Climbing rocks and mountains, lobster pots and heading to the island

The Westbourne team have had a busy few days at the adventure school since our previous journal post and have had good weather for much of it. Sunday was a day of rock climbing, abseiling and the ‘fire and food’ elements of the survival skills they will need on the island. After a late afternoon mug of homemade soup we left for the short journey to Lone and our wild base camp at the foot of Arkle.

The four teams pitched camp in different spots and cooked up dinner on trangia stoves on the edge of the burns that run off the mountains and into Loch Stack. There was a good breeze to keep and midges away, and beautiful evening light over the mountains.

The four teams, accompanied by their instructors, strode out from the wild camp on Monday morning with the objective of scaling both summits of Arkle. At 787m above sea level it isn’t the highest of mountains but, taking in both summits (with some height loss between them and a start almost from sea level) the total ascent exceeds 1,000m! The weather was near perfect. A mix of blue skies, cloudy spells and a good breeze to keep us cool but not get cold. The teams worked brilliantly together. A great effort by all.

Looking ahead at the forecast, and with a sunny and breezy night expected on tonight (Tuesday) we seized the opportunity to head to survival island a night earlier than planned. With that in mind, and too stiff a breeze to sea kayak, the teams have been orienteering, lobster creeling and learning to build shelters from yacht sails today.

They are on the island now and from our home at Ardmore we can see three out of the four teams camps perched across the two hills on the island and little plumes of wood smoke rising from their fires. The fourth camp is tucked out of sight.

It looks as though we will spend tomorrow on the beach. A chance to relax together after survival island on a beautiful stretch of golden sand a few miles to our north. The girls and boys are doing well and its a real pleasure to be working with them.