Hot on the heels of the climbing assessments, it was time for a similar session on the zipline last sunday. Steve Spalding popped down again and luckily the weather decided to behave itself for a change and everything went ahead as planned. 4 staff were getting trained/assessed and spent almost 7 hours in total trying out different setup techniques, practicing rescues and occasionally hanging around in an uncomfy harness because the rest of the group had forgotten about them (Coco). Stopping only for a brief lunchbreak (Morag's fantastic homemade soup being a welcome alternative to the usual Tesco Value cold meat sandwiches), the team headed straight back up to continue the session, although some had a bit trouble climbing back up the pole as they had eaten far too much. At the end of the day, everyone had learned a huge amount and felt much more confident about dealing with any unusual situations which may arise during zipline sessions in the future.
Above : Rescue practice
Above : Siamese twins
Above : Ginga getting a few tips from Steve
Above : Reinforced ground anchor
Meanwhile, back at basecamp, Brian had assembled a crack team of joiners, firefighters and general layabouts to try to add a new (free) conservatory to the front of the hut. He'd managed to pick this up from his neighbour, but unfortunately had forgotten what it was supposed to look like by the time he brought it to Fordell. After almost an hour of muttering and arguing, the team had worked out how the roof went together. Something then clicked, and within a whirlwind couple of hours the rest of it flew together. Although there wasn't time to fit the glass panels last week we managed to finish everything off this weekend - despite Ginga having a horrific accident when he plummeted from a 2-inch-high paving slab onto the ground. The final conservatory fits in pretty well with the existing hut and we look forward to testing it out during the summer months ahead.
Above : Brian tries to remember what it looked like before he took it to bits
Above : Colin boasts about the size of the fish he caught last week
Above : Unfortuntely Henry reveals that he caught a bigger one
Above : opening the window for a wee bit fresh air
Above : nearly finished
