Gwilym's Adventure Blog

Grabbing the chance for some outside bouldering, Jay and I headed to Bonehill rocks with 8 students to enjoy the sun and dry rock.

 A rapidly rising River Dart For the last 3 days I have been undertaking the UKCC Level 3 Paddlesport Coach core training at River Dart Country Park run by Plas Y Brenin . It was a mix of theroretical input and practical, both being coached and coaching. The weather was attrocious at times an you got wetter on the bank than in a boat.

Back with Level 4 Bridgwater College students this week for introduction to Rock Climbing. Although the forecast was bad we headed to Goblin Combe where where spent the morning looking at belya set ups, gear placement and climbing risk assessments. As it appeared to be drying up, we got on the rock in the afternoon to look at belaying and lowering. Over the next few weeks we will be visiting different venues and the students will be managing themselves (with some guidedance) for a days climbing.

Over the weekend I have been out on Dartmoor with a Silver D of E Cycling Group. We experienced Hail, Rain, Wind and even a few minutes of Sun. The team of boys did well and made reasonable progress but extremely wet conditions underfoot (undertyre) slowed them down and made for hard work at times. As soon as I got back to school at lunchtime, I collected 8 of the boarding students and headed straight back out onto the Plym Valley Trail for a couple of hours cycling in yet more rain.

Back out with the Foundation Degree students today on Exmoor. It was their chance to walk the routes they has planned yesterday and practice their navigation before we tackle more remote area over the next few weeks. A short sharp shower of hail tested their waterproofs (or not so waterproof for some of them) out and for some strange reason caused two of them to buy an ice cream. The afternoon dried out and turned into a lovely day with stunning views of the coast and across the bay. Unfortunately I forgot my camera today so apologies for the lack of pictures.

I was back working with Bridgwater College today and started with the Foundation Degree students who had been out with Dan yesterday. We spent some time planning for tomorrow's walk and then headed out onto the low ropes course for some team challenges and leadership exercises.

What a morning! At 8:45 I powered out to the breakwater in very still conditions but once outside the breakwater with maximum sails up I managed between 0.8 and 1.2 knts out toward the Yealm Estuary. After a while the wind picked up and I sailed in excess of 4.5knts on the way back to Cawsand. Due to having lots to do and the forecast for F6 - 7 winds later in the afternoon, I headed back in and was back on my berth just before 2pm. A great mornings sailing doing about 15 miles and the B&Q 2"x2" did its job.