Leckby’s Wilderness weekend

Sixteen Upper School students headed to the Borrowdale valley in the Lake District, which is recorded to be the wettest place in England; thankfully the rain held off till the second night. After setting up their tents for the night, the group headed out on a geocache adventure around the valley to find a surprise for that evening. Before it got dark it was time for their first real attempt to cook their food with the trangias. The meal choices were varied from upmarket pasta with pesto and parmesan to some choosing one meal ration packs.
Saturday was the truly adventurous day of the trip, with everything packed in their rucksacks to be self-sufficient for 36 hours, including the two trusty trowels! The first scrambling section up the side of the waterfall was enjoyed by all, even if recognition of the fact (for those unsure of heights in particular) came much later. The group finally made it to where they would call ‘home’ for the evening by the side of Sprinkling Tarn. Mr Kirby was very happy with pitching his tent on the island! After lunch the party split into two groups to walk/scramble slightly different ways to summit Scafell Pike. Neither group spent long on the top as it was a bit breezy. The pupils were all tired from the day, so when they got back to their tents they found some energy to cook their tea and crawl into their tents before the rain came in.
Overnight the clouds dropped which meant the wind speed increased and the rain was a bit heavier. One tent’s pole snapped in half as it didn’t cope with the change of wind direction and a few groups woke up to find they had pitched their tent in an area susceptible to flooding! After a quick dismantle of the camp everyone then had the task of walking the 4km off the mountain. The motivation was heading to Keswick to buy a well earned fish and chips.