Snowdonia National Park

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Today was spent undertaking some planned visits to local areas of interest.  The day started with a visit to Electric Mountain, a hydro pump storage electric generating plant located under a mountain in Northern Wales.  We ended up over a km under the mountain!  We then did a trip up Snowdon Mountain on a small cog driven mountain railway.  Although not a serious hike, the 6 – 7 + hour walk, up what were some very serious trails for 11 year olds would have been beyond many of the students on camp.  Having climbed up to waterfalls on the mountain the previous day, the trip on the railway felt in order.  For the students getting up so high, and amongst the clouds was a first experience for many of them.  Speaking to Head Teacher Charles Davis, the risk benefit to having the children climb the mountain themselves could not be legitimised. 

The day ended with a hike up an old slate mine, where children collected slate for a later art project back at Moulsecoomb School in Brighton.  Although we began today with a fairly set planned educational program, the day ended with a serious physical challenge.   Walking the slate path, miners, (many of who were close to the students own age), in only the last century, took this walk daily to work up the side of the slate mine. It really gave the children an appreciation of working conditions in the mine at the time. The old stone structures that once housed a workforce of some 3000 were also explored.    The path up was steep and physically challenging with many students wanting to stop. Fortunately they persisted and were rewarded with fantastic views. The descent was also quite challenging and ended late in the afternoon.  There was a great sense of achievement from the students and by the time they arrived back at the hostel all the pain seemed to have been forgotten!

What was important about today, was there was still a outdoor based element.  Although not the focus of the day it connected to what was being studied.  Learning through being outdoors with a physical hands on component tested students both physically and mentally.