Gwilym's Adventure Blog

Today was another sailing day with me mainly staying on the shore nursing my coffee whilst Matt kindly taught all my students. It was the final practice before they get tested next week so they are looking pretty competent by now and this group in particular seem to be enjoying alot.

  Yesrtday I was based on the college grounds teaching compass work and we spent some time pacing and taking bearings around the college sports field as well as looking at equipment and clothing for expeditions. Today I was up at Wimbleball Lake but as I am suffering from a ferocious bout of Man Flu I spen the day sitting in the hut watshing my students through binoculars whilst Matt kindly looked after them out on the water. I handed my camera over to one of the students to get some photos.

Today was the third and final day of the WGL Training course. The candidates had a good (and dry) day with Brian yesterday and today we did some final trainig including navigation of difficult ground where following a compass would not work. Although wet and miserable this morning it cleard up by 11am and turned into a lovely day (albeit with the odd shower). At the same time as I have been running the training course, Andy Holborn had been directing an assessment for me so congratulations to both Jon and Cath who have passed the WGL Award.

 Posing with our route in the background Scrambling Sump  Jump Today Max and I took a group of 7 Coasteering in Torbay. The weather was great for us (as well as for my WGL candidates who were still on Dartmoor with Brian) and we got loads of jumps, sumps, climbing and swimming in the 2 1/2 hours we were in the water.

Seeking some shelter Trying to identify features before mist came back in  Hairy Caterpillar Mid afternoon blue skies This weekend I am Course Director for a Walking Group Leader training course on Dartmoor. Today the weather was horrible so perfect for training. At times we could see very little and the rain was relentless, by late afternoon however it had started to dry off and there was some blue sky. We looked at poor visibility navigation techniques including pacing, compass work, boxing round obstacles as well as lie of the land and a spot of handrailing. All 6 candidates survived the day and are looking forward to better weather tomorrow. I will not be with them again until Sunday as I am taking a group Coasteering on Saturday.

Today I took 17 students to the Bridgwater College Forest School making fires, cooking, making shelters and stretchers whilst looking at teamwork and group skills.

Trying to sail and take photos Getting a tow Racing in close contact (don't think they touched) Fighting to get round the buoy Today was again at Wimbleball Lake following a similar plan to yesterday. The 8 students were sailing double handed and we set up a race course around 3 buoys. We had a number of races both clockwise and anticlockwise and again I got the chance to get out of the powerboat and into a dingy to join in whilst Matt provided safety cover.