Our last full day at Ghyll Head kicked off with a trip up to a rather daunting rock face, followed by a camera crew. The camera crew were with us throughout the day, capturing the activities we took part in, so that footage of the day can be used in a video about the apprenticeship scheme.

Our abseil down the rock climbing wall the day before came in handy, when we were faced with the challenge of abseiling down about twenty five meters of rock, followed by a further twenty five metres of abseiling without anything to brace our feet on before we reached the ground. Attached to safety ropes, we took it in turns to try and avoid the temptation of looking down while we descended! Liam even wore a camera on his helmet, to capture the experience from a first person perspective.

The abseil was much more nerve-wracking than getting down the climbing wall the day before had been, the worst part being at the very top, where you have to convince yourselves to lean back over the edge of what would be a very long fall, and trust that your ropes won’t let that happen! Another contender for the scariest part of the abseil was the moment were the rock face ended, and you had to step off the wall, and continue to lower yourself to the ground with nothing to brace your feet on.

Once we reached the bottom, we were faced with a short journey through dark tunnels in order to get back to the path that would lead us back up to where the rest of the group were, awaiting their turn. We did have to keep our fingers crossed we’d chosen the right direction through the tunnel however, so that we didn’t have to turn back and try again, as one of the paths lead to a locked gate that we wouldn’t be able to get past.

In the afternoon, we put all the team building we’d done over the past few days to good use when we went Ghyll Scrambling. A ghyll is another name for a stream, hence the name of the place we were staying, which was located at the head of a stream, ‘Ghyll Head’. We helped each other to climb through a rocky stream, and even up some small waterfalls, trusting each other to not let us slip on the rocks, or get knocked over by the current of the freezing cold water.

By the time we’d finished, wearing waterproof clothing seemed to have been pointless as most people were soaked after walking underneath one of the waterfalls, as well as falling back (voluntarily!) into a pool of water. Simbiat once again showed amazing determination and fell backwards into the water despite being unable to swim. The last challenge we faced, before getting warm and dry and heading back for tea, was jumping into another pool of water. Similarly to the Jetty Jump, the water we jumped into was freezing, and a few people waited next to the pool to help people get back out once they’d jumped.

By this point in the week everyone was exhausted, and after we’d got back and eaten, most people ended up spending the evening sleeping! We did all manage to find time to pack however, as we were leaving at lunchtime the next day, meaning we only had one activity left at Ghyll head. I’ll talk about that next time, along with answering some questions that have been asked about whether team building activities such as our week at Ghyll head are useful, and a good idea for the future (although you might be able to tell already where most of the apprentices stand on that topic!)

The second day of our trip to Ghyll head started out rather rainy, which ultimately made little impact on our day, as even if the weather had been any better we’d have still ended the day drenched.

After breakfast, we headed down to the lake in our waterproofs and put on buoyancy vests ready for a day of canoeing. We used wooden planks and rope to tie two of the canoes together, creating a raft that six people could use, and the rest of the group got into pairs, each of which used an individual canoe.

The people at the front of the canoes had to use their oars to propel them forward, whilst the people at the back had to use their oar to steer the boat, paddling normally to keep the boat travelling in a straight line, and using it as a rudder when they needed to turn the canoe around. Team work was definitely required as without the person at the front continuing to row, the person at the back couldn’t effectively steer the boat, and when you feel like you’re going in the wrong direction, it’s easy to feel as though you should stop rowing until the canoes been turned around.

We travelled roughly 7km across the lake to Bowness, stopping at a couple of spots to change between being at the front of the canoe, and at the back. We also stopped so that people who wanted to could switch places with Mike, who was using a kayak.  Once we got to Bowness, we ate our packed lunches and had a wander around, before getting ready for the journey back.

On the way back some people switched between the raft, and the individual canoes. The second half of the journey was quite eventful, with Polly and Jake managing to fall into the water. They weren’t the only ones to end up in the lake however, as once we got back and put away the boats, most of us voluntarily jumped in for a ‘Jetty Jump’ followed by a freezing cold swim back to dry land. Simbiat really challenged herself, daring to do the jump despite not being able to swim!

I am really proud of myself for attempting every challenge as they were quite nerve-wrecking. I really felt we all bonded well as a team, and it was nice to be in a different environment.

– Simbiat Sanni, Laboratory Technician Apprentice

After all that rowing, everyone was ready for a rest, but instead once we’d dried off we found ourselves being led to the climbing wall, where we all had a go at both climbing one side of the wall, and abseiling down the other side. The abseil ended up being a practice session of sorts, for what we’d end up doing the next day.

In the evening, we took a taxi back down to Bowness (a much less tiring method of transport, although not nearly as fun) for a curry, which was definitely a well deserved break from the tiring activities, and a nice chance for us all to relax and have a chat about what we’d learnt in the first two days, and prepare for what the end of the trip would throw at us, which I’ll talk more about next time!