Gwilym's Adventure Blog

From the 29th October 2014 to 30th January 2015 I will be working with Blue O Two in The Red Sea. Should be weeks of sun and warm water diving. Hopefully I will be able to do some stuff with Red Sea Sharks whilst I am out there and might even see "Henry" who I sponsor I will be on live-aboard dive boats most weeks so am likely to post weekly on my return to dry land.

My last clients of 2014 were Toby (12 today) and his dad Steve. We started at Haytor where Toby and Steve followed me up Bulging Wall before Toby led Step Across on Pre-placed gear and the second time with a mixture of pre placed and placing his own. After a short lunch we headed round to Hound Tor to see if it was any less windy (not really) where Toby led Paddy twice placing his own gear. We also looked at abseiling, reading a guidebook and coiling ropes. A busy day with nice weather but very cold in the wind. The next post explains why these are the last clients of 2014.

This week I have been again working in my role as a member of Bridgwater College staff with 70 apprentices at Runnage Farm for a week of outdoor activities. Due to the numbers involved, my main job was managing the 10 instructors and other staff but I did get out and about at some points. During the week, the students went rock climbing either at Sheeps Tor, The Dewerstone or Dart Rock if raining. They had a days off road cycling and a 2 day expedition with some challenges involved. Even with the weather not being great, we managed to get a lot done during the week. In the evenings we had an interesting talk from Darren Swift about his expedition to Everest back in 2003, watched Touching the Void and even a Disco in a marque. My thanks to the team of instructors involved.

On the final day of the L3 Residential, Dan and I took the students to Dart Rock for some climbing away from the rain. We had a mix of bouldering, top roping, lead climbing and caving going on. This week is the first work I have done with this particular group and I am looking forward to working with them again in the future

On day 3 we headed to Torbay and I took half the students Coasteering whilst Dan took them out on Sit on Top Kayaks before swapping over. The water was warm and there was just enough swell to be fun. As the students had been gorge walking yesterday, they were able to transfer these skills to the coastal environment and needed very little input from me other than letting them know where it was safe to jump.

Back out with the L3 students in the River Plym today at The Dewerstone. As the river had gone down drastically since Monday it was fine to be in there and the students had fun trying to work their way upstream against the flow. By working as a team they made progress against flows that the individuals were unable to walk against.. The other students were with Dan looking at Navigation before swapping over. The picture below shows why we did not do this on Monday.

Today I was working in my role of outdoor education lecturer at Bridgwater College and was based at Sheep's Tor with the L3 Outdoor Adventure students. I had half the group in the morning whilst the others went biking with Dan . We swapped after lunch had had a great time in the sun. The aim of the day was for the students to be able to run a safe session for themselves and they managed this really well with only a few pointers from me.

Today we were at Cheesewring  Quarry near Liskeard, somewhere I have not been for some time. It stayed dry today and we covered abseiling, group management, problem solving and revisited some of the skills from yesterday to see how much easier it is in the dry. All 8 candidates now need to go climbing and assist with groups before they decide to book an assessment. If anyone based in Plymouth, Somerset or Essesx need help with groups let me know and I can put you in contact.

Today I was working for Mark Garland directing an SPA training with Mal Dickson at The Dewerstone . It was one very wet day with heavy showers and hail interspersed with some warm sunshine. We spent the day looking at setting up climbs and abseils and top roping a few routes to look at belay and climbing skills. We then visited the Life Centre wall for a much drier evening session

I have been aware for some time (years) of the ongoing views of Boot vs Trail Shoes vs Trainers in the hills. A post on the Facebook DofE Assessors page has prompted me to write this which contains a mixture of my opinions/experience and some facts. This is based on summer walking in hill or mountain terrain. So here we go I have use a well known high end brand to show some differences in weight and price. This is probably the regular recreational user end of the market WEIGHT & PRICE Boots - £130 - A pair  Scarpa Cyclone Boot at 1100g size 42 Approach Shoe - £135 - A pair  Scarpa Vortex Shoe at 920g size 42 Trail/Run - £100 - A pair of Scarpa Spark at 538g size 42 I have use a well known low end brand to show some differences in price. This is probably the DofE end of the market PRICE (and as often at the lower end, no weights listed) Boots - £65 - A pair HiTec Alltitude Approach Shoe -£50 - A pair HiTec Alto  Trail/Run - £30 - A pair of  HiT...

Today I was down at St Austell with Dan who was going for his 3 Star Sea. Rich Uren was the assessor for the day and I had a nice paddle observing the assessment and being the body for a rescue. Conditions were good with some swell to play with and we saw a couple of seals whilst we were out and about. Well done Dan for  good pass.

The day started with heavy rain and a browse (with quite a few purchases) at the AS Watersports sale in Exeter before heading to Torbay with Dan for some sunny sea kayaking from Meadfoot Beach. The plan was just for Dan to get some time in a sea boat as well as for me to get back in my Avocet which has been at AS Watersports for some TLC as it was looking a bit battered. In the sale this morning Dan bought the same cag and buoyancy aid as me so we must have looked like a set of twins.

Today after "helping" Ken with his bees (well standing and watching the bees get buzy), Ken and I dived in the Blue Lagoon at Abereiddy. I have swum, kayaked and coasteered here before so it was time to look underneath it all. Well it all went very dark and poor vis at around 16m so we stayed just above this and swum round looking for Lobsters. We saw three small ones and a few crabs.