The Abingdonian 2019

44 The Abingdonian Second Year Adventure Trip During the second week of the Easter holidays, 30+ intrepid second years descended on Plas Pencelli (The Big House in Pencelli), not a prison but an outdoor education centre in the Brecon Beacons in rural South Wales. Here we would go on to undertake a wide range of exciting and challenging daytime and evening activities, ranging from hiking up the open plains of southern Britain’s highest mountain Pen y Fan (Head of the Valley), to crawling through the enclosed subterranean caverns of Porth Yr Ogof (Gateway to the cave), there was seemingly no end to the adventures available at Plas Pencelli! After meeting in the bus park, we left the suburban streets and bustling towns of South Oxfordshire, bound for the quaint country lanes and copious fields of sheep of rural Wales. We arrived at our destination at about 5pm and were immediately sorted into one of three different groups: the red group, the blue group or the green group, and were given a warm welcome by the staff at Plas Pencelli who told us the timetable for each day. There would be two activities; a daytime activity from about 10am-4pm, and an evening activity which would take place from around 7pm-9pm. Our first evening activity was a leisurely evening stroll around the quaint village of Pencelli which allowed everyone to get some much needed fresh air after an afternoon of travelling. Unfortunately, the absence of any shops meant we had no opportunity to replenish our stocks of sweets, much depleted during the journey on the bus, much to our disapproval! Still, we woke up early on Monday morning, eager to get the week started and were told what we were going to be doing that day. My group, the red group, were told we were to be going canoeing on the river Wye for our daytime activity. Brilliantly I was partnered in my canoe with Mr. Jenkins, who surprisingly turned out to be a veritable power house of watersport expertise and we completed the course in a record time only beaten by Jack Cabell and one of the instructors (just). The real highlight though was when we got to tackle the rapids which we canoed down initially, and were then told to beach our canoes, walk up to the start, and swim down. Everyone was understandably hesitant at first, but eventually, we all got into the water and conquered the rapids at least once (apart from Mr. Jenkins who clearly saw discretion as the better part of valour here). We arrived back that evening happy and in good-spirits, even more excited for the week ahead now that we had got a taste of the sort of activities that Plas Pencelli has to offer. That evening, we tackled orienteering, which saw, or rather heard, the shouts of 12-13 year old boys as they ran around the 17 acres of land on the Plas Pencelli site, lighting up the mellow Welsh evening silence as we hunted intently for the slightest glimpse of the red and white target squares dotted around the site. On Tuesday, our daytime activity was to be ‘mountain day’, a day filled with climbing three of the highest mountains in southern Britain, Crybin, Pen y Fan (which is the highest mountain in the South of the UK), and Corn Du, the final mountain of our expedition. Crybin, started off as a gentle, constant incline, luring the group into a false sense of security which was shattered as we got to the last 50-60 metres of the peak, where we began to notice that the visibility had decreased rapidly. Thick fog shrouded the mountain, interspersed with small pockets of visibility, but alas,