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Teen Travel UK Tour Blog

27 July 2018

Saturday -Tuesday

We are eleven  people from all around Europe:

Lukas – 15, from Sweden.

Emily – 16, from Holland.

Paul – 16, from Germany.

Serafina – 15, from Germany.

Beatrice – 16, from Germany.

Maria – 16, from Spain.

Marianne – 15, from France.

Gaia – 16, from Italy.

Sam – 15, from England.

Connie – Travel Mentor, England

Julie – Travel Mentor, Scotland

Apart from Sam we all arrived in Manchester airport at various times on Saturday. From there we drove to L&E North camp to plan our trip and get to know each other better. We decided to depart the next day but before we left we all watched the final match for the World Cup and ate at he barbecue with the rest of the camp. After the barbecue big Sam drove us to our first stop in Grassmere where we stayed for one night in a hostel and we all went to the park in the town and we unanimously agreed that we all slept better there than at the camp.

The next day we had breakfast in the self serve kitchen of the hostel and Sam and Lukas made dough balls in the oven. We then took a bus to Brokehole where we went on a treetop trek which ended in a triple zip wire that was 200 meters long! “It was exciting!” – Gaia. Connie had to have her shoe taped onto her foot because it kept almost falling off.

We then took the same bus with a different bus driver who wasn’t as nice to Windermere where we had lunch which was pleasurable. After that we booked the accommodation for Glasgow the night after, furthermore we found a train connection from Kendal to Glasgow that was also affordable for the next day. We then took the bus to Kendal where it then started to rain on our walk to the hostel we were next staying in. After a break we went to Booths to buy food for tonight and the next morning. Sam and Gaia cooked a delicious meal for dinner – pasta with cheese sauce.  Lukas told some ghost stories (not that scary) and we all sat and chatted until bed time. 

Tuesday – Thursday

After a lovely breakfast in Kendal we took the train to Glasgow. It was a long journey and we had to stop and change the train – at the intermediate station Julie had to pretend to be a dog because of a dare!

Since this morning a fun game had started ,where everyone has to “kill” someone else in a specific place and way, two people were already killed.

We arrived at the hostel around 5 o’clock and we ate at Wetherspoon. The evening was full of talks and bonding and we also started to see Shrek

Deaths of the day:

  1. Connie – singing the national anthem on a train, in the morning.
  2. Marianne – smelling something in a shop, in the morning.

Wednesday 18th

The next day started slowly. We woke up at around 10 am and after a good breakfast we took the bus to Glasgow centre. After a short trip to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and the park everybody was allowed to go of in groups of at least and discover Glasgow on their own. Most of us went to a burger and than make a short shopping trip.

Back (in at) the hostel Marianne started making crêpes – Sam as chef in training. We than went to bed “in time” because the next day would start very early.

Deaths of the day:

1)  Paul – reading a book on a playground, at midday

2)  Beatrice – singing the national anthem (german) in the bathroom, at lunchtime

Thursday 19th

To day we had to get up at 6.30 am to get the bus to Loch Ness at 7 am. Because of the early time we didn’t eat breakfast, so we had packed (a lot of) (many) snacks for the bus. The bus trip to loch ness took us about four hours but we had a few stops at beautiful places to make pictures and get a pass from the sitting.

When we arrived at Loch Ness we had two options. We could either go and see the castle and than make a cruise on the Loch or only do the cruise. 

  • Spent the day in Glasgow (shopping, eating, a pigeon poop on Lukas…)
  • Tastes good
  • Take bus (discover scottland)
  • loch ness
  • Take the bus back (strange songs)

Friday…

In the morning we arrived in Edinburgh. Making our way through the streets in the rain, we found a bus to take us to the hostel, not far from the city centre. Sam was in charge of directions and we followed him (cautiously) down several side streets off the main road. Despite a slightly scary looking front door,

we walked through into a travellers paradise; a ping-pong table, PlayStation, comfy sofas and relaxed, friendly staff awaited. The hostel was made up of converted shipping containers, neatly arranged with every amenity. We felt at home right away. 

No time to relax though; we dropped our bags and went straight into town to explore. We picked up some lunch on-the-go, and made a beeline for the Royal Mile. It was hard to miss the incredible architecture as we wound through the streets; the National Gallery of Scotland and the Castle were particularly impressive. Reaching ‘Camera Obscura’ – a museum of oddities, illusions and mind games – we were were happy to get out of the drizzle. It full of bizarre, interactive activities and we emerged later on, giggling on to the streets. Straight on to a restaurant for food, we then just had time for a quick walk up to Calton Hill for the sunset. It did not take much persuading to get everyone to sleep back at the hostel after such a jam-packed day.

