Gwilym's Adventure Blog

Over the weekend and today I have been assessing girls from The Abbey School for their Silver DofE around The North Wessex Downs. There were 19 teams in total though I only had 2 to worry about. All passed and enjoyed the experience.

It has been a manic week. On Sunday evening I was called out to rescue a Common Dolphin at Steart but we were unable to save it due to the amount of time it had been stranded and its injuries. On Monday I was interviewing at Bridgwater College and yesterday I was in Northampton working with the school that I am taking to Malawi. Today it was a relief to get out and I was on Dartmoor conducting a 1 day Hill and Moorland Leader re assessment. The weather was perfect (for a navigation assessment (with mist and rain almost continuously during the day with vis under 50m at times. I am pleased to report that not only did the candidate pass, he passed with flying colours having put the time and effort in since the original assessment. Well Done

This morning I was out at Cannington Activity Centre conducting some assessments on staff on the High Ropes Courses.

Today I was running a "Security on Steep Ground" CPD workshop for members of the Mountain Training Association and British Association of International Mountain Leaders . During the day we looked at verbal reassurance, spotting, confidence roping, belay (direct and indirect) and use of a sling and karabiner. We had a mix of candidates from those who were qualified through to those approaching assessment soon. Thanks to Andy Holborn for helping me to today as it was well subscribed so we had two groups running

It has been a busy week. A few sessions out on the road bike and some admin. Today I was on a Mountain Training Course Provider update workshop held on Dartmoor. In the morning we were out and about looking at how GPS can help us with our work. Thanks to the guys from Exeter Cotswold who cam out to assist. The afternoon was spent looking at course reporting, confidence roping and general update info

Today I was out in the sun at Wellington School running some in house training for their outdoor climbing wall.  It was good to see a couple of familiar faces plus a few new staff during the day

Although I was meant to be on a relaxing week off to recover from jet lag and catch up with admin, I answered a request to cover an instructor injury for a group up in Glenridding. During the week we canoed, climbed and had a good day out in the Helvellyn Massif after climbing up Swirral Edge. The group was year 7 boys from a school in London and they were a real pleasure to look after. Unfortunately I had a very long journey home with multiple applications of the handbrake in the 3rd lane of the M6 and M5 due to congestion.

I got home from Ecuador late last night and having been missing some aerobic activity (Diving really isn't that energetic) so jumped on my Giant Defy 2 for a quick spin around the local area. 35km with 455m of height gain in 1hr 40 not too bad but clearly two weeks at sea has not been good for my fitness.

On the evening of Saturday 23 rd May 2015 I left home and headed to Heathrow for what I hoped would be a trip of a lifetime. After a short night in an EasyJet Hotel (a bargain £80 for a night and 15 days parking) I arrived at Heathrow T4 and caught a short flight to Amsterdam where I jumped on a KLM flight to Ecuador. Ironically this plane flew straight over London on its way. After 11 hours on the plane we arrived in Guayaquil and spent a pleasant evening at The Macaw Hotel before heading to St Cristobel on the morning of the 25 th . There was no rest and after negotiating the sealions on the pontoon we arrived on our boat, the Galapagos Master and had a quick tour before completing the check dive in the harbour accompanied by sealions. Overnight we sailed to Santa Cruz and had our first dive of the day in the channel between Santa Cruz and South Seymour. I really can’t recall seeing much here. The second dive was on the edge of Mosquera and this was the better of the...