I was thankful to have time with my students in the morning doing other activities, while fellow Mentor Graham tackled the Leap of Faith with his team first, that way I had time to try and build up my confidence!!

When our time finally came, we walked up to the dreaded post where I had a chance to catch up with Graham. I was soooo pleased to hear that he had completed it even though he was worried about it too, and was even more pleased to see he had survived, (totally irrational – I know!!!)

During the morning some of the students and I had already agreed that if they jumped, then I would too, but as they each completed it one by one, my sickness and fear set in more and more and I had no idea how I was going to do it!! So my time came and my whole body was shaking and I felt even more sick, strapped in the harness my walk up the post began.

I tried so hard to contain myself, but halfway up the post I couldn’t help but stop to give me time to compose myself. As I was clinging to the post, all of the students were being so encouraging, I had to carry on and try to get to the top!! Once I finally reached it,  all I had to do was climb on top of the post, but fear had completely set in and I couldn’t move  a muscle, apart from my mouth of course – I screamed and shouted so loudly, I just couldn’t contain how scared I was!!

The students and instructor were so good, shouting that I could do it and giving me guidance on where to put my feet, I knew I couldn’t give up. It took every ounce of courage in my body to ignore how petrified I was, and step up onto the top. I then just had to jump and try to catch onto the trapeze!!

I can’t remember ever feeling sooooo vunerable but had to carry on, I took one finally breath and jumped – I managed to reach and cling onto the trapeze, but slipped pretty much straightaway and fell down into the safety of the harness!! Once I was brought down to the ground, I couldn’t believe that I done it – I overcame all of that fear and jumped!!

It took five minutes for me to get from the top to actually jumping (the longest five minutes of my life!!) -  It just goes to show that you can do anything you put your mind to!!! 

The bond they had formed was evident through the encouragement and banter they shared together, a truly special bunch of unique individuals coming together to overcome their fears and complete each challenge given to them;

 

It was the first full day our students were going to experience; they had only arrived the afternoon before and had been pretty much thrown in the deep end!

We started at 11am and didn’t get to camp until gone 6pm! Throughout the hike, there was a mixture of emotions, mainly negative ones, due to how heavy our bags were, how steep some of the hills and how long it was taking us to walk, but there were also some moments that were shared and created a great bond between them all!! Most of the students at some point wanted to give up and just couldn’t be bothered to walk any further, but we eventually made it to our camp!!!

It was so windy and cold when we arrived, but thankfully there was no rain in sight so we managed to get our tents up, water from the stream and stoves ready to cook with. After being fed and watered, some of the students went straight to bed, but some stayed up and took the opportunity to bond that bit more.

I also had the opportunity to take in the views and the moment, the stars in the sky were absolutely amazing and although I pretty much froze all night in the tent, I am so grateful for the experience!!!

Team the morning after Camping (some not looking too happy!!!)

I will keep every single moment, close to my heart and cherish everything I shared with the students and mentors!!

As part of our final presentation, we wrote a poem to describe our experience, here are the lines I wrote, which helps describe our journey;

Overcoming fears & gaining trust,

Working as a team was a must,

So proud of the progress made by our team,

We’ll never forget all that we’ve seen.

Young minds and hearts grown through our time,

Fond memories of OB will always be mine.

 The Hillary Team

Was a very long day but managed to get through it, even gave rock climbing a go – was so scary!!!

Am off again for some evening games now, so will go into more detail of our adventure as soon as I get another chance.

Start of Mountain Walk;

Tents;

My Attempt at Rock Climbing!!

Getting ourselves packed later for day of walking and camping tomorrow, will have to contend with wind, rain, hail and maybe some snow!!!

Had a great evening catching up with mentors and now with my belly full of a scrummy breakfast am waiting for the Mentor Morning to begin!!!!