Yea that's right, another residential! This was a non-skate weekend away with two other local youth centres: CYN & FACE. The Council were amazing and helped fund the trip as part of our South Glos Youth Partnership work. This meant we could take 15 young people away for FREE! on an action packed weekend, which would otherwise have cost a packet.
When we arrived we quickly sorted all the boring (but essential) stuff, like fire assembly points and settled into our rooms for weekend. This was in some converted stables slightly away from the main PGL building, and meant each group got their own space and en suite, nice.
First activity after that was to go and get some dinner. PGL had a large canteen where it caters for all the groups staying. They had a few different options to choose from so most were happy, and the food staff were always happy and friendly.
After Dinner we had a group tournament, but most were happy either chilling out, kicking a football, skating or exploring the grounds on walks.
Day 2: Was a proper early start given that no-one slept! Shower, Breakfast and then first activity of the day all before 9am! For our group, the first activity was survival skills: Shelter making, Fire building, knife skills, lighting a fire and testing our shower in a rain storm.
We then swapped with the other group to take on the giant swing! Two young people took it in turns to get hoisted by everyone else up 10 meters into the air before they get to pull their own release lever, plummeting earthwards.
We then quickly had lunch before starting the next two activities...
First up was archery tag. The arrows had big foam blocks making them safe to fire at each other and the PGL guides gave us some rules and let us go. Carnage.
Second was climbing. They had two walls to choose from, one slightly less steep than the other. This was exhausting after an already long day!
Then it was dinner and the final activity, Frisbee Golf... I didn't get many pics of that, whoops. We lost a couple of frisbees, sent one to the M4?! but happy we didn't get lost... then a rave on shipping container.
Day 2 was another early morning wake up. This one was a bit more of a battle. Again a hearty breakfast and then start of activities at 9am. First up today Axe throwing! We got to try little ' angel axes' and some bigger composite ones. It was a bit trickier than some expected.
After axe throwing we swapped with the other group again to try the zip line. This meant climbing a 12 meter tower, clipping onto a wire, and then having to abseil down and unclip yourself at the end.
A proper Sunday Lunch followed and then out on the next two activities. First up was Aeroball (a mix of basketball and trampolining) This was definitely hard work straight after lunch! and then abseiling down another tall tower followed that. By this point tiredness was beginning to kick in. The combination of lack of sleep, living in close quarters all weekend, and the hot weather weather was beginning to fray nerves, so it was a job to keep the group happy till dinner.
Then it was time to depart. We'd had an amazing few days at PGL Liddington, the staff had been great and the activities came thick and fast. The young people had an amazing time and had worked hard at overcoming challenges and things they'd found difficult along the way.
A big thank you to South Glos Council for helping fund the trip, Shahee and Alice from CYN & FACE for helping staff it and bringing their groups along, and to the young people for being amazing and facing it all head on!
Time for a lie down!
Comments