St John’s arrive in the far north-west

Swimming, climbing and ‘search to survive’

Mr Smith and his team of fourth and lower fifth arrived shortly before eight o’clock yesterday evening in time for supper of macaroni cheese, salads and chocolate cake.

Today started with a swim before breakfast with the team donning wetsuits and buoyancy aids before hitting the ‘pool’ and swimming out to the wooden raft for diving and jumping.

Porridge, cereals, toast and bacon and eggs for breakfast this morning.

After breakfast we set off for a high point above the Adventure School where the pupils can get a 360 degree view of all the places that we will explore this week. 

Cloud was shrouding the mountains last night so this morning gave the pupils their first view of the Foinaven ridge – our mountain expedition objective. We could also look down onto Survival Island and Loch Laxford where we will sea kayak on our return from the mountains later in the week.

From the high point we made our way along the Ardbeg peninsular to the climbing crag where the Red team tackled up to five rock climbs and an abseil. Meanwhile the Blues were out on ‘Search to Survive’ – a wilderness orienteering course set to test decision making, judgment and team work as well as map skills.

After a late lunch the teams swapped around with the Blues climbing and Reds out on ‘Search to Survive’.

The pre-breakfast low cloud and drizzle soon moved through today giving bright, warm and dry weather, but breezy on the high ground.

Tomorrow we are focusing on survival skills before an evening departure to the mountains. From then we won’t be returning to the Adventure School until Tuesday so we will update with more news then, when the pupils will have a mountain expedition under their belts.

The team is fit and well and look like a strong team for Foinaven.