The Calshot 2010 Photo Gallery has been updated with additional photos taken on other cameras – check out the full selection of photos from the week.
This is the final update from the Calshot trip – apologies it’s a couple of days late, but I needed to catch up on my sleep!
Following on from the previous update, we had a very pleasant remainder of our Wednesday evening, with the whole group gathered together to watch Zoolander. Everyone is settling much better in the evenings now and everyone seems to be getting into the swing of the getting to bed routine.
All the groups were back to their activity rotations again on Thursday morning. I joined the group of 8 who spent the whole morning (a double length session) Mountain Biking an almost entirely off-road route around the New Forest near the activity centre. As with the rest of the trip, the weather was very much with us and we had a great ride of approx 8 miles, which we finished off with a minor detour to an ice cream shop and about 30 mins of relaxing on the beach with our ice creams.
In the afternoon it was everyone back into wetsuits again for the last of the of the 3 watersports activities on the rotation – Windsurfing, Sailing and Kayaking. Mr Gardner and I went out in one of the sailing boats, which we somehow managed to survive in without capsizing – although it was a close call at one point thanks to one of the other boats who decided to go a rather direct way to try and stop us overtaking! All the sailers did very well and both of us in the ‘adults’ boat very much enjoyed taking you all on!
Thursday evening after dinner was the 2nd of the evenings that the Calshot staff ran and everyone did whichever of the 2 activites they hadn’t done on Tuesday, which was either the Pool Crossing or the Low Ropes course. I went between both with the camera and i’m still not sure whether it was more fun to watch the ones who had lost all their ‘lives’ on the Low Ropes course and were thus blindfolded and had to be guided around the course by their team mates or those who didn’t quite make the Pool Crossing without a no doubt bracing dip in the pool!
Friday morning we all had to be packed up and out of our rooms before the first activities at 9am so the cleaners could move in. Everyone did a brilliant job of getting up a little bit earlier and taking charge of sorting their own kit out, getting beds stripped and rooms cleared.
Our last mornings activities were a great way to wind the week up – I stayed with a couple of groups who were Abseiling. Some found it harder than others to step off the top of a platform 20m or so above the ground and the small number who were clearly incredibly unsure about doing it but pushed themselves to overcome their fear and take part anyway are due a massive “Well done!”.
After our final meal together we all met up to say our goodbyes and thankyous to the instructors before it was everyone on to the coach and back to school. On behalf of the other staff who spent the week at Calshot, i’d like to say a big thankyou and well done to all the Students. They all engaged with all their activities, behaved well for their instructors and for us and gave us no major problems at all. Thanks are also due to all the Calshot instructors and staff who put on a great week for us all.
Remember to check out our gallery of photos from the week and if any Students would like to take any of the activities they tried during the week any further, there’s plenty of information on the Calshot website.
– Giles Davis