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!