After a long journey we finally arrived at the Arete centre to meet Richie our instructor for the week. We all settled into our rooms and got allocated kit ready for our first walk around the slate mines, the pupils enjoyed seeing this and where asking Richie lots of questions.

We all had to be up at 7.30am ready for breakfast and sandwich making, all the pupils made their own sandwiches and packed their day bags ready for a day on the water. Rafting on the Menai Straights! The pupils had to pump up their own raft working together making sure there was enough air in before lowering it into the water. The view was breath taking and the children all worked very hard as a team to paddle the raft, there was one hairy moment when we hit a rather angry rapid but as a team we pulled through!

That afternoon we went back to the lake in front of the slate mines for a spot of pancake making and canoeing. The pupils were excellent at canoeing they had a small race along a short distance. 

For our evening activity we went abseiling down a rock face, 30ft in the pitch black with nothing but a head torch, what a massive achievement for our pupils who were absolutely terrified but gave it a go!

Wednesday was mining day! Exploring the mines and using ropes to get over small water pools, all the pupils worked together looking at the map and following the direction for Richie.

Our final full day of activities was the big climb, Snowdon!!

How fantastic!!! Snow everywhere, very deep. We needed ice picks and crampons to get up the mountain safely. We all worked together to keep the spirits high in the team encouraging everyone to do their best. Once we reached the top a man approached us and said “I was watching you guys come up and I want to say how well you worked as a group I was very impressed”.