6:30am Sunday, second day of the Easter holidays, waiting for the minibus, destination the Lake District. We arrived late afternoon at the medieval stone built bunkhouse.
Monday was an early start, (getting ready for our first scramble). We walked up a rocky hill for quite a while following a mountain stream/river. We got to the start of the scramble and had lunch. The scramble was fun but difficult, because the rock was moist. Also I nearly fell down an approximately 100ft drop but I didn’t, because I was in safe hands. The way down was easier and more fun because we abseiled down the rock face!
We went for short walk the next day that took us 2 hours to get there, 1 hour having lunch, 2 hours coming back. On Wednesday we went into Keswick and had a cracking game of footy in the park, the adults did the boring shopping.
Thursday was the highlight of the week, because we climbed (but mostly walked) scafel pike the highest mountain in England. The first part of the way was fun and easy, but then we were told we were going to take a shortcut. I was really pleased until I found out it was a really difficult scramble. But eventually we made it through that part. We got over the hill and ran down towards a tarn (small lake) where we stopped to have a rest. As time went on, we passed over another hill to find an even bigger hill to climb. And then we were up in the clouds. It was a flat but windy walk to the other end of this hill, and I had gone from virtually last to fourth. Then me and Drew, (one of the leaders) climbed down the mountain to reach the bottom of scafel pike where we waited for the others. When they eventually came, we marched on to the summit. We were all worn out when we got there but were made to get up and have a group photo in front of the summit. (Buster had a sandwich hanging out of his mouth, as usual!) And Tony showed us to a shelter built entirely out of rocks! We ate our lunch and shared HOT tea !!!-(which we needed, it was freezing) On the way back we split up and most of us went the scenic route over the other mountains, round and finally down. It was really fun,considering at least 2 people fell over and hurt themselves. We were so glad to sit in the mini bus afterwards!
It was a late start on Friday. We were all recovering from the knackering climb the day before. When we got started we went to some local rocks, but they were too wet to climb so the adults ventured round and found a nice place in the sun to chill out and do some nice easy climbs! (We played lots of card games there!)
On the last day … went for a short walk where us kids read the map and we found loads of wild garlic to eat and take back for our dinner!!
I would like to say a big thank you to craggers for taking me because I had such a great time. I would like to say an even bigger thank you to Cassie for giving me the opportunity to go. SO THANK YOU CRAGGERS !!
By Louis Mallen-Curtis