We awoke to a sunny day ~ yes, the sun does shine in Scotland! We all headed to the motorbike and music festival we had booked a few days ago, it was on the same side of the city as us which was good. It was very cool – lots of different styles of motorbikes, we even got to sit on some of them!!  We also had a shot on a theme park ride – Sam has been on so many his facial expression didn’t change at all but all of the girls hair was going round and round and round!  

After we got back to the hostel we collected our bags and headed back into town to try and get some onesies for the bus journey. Unfortunately we couldn’t find any we liked so we bought some blankets and some neck pillows which turned out to be invaluable. We went to a restaurant to get some food and to also make a plan for the next part of our trip. Our big map came in handy – it’s good to have a visual of the UK to see how far away each place is from the other. We all worked very hard to plan the next part of our trip – we were getting very tired which was good as we knew we were about to spend the next 9hours on the overnight bus to London. 

The bus station wasn’t far from the restaurant which was great as we were all quite tired and ready to try and sleep. Although the bus was a little cold we did manage to get some sleep. Next stop – LONDON!!!!!!!

North Camp, Week 3, 2018

23 July 2018

Monday, 23rd July

A little poem written by Harriet (& Paul) to start off Week 3…

Week three began
with crumpets and jam
and a lively game of dodgeball.
Campers old and new
they dodged and they threw
soft balls in the great sports hall.

Much fun was had
playing capture the flag
in adventure this Monday morning.
Sports was lacrosse
origami was boss
and none of the children were yawning.

The afternoon came
football was the game
while our artists got messy with paint.
The adventurers built dens
whilst making new friends
and behaviour was that of a saint.

The afternoon sun
Brought out more fun
With our sumo suits and water slide.
Slipping and sliding
the campers went flying
down the hill they did glide.

Icebreakers began
we thought and we ran
through a range of unusual games.
We tried fancy dress
and did our best to impress
as we learned all new faces and names.

As night time adorned
our campers all yawned
with hot chocolate our nice evening treat.
We looked to tomorrow
with excitement not sorrow
today’s fun we’ll be sure to repeat.

Click for Monday’s Photos

Tuesday, 24th July

Tuesday morning started with a delicious breakfast of eggs on toast and there was a huge buzz for SCUBA, SCUBA! The campers got to test their skills in the pool as the ducked and dived for pool toys and played underwater frisbee.

The rest of the campers warmed up with dodgeball, which got incredibly competitive as the tutors tried to claw back a game, from their numerous defeats this week. This morning the campers had a choice of beachball and netball or friendship bracelets and stop motion videos.

Bench-ball was fierce as the ball whizzed from one end of the court to the next with campers running after it. The two teams fought hard, and enjoyed the competitiveness of the game. After the break they tried their skills at netball and Tutor Bonnie shared her interception skills with the children. It was a great morning for them and they arrived at lunch with red faces, full of energy.

In creative it was a much calmer affair as the children moved whole from one gap in their card to another to create some lovely friendship bracelets and others moulded clay into wonderful characters and creatures.

The English group ventured into Bedale to buy the ingredients for Harriet’s birthday cake. They found the recipe online and had to decipher the instructions to make sure it was fit for their English teacher.

Lunch was curry to refuel before this afternoons activities.

In the afternoon SCUBA continued, with the addition of whittling, miniature gardens and indoor hockey.

Indoor hockey was great fun, first they learnt some skills of passing and after that did a tournament with 3 teams. Ion creative the children scavenged for decorative nature materials to design their own miniature garden and the adventurers spent their afternoon by the campfire whittling pieces of wood into different shapes.

It was campfire this evening and it would have to go down as one of the best in L&E history. There were some incredible singalongs and some individual performances by both staff and students. The all important toasting of marshmallows occurred and then it was time for hot chocolate and bed. With warm tummies and big smiles on their faces, the campers went to bed, excited for what Wednesday will bring.

Click for Tuesdays Photos

Wednesday, 25th July

It’s the middle of the week and our campers have had a fun filled day of activities! We started off the day with a simple breakfast of toast but our campers were ready and rearing to go for the morning activities.

Our sport option was an exciting game of Ultimate Frisbee played on the large cricket green; just as well, considering we had just received our newest purchase of awesome frisbees! The sun was shining and spirits were incredibly high. Unfortunately one of our tutors was a bit TOO excited during ultimate frisbee and managed to injure his ankle when taking an action dive to catch the frisbee…
For those creative creatures amongst us we had a wonderful session of music video making. All of our campers dressed up in our endless array of fancy dress costumes and made up dance routines to George Ezra’s popular song ‘Shotgun’. The clips for this will be displayed in our week recap video during Oscars night on Friday.
The adventure option for today was a firm favourite; canoeing. The campers have the opportunity to travel off-campus to Ellerton park to take part in many fun team building actives on the water as well as the opportunity to canoe in their teams on the beautiful lake in the sun.

