16 Shell boys travelled to the Peak District National Park for a three-day trip during the summer half-term holiday.
On Monday we started with a couple of hours of scrambling on rock, an activity called weasling. That took place at an iconic location called The Roaches, near Leek, and we then had a walk including a visit to an interesting chasm called Lud’s Church.
In the evening the boys played football and cricket in the garden of Ravenstor Youth Hostel. We spent Tuesday morning rock climbing at another iconic location called Stannage Edge. Boys learnt how to hold the safety rope in pairs, supervised by the instructional staff. The weather forecast was for heavy rain in the afternoon so we took the boys to a cave instead, where there was no rain, but plenty of mud and lots of interesting passages to explore. One of the boys said it reminded him of the Indiana Jones films.
We started Wednesday with some more climbing at Yarncliff, a former quarry, followed by abseiling from the dramatic former railway bridge at Millersdale.
Our journey home was briefly delayed by a herd of 100 cows which were being moved along the road to another field. A cow-jam rather than a traffic-jam!
