Abingdonian 2017

47 www.abingdon.org.uk Lent Term First Year Adventure Trip In the Easter holidays, the first years went to PGL Liddington for a week of great fun! It was run by two very kind hosts, Dan and Becky. However, there were also many other coaches who helped us with all of the amazing activities we did there. For the giant swing, we were harnessed into a huge wooden platform and then pulled up into the air by the group of other first years we were with. As we shot down, it felt like doing a loop-the- loop. The most nerve-racking bit was actually pulling the string to make us go down since there would be a pause before we plummeted. Jacob’s Ladder and crate stacking were two challenges that were mostly based on skill and teamwork. In the Jacob’s ladder there would be three on a team and they would each help their teammates to get to the top. But it had a twist; as you got higher, the rungs would be spaced out further and further apart. In crate stacking we would again be in teams of three and three other helpers would pass us the crates as we got higher. The aim was to see how high we could get in three minutes without knocking the tower over. Abseiling was challenging for many as we had to lean backwards over a ledge to get to the wall. When we got going down the wall, everything was fine; however, going down made us all think of one question: “What if I fall?”. But it was all fine and everything was completely safe. As we got to the wall, we would calmly lower ourselves down. Climbing was another exciting activity because in this we could push ourselves to our limits to get as high as we could. Firstly, we would get our harnesses and our helmets on to make sure we were safe in case we fell. We would then get into groups of three: one to climb, one to belay (which is to make sure there is no slack in the rope) and one to back-up the belayer making sure that all the rope was held tightly. On the climbing wall, there were different colours of holds which had different difficulties; the aim was to get to the top using just one colour, this made it harder but a bigger accomplishment when it was completed. Trapeze was a challenge based activity on pushing your mental ability to see how far you could get. We had to climb up a pole to get to a wooden ledge that we would then jump off and try to catch hold of a metal bar. The aim was to see how far we could jump. When we were about to jump it almost seemed impossible, but as we jumped we realised what we could actually do if we pushed ourselves. For Vertical Challenge we had to see how quickly we could get to the top of the climbing frame. It was just like an obstacle course going into the sky; it started off with a rope ladder, then we got to a stack of tyres, after that a climbing wall and finally finishing off with a rope net. The best time was 19 seconds by Benedict Schillizzi which was a pretty amazing time. These were only a few of the wonderful things that we did on our PGL trip. If you would like to see some more pictures they are on the school website. Thank you for reading. Louis Trotter, 1SCVM