Camp Photo
See if you can find me on this one! This was the first time I had been to Week A and I have to say that I was a little surprised at the number of people that were there. There are so many more than I'm used to seeing at Week B!
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360º view of camp field
This took us quite a bit of film but I'd never tried it before, so I thought it would be worth it.
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Tent View
A view from our tent on a sunny day. You can just see a few people playing volleyball further up the field.
Volleyball
A closer view of that volleyball game.
Tent life
Tom's getting comfortable on his luxurious camp bed.
Local cat
This wasn't the only cat that was found wandering around, but it was definitely the soppiest.
Village Photo
This is a large portion of our village, although a few people are missing. It's a pity it came out a little blurry.
Camp Photo
I like this photo. Mainly because I recognise a lot more of the people on it, compared to the Week A one, but also because there isn't any lens flare on this one! As a side note, Gus is holding the same letter as the previous week. He doesn't seem quite as cheerful, though.
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The beach at Charmouth
It was definitely quite a spectacular beach, what with the cliffs and the little stream running accross it. It was treacherous to walk along, though!
Beach walking expedition
A group of us decided to brave the pebbles and walk along the treacherous beach. This picture immortalises the brave members of that expedition (except for me). I can't remember the names of the guys at either end, but the people in the middle are, from left to right: Meryl, Jim, Jemma, and Sophie.
Duel re-enactment
Matt and Dan uncover some true dramatic talent with plastic swords that they bought in Exmouth on trip day.
Walkamime
Loads of people wacking each other with big plastic swords! What more could you want from a walkamime?
Volleyball
Volleyball was just as popular this week as the last.
Eldest Girls' Village
As everyone gets ready to leave, the eldest girls' village assembles for a final photo. Meryl and Jem had the hardest time staying in the same precarious position for all of the photos.
Camp Photo
Let's see if I can remember everyone's name. From left to right, along the top: Toby, Rachel, Russel, Patricia, Laura, Elaine, Katie, Simon, Michael (just below Simon, with little Paul on his back), Jo, Jon, Anna, and someone on the kitchen staff whose name I don't know. Now, the second row, from left to right: Steve, Paul, Sophie, Dave (with Edward under his arms), me (Giddie), Jemma, Lynn, John (with Charis on his shoulders), Lesley, someone else I don't know, and Sam. Now, the last few people at the front: On the left, we have Susan, Jim, Dave, and Ethan. Further along, on the right, there are two more people I don't know.
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Susan and Sophie
Well, they are actually both called Sophie, but at the beginning of the week, I renamed the one on the right Susan, in order to avoid any confusion. The three of us decided to have a stroll along the beach but Susan and I firmly refused Sophie's request to go paddling. Two minutes later, there we were paddling!
Garden - Before
The practical project for the week was removing the numerous weeds from a garden patch in the village. This is what it looked like before we started.
Weeding
Everyone's hard at work.
Robin
All the hard work caught the attention of one of the locals!
Garden - After
And, after all our toil and hard work, this is the result. I don't think it's as colourful, but there are certainly less weeds.
The foolish man
Our outreach project on the green, near the beach, consisted of three short sketches with songs in between each. This is a picture from the foolish man sketch - "he had a finger in every pie and a face in every pudding [SPLAT]".
The prodigal sheep
Another of the sketches told the story of two sheep who strayed away from the flock. The two escaping sheep are Big Dave and Susan (on the right, doing the sheep dance).
Susan, by Elaine
I warned Susan the if she squirted me with the water pistol (the one that Simon is shown holding), I would take a picture of her (she doesn't like having her picture taken). She squirted me, but she convinced me not to take a picture of her while she was spinning one of the boys (Ethan or Edward, I can't remember which). Elaine, however, had made no such promise, and took full advantage of that fact...
Russel, by Susan
In a desperate attempt to prevent me from taking a picture of her, Susan stole my camera and took the last couple of remaining pictures on the film. This one features Russel, looking very learned.
The Church
This is an outside view of the church in which the reunion took place. The bit we were living in was actually off to one side. It was a very nice place, I have to say.
Ducks, Part I
Here we see the common duck (or duckus quackus) in its natural habitat.
The habitat in question is the stream in the park a few minutes down the road from the church. Notice how happy they are swimming around - no competitiveness, or clambering over one another, until...
Ducks, Part II
The second picture in our analysis of the common duck indicates that a competitive nature can easily be induced in these greedy swimmers with the use of some stale old bread.
The Muno Team
It all started with an innocent game of Uno, and then it mutated into the hilarious neverending game we call "Muno". It's like Uno, but it's a lot crazier, and you're a lot less likely to finish a game in your lifetime. Like Jumanji, once you've started, there's no escaping until it's finished, and even then, there is no winner!
Caution - Muno players in action.
Jon picks up the lot!
Bulstrode
After the end of the Reunion, we went to the train station, only to find that all the trains had been cancelled due to the horrendously strong winds that were blowing all over the UK. However, John lovell kindly took me in his car to Bulstrode, where I spent a couple of nights before getting a coach back to Chester. I hadn't been to Bulstrode before, so I made the most of the opportunity to take a look around the place and take some photos. I also had quite a nice chat with one of the people who work in the IT department.
Castle-like Thingy
A nice-looking structure in the garden out the back. I assume it used to be a gatehouse or something like that.
