‘Go Wild’ Arthog Trip

I must say, the Go Wild trip was a ‘blast’. At first, like many others, I was hesitant to sign up for the event since I did not know anyone else who was going to go. I somehow managed to join the trip after originally being on the reserve list – so don’t lose hope if you don’t get booked onto trips immediately. I met new people across the different forms and realised that making new friends is not as intimidating as some think.

My favourite moment of the trip was the ‘blinded night trail’ activity. This activity was actually optional, so I was glad that I made the most out of it. In the trail, you are blinded – by wearing black painted goggles on your head with a helmet. To finish the activity successfully, you are required to work cohesively with your teammates in giving commands on where to go and what to be aware of. It is approximately a 200m trail requiring you to walk in a straight line holding a rope. It was hilarious when my friend Lulu fell on wet mud before trying to crawl through a tunnel too! That was definitely a memorable moment of the trip.

Chester – F4

The journey to Arthog is quite long, as expected, as it’s in Wales. However, I came up with a resourceful idea of using my towel as a pillow, and I find the journey goes quite quickly if you have music to listen to, or if you go to sleep. But, if you don’t go to sleep you get to see some great views!

Before this trip I didn’t really like water that much (as in being in water), but Mr Brown said that the trip might make me “see water in a different light” and he was right – in fact my favourite parts of the trip were the water-based activities, which took place on the Sunday. We had breakfast, and then met Ruth, our instructor for the rest of the day. Then we went to the store room and borrowed the kit we needed. Once we were ready, we went to the seaside, where we spent the morning gorge walking. The water was freezing but it was well worth it, especially at the end when we got to ‘ride’ the natural waterslide. I think this was my favourite part of the trip.

After gorge walking we went back and had lunch, played ping-pong, and then decided on our last activity; we were meant to be surfing next, but the wind wasn’t strong enough for good waves. We ended up choosing canoeing, and so drove down to a nearby lake… I partnered with Sushant for most of the canoeing. Once we had got the hang of it, we went down a narrow stream, then came back and played a couple of games such as Octo-tag (I don’t know the real name!) and a competition to collect the most rubber toys around the lake. Afterwards, I canoed with Leo for a while. We didn’t want to do an activity where we could potentially fall into the water, but we ended up falling in anyway – and, actually, it didn’t matter, because it was just as much fun as the activities and we had all the safety gear we needed!

Jeremy – F4

On the 22^nd of October, Mr Brown and Dr Donaldson took a group of 10 students ranging from Form 4s to 6.2s, to an outdoor activity centre in Arthog, Wales. The centre has everything, so even during free time there is plenty to do. For example, there is a table tennis table (which we used a lot), a small outdoor climbing frame, and draws full of games. The food was delicious too (quick tip if you go in the future: don’t eat too much before an activity). We could even see sheep on top of a nearby hill whilst eating.

I forgot my towel – not a good idea when you’re going on an outdoor activity trip, but luckily Dr Donaldson had a spare, and was very generous in lending it to me.

On the day of our arrival, we ate pizza and drove down to the beach where we spent the rest of the evening, amongst the large sand dunes of the bay. We collected firewood, started our own fire, toasted marshmallows (ate too many marshmallows), and watched fireworks in the distance. Mr Brown brought a colourful L.E.D balloon leftover from a previous trip, so he inflated that and we took some good photos too. Next was the ‘nightline’, as Chester mentioned. We quickly realised that it wasn’t a great idea to go face-first down an unknown tube blindfolded, like Lulu did. But the activity was good and we went back to the accommodation afterwards for a welcome hot chocolate.

Jeremy also talked about the water activities we took part in, but just a piece of advice from myself… If you’re going gorge walking and have to wear wellies, a pair of wellies that are slightly too small are better than a pair of wellies that are too big! The more ‘free space’ in your wellies, the more they’ll fill up with water, making them much heavier and harder to walk.

After leaving the activity centre, on the way home we visited The Smoke Stop, an American restaurant near Shrewsbury. The food was brilliant! We arrived back home by 7pm on Sunday, and I will always remember this fantastic trip.

Sushant – F4

I believe that the ‘Go Wild’ trip to Arthog was one of the best trips I have ever been on. At first, I was a little bit scared about the water, because I cannot swim at all; but when I met new friends from different classes and year groups, I thought I did not need to worry, because we could all help one another, and some people even had the same concerns as me.

The first day I worked with Bertrand who is also from China, and we had a wonderful night together. The second day we went boating as well and we played various games on the water. Although I was still not fond of the water, I thoroughly enjoyed the moment with my friends… But then, I fell into water with Jeremy when we were playing one of the competitive games against the other duos! And if I’m being honest, it was a funny moment – my favourite moment! Even though Jeremy can’t swim as well, we stayed calm in the water together. There was always someone nearby to help too. It’s called ‘friendship.’

Leo – F4