Camping with Class 4

The morning slot Class 4, taught by my colleague Peter, are a social friendship group beyond the classroom, and they invited both of us to go camping for a night in the countryside.

Born in Glasgow, bred in Cambridge, I thought I was already in the countryside because there was a cow grazing outside my door and chickens in the back yard. No such thing. 

Six of us travelled on three motorbikes for three quarters of an hour along dusty red (unpaved) roads and grassy tracks, abandoned the motorbikes when the ground got to rough, and continued on foot until we found our campsite on a kind of red-earth peninsula surrounded on three sides by a ravine carved out by a stream. The only light for miles was our campfire, so we had a great view of the stars. I suspect the 8m drops a few metres away wouldn’t have passed a Guiding risk assessment, especially given the aforementioned darkness…

Fire by night

Fire by day - precipice visible!

 The boys slept out under the stars and the girls slept in the tent (just the inner part with the poles – no pegs, no waterproof cover…).

On the next day we clambered down into the ravine from further along where it was (slightly) more accessible – there was plenty of scrambling, sliding, wading, clutching at hanging roots, etc. We eventually reached a section with lovely clear water for swimming. Afterwards we had to scramble our way back again the same way, but everyone emerged more-or-less undamaged, albeit with a few scratches.