Written by Phoebe (Year 7)
The residential started off with a 3-hour long bus journey. As soon as we arrived, we raced off to our dorms unpacking and rejoicing in who we had been put with. We ate the packed lunches we had brought and then went off to our very first activity. For me this was stand up paddle boarding, something I had never done before, so it was exciting for me to try. Each day at Kilve we also had evening activities, and the first one my activity group did was one of my favourites: high ropes. We went up in 2s, 3s or 4s. This was a really challenging activity for some of my friends, as a few of them are very afraid of heights. However, we all supported each other, and everyone did amazingly!
The next day, after grumpily waking up and having an amazing full English breakfast, we liberally applied sun cream to prepare us for the sunny day ahead of us. We were spending all day off-site, at a reservoir where we were sailing and kayaking. The first activity we did there was sailing, and we were taught how to turn the boat around in the water. We then set off into the idyllic water, the wind pushing us off. We had a packed lunch of sandwiches, which we had chosen the night before, chocolate bars and crisps. Once we were ready, we got in our kayaks and braced ourselves for the wet bottoms we were about to get. It was not pleasant. We practised kayaking forwards, backwards and were taught how to stop. We then did a circuit of the reservoir, waving cheerily to the sailors we passed. It was then time for the games. We put all our kayaks next to each other, then had to clamber across – or in my case, swim – to the kayak we were trying to get to. At the end, most of us just jumped in, trying to escape from the heat of the hot sun. Despite all the sun cream we applied throughout the day, lots of people still got burnt. We then changed and drove back, hungry and in need of food.
The evening activity for us that day was low ropes. In this activity, communication and teamwork were unexpectedly vital. We had to support each other physically and mentally to be able to make it across the course. My favourite part of the low ropes was the wobbly rope bridge.
The next morning, we were doing mountain biking and then the relaxing afternoon activity of beach study with a surprise ice-cream! For the mountain biking, we drove about 30 mins away to the beautiful Quantock Hills. We spent the morning cycling up and down rocky hills and congratulating ourselves and each other when we finished the tricky 4-mile route. We came back to the house for lunch and had it sitting on the lawn. For the beach study we had to walk to a rocky beach about 20 mins away where we spent the afternoon scouring the beach and turning over pebbles in the hope of finding an ammonite. Everyone found a devil’s toenail, but only a few found the sought-after ammonites or reptile fossils. After a long walk on the beach, we walked back, and were delightfully surprised by the enticing offer of ice-cream. We licked it up and then walked back.
The afternoon activity that day was shelter building. Our wonderful shelter had an outdoor seating area, a garden gnome, a fireplace, a doorbell and indoor seating. Everything you need! We then headed back for a much need rest.
On our last full day, our activities were beach games (a new activity as we could not do caving) and climbing + abseiling. We got to the beach and slathered ourselves in sun cream: no one wanted to get burnt again! We drew out a football pitch on the beach and had cones either end for the goals, and then started playing. We soon decided that the pitch was too small and so started playing with no lines. We carried on doing this until lunch time, when we had to quickly eat our food and walk down to the rock we were going to climb. We got to the climbing spot, got into our harnesses, and put on our helmets then started climbing. There were two parts of the rock that we did, and everyone was super supportive of the people who were afraid of heights. Once we had all climbed up the rock face, anyone who wanted to could go up to the top and abseil back down. To get to the abseiling spot we had to walk up this path on the rock and then walk on top of it, over to where the abseiling place was. We all got clipped in and then lowered ourselves down, walking down the rock as we did it. We all got down safely and went back to the beach for some cricket!
The drive back to Kilve was quite long, and many of us fell asleep. When we got back, our afternoon activity was Jumblies (orienteering) which the whole year group took part in. This gave us all a chance to explore the site more, which I really enjoyed. After walking round so much we were all tired and slept well.
It was our last day on Friday, so before breakfast we all finished packing our bags and checked under the beds for any lone socks. Our last activity was mountain boarding, something I had been looking forward to all week. We walked over to the hill we would be going down, all our protective padding securely in place. Once the instructor had taught us the basic stance and how to turn, we were off! Towards the end we had some races where we had to weave in and out of cones, or as the instructor put it: ‘Weave to achieve!’. After that incredible activity to end an amazing week, we got on the bus back to Oxford, sad to leave a place that held such wonderful memories.
