Wild camp and a great ascent of Arkle for the Hornsby teams

Sunday was a great mix of rock climbing, abseiling and survival skills for the three teams from Hornsby House. The Red team rock climbed and abseiled in the morning and looked at shelter building in the afternoon, with the Green team doing the same activities but the other way around. The Blue team were dropped off by boat on the remote Ardbeg peninsula to do a full day of survival skills, not just the shelter building, but the fire and food element too.

Everyone was back at the adventure school by 4.30 pm for a mug of homemade soup before heading out to our wild basecamp at the foot of Arkle. It is a glorious place to camp, and it was sunny with a lovely breeze. The teams established their tented camps, working with their instructors to reheat the dinner that Celia (our chef) had prepared over trangia stoves.

Last week, we chose to climb to the first summit of Arkle rather than tackle the usual Hornsby House mountain, Ben Stack, because there is more reliable water on the hill for topping up our drinking bottles. With that in mind and no rain since last week’s team, we set the girls and boys the same objective.

The teams were brilliant, striving together up the mountain. A lovely breeze kept us cool, and the views from the summit were fabulous.

Everyone is doing well, and they are rightly tired but happy after their tremendous efforts on the mountain. More adventures to come over the coming days.