first and second breakfast!

After the campfire we showed a movie in the big yurt and then it was time for the kids to head off to their yurts for bed. As you might imagine there wasn't a great deal of sleeping going on, so by 06:30 am it was time for first breakfast!

Everyone pitched in with the big clear up and then we took all the gear down to the museum.

 A bit of morning exercise before a bacon buttie in the cafe.

After an action packed time it was no wonder some people were starting run low on energy, but we all had a great time. A huge thanks to the volunteers from the youth group without whom this could not have happened. Thanks also to Pip and Millie for opening up early and providing us with the breakfast that saw us through the morning. And last but not least thanks to WAAP for providing the extra funding to cover this over night stay.

Campfire capers

Although the weather wasn't ideal, we headed up to the woods for our pudding...fire popped popcorn and toasted marshmallows.. worth getting a little damp for.

Perfect popping temperature!

Nicola, our marshmallow queen...

Time to eat!

It's hungry work walking round those woods.. our young teenage helpers enjoy a well earned burger.

As do the younger members of the group.

Construction of Memory Sticks

Once the whole group was back from the walks is was time to get creative... feathers, fabric, pine cones, lichen whatever had been collected from the woods was attached to the sticks. Then the sticks were decorated with special glow in the dark paint and left to dry ready for the mine trip the next day.

The finished products.

Clue Trail and Memory Stick Walk: Yurt Stayover

Finally the day arrived and after much planing and excitement a group of 14 young people arrived at Killhope for a sleepover in the yurts.

Mair and I had planned a couple of walks around the site to get them thinking about and looking at the place they were going to call home for the next 36 hours.

The group split into two, boys in one, girls in the other (a natural and comfortable dynamic). One group started with a walk in the woods hunting for objects to include in a memory stick that would be constructed in the yurt later. Whilst the other group headed off on a pre prepared Clue Trail.

Above are the girls trying to follow a fiendish clue about a diamond shaped hole.... 

Returning to base camp with sticks at the ready.

The boys at the end of the Clue Trail!

The Adventurers!

There are many more photos from our fantastic adventure at Killhope but I couldn't resist posting this one straight away. This was after our "glow in the dark sticks" mine trip on the Saturday morning, believe me those sticks really, really glowed!