Residential Trip to North Wales
31 Mar 2010
On Monday 29th March TCP took all five members of the E2E course on a residential to North Wales. We set off in a minibus at approximately 10.15 and stopped off at the Tesco in Bangor foe supplies before arriving at our base for the next two days just after 12 o'clock. We were staying at the delightful Jesse James Bunkhouse in Brynrefail not far from Llanberis and the young people swiftly grabbed bunks for the night and set about exploring their surroundings.
Once we had all settled in, we distributed wet weather gear and helmets and embarked on our first activity which was climbing and abseiling at Lion Rock in Fachwen. The weather really was terrible, as you can see from some of the photographs!
The group bravely put up with the incessant rain and climbed well before we moved on to the abseil which unfortunately only two of the young people decided to do! Once this was completed, the young people made a quick dash back to the minibus while their hardy instructors packed the, by now soaking gear away before joining them and heading back to the bunkhouse.
Once everyone was dry and warm we all mucked in to cook a fabulous spaghetti Bolognese and once the washing up had been done, we set off for the National Mountain Centre at Plas Y Brenin for another climbing session, this time in the warm and dry! Everyone enjoyed this session and we then made our way back to the bunkhouse for snacks and a film. Going to bed was not an issue for the young people as they were all pretty knackered!
Day Two started with a huge cooked breakfast and washing up before packing personal kit away and tidying up the bunkhouse. This was achieved with minimal fuss and was a real credit to the young people.
After not a little discussion about plans for the day, we decided to cancel the scheduled mountain walk in favour of exploring some areas closer to the road as we made our way home. We explored the road side boulders in Llanberis Pass including a quick geology lesson then headed into the Ogwen Valley to take a quick look at the Devil's Kitchen and surrounding mountains. Due to the massive amount of rain North Wales had experienced in the preceding couple of days, the normal placid streams were raging torrents and we took the opportunity to show some of the young people the waterfalls this had created. Once everyone was safely back in the minibus, we headed home. Most of the young people slept all the way!
In summary, every young person on the trip said they had a great time and I felt it was a brilliant team building time. The group really pulled together despite, but possible in part, due to the horrendous weather we experienced! These residential trips are a hugely important part of the work we do at TCP, it is always a pleasure to run them and something I look forward to doing again soon!
Simon Huthwaite
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