Day One – Day one By Denice, Abbie, Annie, Jake and David
After a long coach trip with singing, laughing and the calls of nature we arrive at Beam house in the pouring rain. A quick lunch and straight off to the first swim of the week. A small pool which was very hot and had funny salty water and small changing rooms!
A drive back to the house the scenic route and time for tea a good choice of lasagne or fish fingers and chips and for the vegetarians, stir fry. Great pudding of cupcake muffins.
We then had some time to unpack and then it was time for our evening activity of Whacky races which was lots of funny team building activities with a very odd scoring system but in the end we were all winners!!
A quick class of squash and then off to bed in bed and lights out at 9.15 …….. still talking at 10.15……… 4am could be very interesting.
Quote of the day ‘Warning of floods in Devon….. that’s ok we are all good swimmers!’
Day Two – By Jon, Andy, Kyle, Matt and Jerzy
After a long nights sleep (over 3 hours) we were woken with little sympathy to complete a tortuous swim session (about 4800 meters). We swam from 4.45am till 6.30am whilst every other sensible human was still tucked up in their bed.
Following a quick breakfast we were then told we were off to the beach for body boarding. Putting on the wetsuits was an experience but we were very grateful for them once we were in the icy sea. Riding the waves was brilliant and the sun shone but changing in a gazebo was not so great !
Returning to the centre for lunch we then began our afternoon activities: quad biking and archery. Quad biking was really muddy in the rain and after the race-offs we were covered head to toe in mud. Our archery skills however need further practice!!
A much needed shower followed by Robo Wars, the evening activity, which was won by a twin headed robot. Off to bed and asleep by 10ish.
Quote of the day ‘As freezing as the Artic everyone’s tired and wants to go to bed and it’s only 9am in the morning’.
Day Three – By Ben, Patrick, Victoria, Thomas and Tom
Another early start and off to the pool. Lots of 50’s which were fun, and then back to the centre for breakfast of sausages, spaghetti and toast.
We then had a morning of activities including Fencing, Orienteering, Quad Biking and Archery. Eliza & Georgia were the champion fencers, Jake a budding archer, and Matt, Ben and Patrick won the orienteering (well according to them, the girls are of a different opinion) while Thomas was a mean quad biker.
A lunch of pasta then off for a 2 hour afternoon swim, an amazing easy technique session but in a horrible pool. Back for tea and then an evening activity of “Capture the Flag” with lots of cheating going on but great fun running around in the dark.
Off to bed exhausted.
Day Four – “Birthday blog” By Georgia, Danielle, Lucy, Kayleigh and Louise
Happy 14th Birthday Danielle!
We were unfortunately woken up by our coaches at 4am. Slowly waking up Danielle remembered it was her birthday.
We went swimming, we swam 24 x 100m …….. we were dead!
Our breakfast, after swimming, involved opening presents and cards. Our first activity of the day was abseiling pretty terrifying but group 2 (Andy, Kyle, Jon, Jerzy, Lucy, Danielle, Victoria and Georgia) all successfully abseiled. To finish off the last hours of sunlight we completed the challenge course…………. We are sorry in advance to our parents who are doing all the washing!! It was amazing but washing all the mud off in the showers was a nightmare. Dinner time was interesting ……ate a whole birthday cake yummy!
Got to go to our campfire now! See you soon.
Day Five – By Steph,Lucy P,Alice,Eliza and Ella.
Today we woke up, once again at 4 o’clock, for our last Devon 11 swim session. Dreading as we got changed as Kyle had told us the set was 1500’s. We wondered onto poolside in our blue t-shirts for our last Devon 11 group picture….and a very grumpy photo it was. So, as everyone anticipated the dark news of the session to come- Tess gave out the “Olympic Challenge” resulting in a few relieved facial expressions. The “Olympic Challenge” was for each swimmer across the 4 teams to swim a full Olympic swimming program – a total of around 4700m.
What seemed like 20 minutes later, we were all showered, dressed and on our way back to PGL. Only to face the next terrible task. All hands on deck for packing and tidying our rooms.
Then after a quick breakfast consisting of hash browns, sausages, toast and scrambled eggs, we grabbed our bags, squeezed into our wetsuits and headed off for the beach with our surfboards.
First, splitting into our activity groups. Second, a quick demo with our PGL Leaders on the sand and then third – heading down the beach into the surf.
Some hectic scrambling to our feet in the freezing sea to catch the waves, while all you adults are dry and warm in the peace and quiet without us. But tough luck, we’re coming home today !
As we arrive back at PGL from the glorious golden sun and sandy beach (water was too cold for some) – we’re thinking we hope you are very jealous. Off now to the dining hall for the last time to grab some baguettes and tortilla chips. Just 20 minutes left to look around the PGL shop while Dean was again strapping down the bags and tarpaulin to the bus.
We then gathered around the mini-buses for presentation time.
Thank you’s and good bye’s to all the PGL Staff and then a grand salute as we drove out of the camp.
Coaches Round Up
Devon 11 has been a very successful trip.
The swimmers excelled themselves throughout the week in the pool & in all the activities. Even though some were not sure about some of the task’s set them that all had a go. Our thanks goes to them from the Team Staff for doing mostly what they were asked.
During the Devon 11 Camp the swimmers spent <10hours 30mins in the pool and swam up to 25,900m each during the five days – which on it’s own is an achievement they could not have done back at home.
Once again the PGL Staff were brilliant, which helped greatly in the enjoyment of the camp. On the last swim session (the “Olympic Challenge” – which we only had 1½ hrs to do this) the total metres covered by the swimmers was 93,600m, just short of the Olympic Challenge total but a good effort by all.
Thankyou to Dean, Sharon & Clare for helping to make this camp successful & fun.
Olympic Challenge Results :
1st – Patrick’s team….covering 24,700m
2nd – Andy’s team….covering 23,950m
3rd – Matt’s team….covering 23,400m
4th – Ben’s team….covering 21,850m
Tess
