On the Wednesday we took part in some team building challenges. We had lots of challenges which were

• The Ski Walk
• The Lava River
• The Gutter Roll
• The Coloured Wires
• The tyre stack
• Mine sweeper

We were split into teams. We had to complete the challenges working as a team and as quickly and effectively as we could. Once we completed them they were made harder for us.

The Ski Walk - we had to get on our skis and walk to the other cones. Easy right? NO! We had to work together to lift our feet at the same time to enable the skis to move. There were 3/4 children on each set of skis

The Lava River - We had 10 stones and 7 children. All the children needed to get to the other side of the river without touching the lava. If we let go of one of the stones then it was taken away!! When we made it we then lost a stone and had to get across with 4, then just 3 stones!! 

The Gutter Roll - We had to get the tennis ball or ping pong ball down the segments of gutter and into a bucket. Each child had a segment of gutter, once we had the ball in our gutter we couldn't move our feet. 

The Coloured Wires - We had to fix the puzzles by connecting the correct coloured wires in the right order. This one needed one of us to call out the colours in the right order and then the rest of us to find them.

The Tyre Stack - We had to move 5 tyres from one pole to another pole. We couldn't stack a smaller tyre on a bigger tyre and we had to have them in the right order. This needed someone to think carefully about where the tyres could go and how to stack them!

Mine Sweeper - We had to guide our team through the squares on the floor without them stepping on a mine. We had to work as a team to remember where the mines were and work out the clues that were given to help us locate the mines.

On the Thursday we went for a walk up the hill and across the fields. We then dropped down into Milldale for our dinner. We sat in Milldale in the sun with the ducks enjoying our lunch in the sun! We then had the chance to go to the shop, visit the bathroom and fill up our water bottles which was needed! After this we walked along the river through the Dovedale valley looking at the different rock formations and enjoying the sunshine!!  We saw the caves that were made from the swirling water thousands of years ago. We walked up to lover's leap which is where a lady tried to jump off after the man she loved didn't love her back. This was the last uphill part of the walk!! We then went across the famous stepping stones and found the famous ice cream van in the car park where we all enjoyed and ice cream. Then the very last past was to get back to Ilam Hall. We all made it in one piece but very tired!

Finally on Friday our tired bodies packed up and tidied our dorm rooms, after an inspection off Mrs Johnson, we got ready for the journey home. 

We had one final thing to do before getting back home and that was to visit Poole's cavern in Buxton. Poole's Cavern is a long and dark cave full of interesting rock formations and archaeological discoveries dating back to the stone age. We saw stalagmites, stalactites, rock pools, rocks covered in shiny calcite, columns and straws. The guide on our tour give so much information about the cave. At one stage of the tour the stalagmites have turned a strange yellow colour which doesn't happen anywhere else in the world! As we reached the current end of the cave our tour guide turned off all of the lights within the cave for a few seconds it was incredibly dark. Once the tour was over we were allowed to buy items from the shops including unusual gemstones!! 

As you can imagine after such a busy few days the coach journey home was very quiet with quite a few of us (including staff) caught up on some much needed sleep!