Lunch was a great old British summer favourite of burgers and chips, accompanied by a plentiful supply of salads… So not to worry, they are all getting their 5-a-day! After lunch the next set of adventure campers went canoeing, whilst the sporting campers were treated to a lovely session of tennis on the tennis courts at the front of the school; enjoying the sun and even teaching some of our tutors how to play tennis as well as them! The creative campers were feeling musical again after lunch and took part in some karaoke in the theatre. There was an array of singing abilities… but everyone had a great time working in their teams to put on a performance to remember.

After a dinner of pizza, the evening activity was a relaxed movie night in the theatre. Blankets, pillows and even some sweets were brought down and the campers were able to watch a newly released movie ‘Jumangi rebooted’ which was enjoyed by everyone. Some of our tutors might have even enjoyed it more than the campers!

So now everyone is off to bed, excited and ready for tomorrow. The sun is on course to be shining as brightly as today followed by our famous L&E theme night tomorrow evening… stay tuned!

Click for Wednesday’s Photos

Thursday, 26th July

Then morning kicked off with a breakfast of crumpets and toast and cereal to fuel the day of activities. The sports activity for the morning involved the traditional British sport of croquet with a small number of keen and dedicated players. Morning adventure on campus took on the exciting challenge of archery learning basic archery skills and honing these on two targets. At the end of the session commencing a rapid fired competitive round involving tow teams with one shot per member. The delicious task for the creative morning group was the baking of muffins. Specifically these were iced with a time old favourite chocolate.

The off camp adventure option that spanned the day was rock climbing in the old quarry groups taking the challenge of four ropes. These ranging in difficulty from following cracks to grasping onto finger and toe holds to surmount the challenges. Many campers 


The afternoon session sport activities initially began with a intense match of rounders both teams sending it far and fast and far into the outfield. Though one team did have breakaway before the afternoon break. The other option voted unanimously by campers was a free swim session to escaped the oppressive heat of the day. The creative option for the afternoon involved optical illusions drawn on paper and created from cardboard for mind bending effects enjoyed to much delight to the campers.

With Thursday comes theme night and on this night we had a Disney murder mystery. Initially beginning with a fake Oscars with special guests from multiple Disney movies , but the as the introductions came to a close a scream and Mickey the Mouse had been murdered. Each the campers where given the task to commence a investigation into the motives and alibis of the Disney guests. Each of the Disney characters spread across the camp and were interview giving many stories and contradicting evidence and hints while offering campers activities. Bobbing for apples with snow white, pool noodle fights with general Chang and Giraffe stretching with Rafiki. While the rest of the characters where located around campus. The finale culminated in the interrogations and extra evidence presented by Sherlock Holmes. The the murder weapon being poisoned hair spray. Each character was voted against form the campers to who was the murder the prime suspect being Captain Jack Sparrow followed by prince charming. Though through DNA testing the true culprit was found to be Prince Charming himself wanting the Disney throne. Campers seized him as he tried to run and justice was served.

With the mystery solved and hot chocolate drunk all collapsed into bed after a eventful and enjoyable day.

Click for Thursday’s Photos

Friday, 27th July

Fridays at L&E can only mean two things, triathlon and the Oscars!!! Today began with a filling breakfast, which in turn pumped the campers up for their final dodgeball game of the week. To this date, the tutors have not yet managed to win in the classic dodgeball game of ‘tutors vs campers’, but there is still hope for the final week at north camp, fingers crossed!
Water polo proved to be the most popular activity this morning, as almost half the camp opted to play and prove their amazing water polo skills. The campers were dedicated to the game to the extent that they chose to play throughout their break, and in the end, following a tense stand-off of a 20-20 score, the game concluded with a decisive golden goal.
The creative session this morning was extremely successful as the campers drew portraits and in turn embraced their inner ‘Leonardo da Vinci’s’. The activity was enjoyed by all of those who took part, and hopefully we will be seeing some of the campers’ artwork in museums or galleries in the future!
Friday morning also witnessed the apparent arrival of Cupid, as there was love in the air in the English class. The campers took part in ‘Speed Dating’, which proved to be an excellent opportunity for them to get to know their fellow campers, but also to practice their English skills.
The main event of the afternoon was without a doubt the traditional L&E triathlon, where all the campers threw themselves into each activity. They split themselves into teams of three, where each person would either swim, complete the obstacle course or run laps of the field. The campers all completed the triathlon out of breath but with huge smiles on their faces, which is what we like to see!
Ultimately, the night concluded with the highlight of the week – the Oscars!! It was wonderful being able to acknowledge the success of the week as well as how amazing all the campers have been! After the awards ceremony, the campers danced the night away in a disco filled with excellent tunes before enjoying their hot chocolate and going to bed in high spirits.

Click for Friday’s Photos