Brownies enjoy an adventure holiday

Ponsanooth Brownies benefited from a lottery grant and went on holiday to Barton Hall. Their Leader says 'We had an AMAZING time! We have had one Brownie meeting back since then, and I really believe it has made the unit so much closer. The girls made friendships between age groups that despite living in a village they would not normally spend time with, and every girl challeneged themselves with almost every activity. Even the leaders were so encouraged by the girls that they took part in activities they otherwise would not have dreamt of trying.'

Some of the Brownies have written the event up as a diary:

Day 1

Today we got on the bus, and it took 3 and a half hours to get to Barton Hall. When we got there we had to walk up a hill but it was really steep so it was really hard to walk up with our suitcases and backpacks. When we go to our rooms we unpacked and got ready to do an activity. The activity was passport round the world. It was fun! Then we had tea and when we got back to our rooms we had to go to bed. We were up really late. We got to sleep at 12.04 or probably 12.05!!

  Day 2

Today for breakfast we had sausages and scrambled egg. Then we went to our meeting point. Then we got into our groups and we went to our activities which were wall climbing and crate stacking. On the third go on the climbing wall I got to the top! For lunch I had pasta. It was nice! After lunch we went to sports challenge. It was hot and hard at the same time. We had to help each other across a course but we were not allowed to touch the floor, and sometimes we were blindfolded, and we had to use ladders! Then we did abseiling. I didn’t go down, I was too too too scared, but lots of Brownies did. They were VERY brave! Then it was time for dinner. I had chicken nuggets and for pudding was cheesecake. We then went on the giant swing which was lots of fun, but I screamed really loudly! Then we came back and went to bed.

Day 3

Today we woke up at 8.00am (boo!) For breakfast I had bacon and eggs. Straight after that group one went to do problem solving. It was so funny. We had to do things like passing a 15m long rope through a giant cobweb without touching any of it. Then we did Quad Biking. We had to go round a course and not knock over the cones. If you did knock them over you had to pick it up at the end and say "sorry cone". After lunch we did survival. It was all about how you would survive if you had to live in the woods. First of all we rolled around in the wet muddy puddles. I couldn’t stop rolling in it and got in so much mess. Then we built a den out of natural things. It was such fun! Ellie and Alex went home with Claire because they are little Brownies which was sad, but when they are older next year they will probably stay for longer. But then Colin and Big Jess came, and they are great fun! and they came with us to the campfire and we learnt lots of new songs.

Day 4

 At 7.30am we got up and had breakfast. It was yummy in my tummy! Our first activity today was canoeing. There were 4 of us in a boat, and we played different games like cops and robbers and chased the other canoes around the lake. We played head shoulders knees and toes, and jumped up and down while we were in the canoe. We all then had to jump in the water. I jumped in, but Michelle, Evie, Matilda and Colin sat in their canoe and they were dry. We were telling them to jump in the water but they didn’t, so Emma went and jumped on their canoe and all of them went in the water and got very wet and it was funny! Then we swam round in the lake for a bit until Colin said there were crocodiles in there so we got out and got dried – I think he was joking though. In the afternoon we went on the zip wire. Lots of Brownies were scared of the zip wire because it was high up and we sort of had to jump out of a window to start with. I was scared on the first go, but on the second time I thought it was really good fun, and I was happy because I am very very very scared of heights, but I still did it ! After that we went dry skiing which was fun, but it was hard work walking back up the hill all the time carrying the skis. After dinner we packed all our bags up ready for going home.

                                                                  Day 5

We got up really early today because we knew that when we had eaten breakfast we were going swimming! We jumped in the pool. It was lovely and hot, and we played in the pool ALL morning! We sang songs and danced in the water. We played ball games, and had lots of fun! But we were all getting a bit sad because we were about to go home. When we came out the pool we had a jacket potato and Michelle bought us an ice cream! Then we got on the bus and travelled back to Ponsanooth. We were all very tired, and most of us slept on the bus back.

Written by : Bethany, Bryony, Daisy, Erin, Poppy & Rebecca