Ramblings of Ru

I recently got back from a camping trip that we had organised for our "young peoples'" environmental activity group.

Taking twelve 10 - 13 year olds away for an over night camping trip may seem like a crazy thing to do to most and I have a lot of sympathy for that view. Also, on the face of it, it is especially crazy when taking kids from the area I work in and when the trip is in the UK where weather can be a bit of a problem (so much for the long range weather forecast of a long hot summer!)

The major obsession of the kids seemed to do these 3 things, climb anything they can, fight, get as muddy as possible. If they could have done all three at the same time I am sure they would have reached nirvana.

We were staying with at scout campsite and they had prepared several activities for the kids to take part in. The activities were led by a rather strange man who had a very slow and deliberate way of speaking and an amazing ability to make something that is interesting incredibly boring.

The kids have this ability to do everything at 100mph which was impressive as is their staying power (they eventually calmed down around 12:30am)

The second day was a dreadful washout as the heavens opened and the place became a quagmire, perfect for the kids to indulge in mud wallowing.

Whilst the trip is not high on my list of things I would like to do again, I am not naturally child friendly, it was actually not that bad.