whilst we were canoeing. To keep in time, we were shouting out two words..HOT.. CHOCOLATE. When we pulled up at the jetty, we played yet another game. We played Simon says in the canoes and if you got one wrong, you had to do a forfeit! It was a very fun morning and everyone's arms were aching once we were done. We made our way back to Derwent Hill for lunch.

After lunch, we got ready for the Gladiator challenge and the leap of faith. We walked down to the climbing store and got helmets and harnesses. While we waited for Laura, our instructor, to set up the ropes, we were set a challenge. We had to make our way across a large section of gravel using only 5 crates. We weren't allowed to touch the gravel and we all had to make it across together. We found it very difficult, giggled lots and although we failed miserably, we had lots of fun trying. Once the course was finally set up, we started climbing. It was very nervwracking but everyone enjoyed it. Some of us had races and others were helping each other. Only a few people managed to reach the top and of course the competitive Miss Rawling was one of them. On the Leap of Faith, Mrs Smith managed to reach the top. We also had a surprise visit from Miss Hepworth and the the Comenius visitors. Then we raced back up the hill, excited for a lovely hot shower after a hard day....or so we thought. That didn't happen though as all of the hot water was off in our part of the building. Therefore, we had to traipse along to the training side of Derwent Hill so we could mess up the lovely adults showers but it was worth it as we had hot water. 

Once we'd done that, it was time for tea and afterwards, it was time for the..... DISCO!  In the disco, people from the 4 schools were showing off their awesome dance moves! When Happy came on, nearly everyone was singing along. Most of us are worn out but there was still chaos. Definitely another amazing day. One more day left of exciting activities and we can't wait.