PGL is an organisation like Outward Bound started by an ex army guy who wanted British kids to have the whole adventure experience. I thought the kids would love it and since Michael didn't have enough holidays I went on a 4 day family camp with them. I tried to persuade them to go without me but they preferred me to join them. Fortunately, there is a centre just outside of Weymouth fully equipped with heaps of good adventure equipment. Michael dropped us off on the Monday night and we said goodbye to him until Friday lunchtime. However, we did end up seeing him again the next day when he had to deliver Ella's forgotten ski jacket.
The families were separated into three groups with about 3 families in each group. The overwhelming majority of the camp was kids holidaying without their parents in the great British tradition. We had a great group including a divorced Dad with his girlfriend - an ex-prison officer retraining to be a policewomen. We agreed that we had the best group.
Each day was jammed pack with activities including after-dinner activities from 7:30 - 9:00. Soon after arriving on Monday night we had our dinner and then we had our first activity where we had to run around the whole site finding flags of different countries and answering trivia questions about the country. We then retired to our bunk bed rooms which were sparsely furnished; i.e none. The PGL accomodation did not compare well to Premier Inn where the spoilt little travellers usually stay. However, they survived with a little bit of whinging.
On the first full day our activities were: Trapeze, Raft Building, Aero Ball, Rock Climbing
On the second day our activities were: Archery, Rifle Shooting, Fencing, Jacob's Ladder
On our third day our activities were: Survival, Abseiling, Zip Wire,Tunnels
On the final day we did Problem Solving, Giant Swing.
Highlights/Lowlights included:
- Ella getting soaked in Raft Building
- Simon overcoming his initial fear in abseiling and Giant Swing
- Ella and Ben getting some magic dust to lift them to the top of Jacob's Ladder in the form of a strong parent,
- Simon and Sarah making it to the top of Jacob's Ladder without magic dust
- Failing to start a fire with flint
- Shooting with real guns
- Feeling snow on our faces as we climbed Jacob's Ladder. Yes,
unfortunately the spring weather had not yet arrived and the whole four
days were bloody cold.
Needless to say both the children and I were exhausted by the end of the week!
1 comment:
That looks AWESOME.
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