Zipline training

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

Staff makeover

Above : modelling the snazzy new jackets before flagbreak on saturday morning.

After a few years of everyone wearing randomly coloured outdoor gear at weekends, things have now got a bit more coordinated after a large consignment of superb outdoor jackets and gillets arrived last weekend. It was agreed a few months ago by the Fordell Board & Bob that it would be beneficial if the volunteers could have some new outdoor gear provided in an effort to look better to visitors and also to keep them a bit warmer and drier during bad weather. After a meeting with local firm Keela, who provided us with a great offer, most of the staff took up the option of ordering new gear and duly collected it last weekend.

Despite a few sizing problems things seem to be sorted out now and the new gear seems hugely popular.


Above : Testing out the new jackets on an unlucky person (guess who) during sunday's downpour.

Soon after getting the jackets, the weather took a turn for the worse and gave some a chance to see how waterproof they really were.


Above : A narrow victory for the rain as the staff rush to the safety of the hut.

Saturday morning was fairly busy mainly due to a rearranged visit by Skillforce, who had cancelled a recent trip due to bad weather. A 3-hour activity block in the morning gave some of the fellowship who had recently passed their climbing assessments a chance to get in some supervised group experience, while the rest got stuck into a few odd jobs (and coffees).


Above : Zipline training on sunday was cancelled for fairly obvious reasons.

Saturday afternoon was much quieter until some silly person (not a million miles away from typing this blog) suggested it would be a good time to take all the mountain bikes out and give them a check. After taking over 10 minutes just to remove them from the activity store, it soon became apparent that it would be a fairly time-consuming task to service them all, so those needing work done were marked and moved elsewhere and the rest given a clean and routine service. Now we should have enough decent bikes to cope with normal weekend hires, and can work on the rest at our leisure as time permits. The bike store is also hugely less cluttered which should cause much less problems in the near future.


Above : the enormity of the task suddenly dawns on Tom


Above : Tom tries to make a quick escape while the others are busy testing the bikes.



Above : what we made with all the leftover bits of bikes.

After the bikes it was time for saturday tea, with half the fellowship staying on site to make up bags of sweets for the shop and the other half having an exciting trip to the centre of world motor racing (Cowdenbeath Racewall) for the stock cars. As soon as the stock cars finished, an amazing mini-hurricane hit Cowdenbeath, soaking those silly ones who hadn't bothered to wear their new jackets. The campsite was also hit by the freak weather, with one group's tent being blown away and the radio club having some of their wire antennas in the trees being blown down by the high winds.


Above : Ali and Ginga seconds before being caught skiving by Bob.

Onwards to sunday morning and it quickly became clear that the planned training session for the zipline wasn't going to happen, as the freaky weather continued with some snow. After struggling to think of something to keep everyone busy,Stevie hit upon the idea of testing out the new pool table which had recently been donated to the centre(and is now in the reception building). However, this plan didn't last longer than 5 minutes as Big Bad Bob appeared and insisted that everyone head out into the freezing cold and rain and move some wood from the carpark to the woodpile (and we couldn't use the excuse about not having decent waterproof gear anymore).


Above : near disaster as tired Calum falls asleep inside the bouncy castle and gets rolled up inside it on sunday afternoon.

The rest of sunday was quiet in terms of activities, so everyone got stuck back into the bikes again and managed to service / repair about 6 more which was good going.

The past few weekends have also been pretty productive - here's a few photos of some of the action. The biggest task was to load most of the (900ish) old quad track tyres into a lorry and take it up to another outdooor centre a couple of weeks ago. Despite initial optimism that we could get them all in one load, it quickly dawned on everyone that this would be impossible and several runs were required (thanks to Brian for driving it up and down)

Above : Lorry full of tyres and still several hundred left to go...

Steve Spalding also popped in a couple of weeks ago to carry out assessments for the climbing and jacob's ladder, and the sessions went very well with a great attendance from the fellowship. There were also a lot of newly-qualified rope instructors which will be a huge help during the summer, and since then some of them have been back in getting some group practice under supervision before they are allowed to start running sessions themselves.

This weekend Steve's hopefully back again to carry out assessments the zipline (weather permitting) so hopefully we'll have a wee report up here shortly.


Above : this month's caption competition (winner will receive a trendy extra-tight harness like the one Calum is modelling here)

Snow at last

At long last, the much-awaited winter weather finally arrived at Fordell last weekend, much to the delight of the kids staying on site, and some of the staff of course.With only the Henderson Centre occupied (by a cub group) there weren't too many activities running (some also being cancelled or changed due to the weather). A late cancellation from a group up north meant that there were more staff than were required to run activities, so work progressed on a few ongoing projects as well.

Starting slightly later than usual on saturday (an extra couple of coffees being essential to keep the cold at bay), the first task was to build a campfire for the crazy cubs to enjoy in the evening, despite the fact that the small campfire circle, and seats, were covered in snow and frost. Survival guru Ginga, who once survived for 3 months at the North Pole living on only a single Tunnocks Teacake and 5 grains of rice, quickly took control and within 15 minutes had built a wonderful fire using his patented pallet-technique.


Above : Ginga has a cunning plan to melt all the snow on the site.

Campfire built, a short detour was taken on the way back to the staffhut to investigate the frozen pond at the back of the campfire circle. Despite initial appearances, the ice wasn't as thick as it appeared and a very minor rescue operation had to be organised when one of the plumper members of the Fellowship fell through the ice into the perishing (6 inch) depths.


Above : Scott of the Antarctic taking risks.

The cubs were still keen to take part in activities, despite the cold, and split into 3 teams for caving, challenge course and climbing. Caving wasn't affected by the snow; climbing was OK except for the temperature and the challenge course was just a bit more challenging than usual, some of the obstacles being out-of-bounds after being iced-up.


Above : Cubs and leaders having fun on the challenge course.


Above : Cubs arrive at Fordell to discover that the Henderson Centre isn't quite as big as it looks in the brochure.

With the snow limiting what work could be done, all 6 staff ended up doing the same task in the afternoon, replacing the door at the caving complex. The plan was to replace the old solid wooden door with a metal mesh one - mainly to improve ventilation when the caves aren't being used. A couple of hours later, and despite everyone getting in each others way (not helped by a huge invasion of excited cubs midway through), the new door was fitted.


Above : Fitting new caving door - 4 staff required...one to fit it, two to watch and one to get accidentally locked inside.

Next task was for Bob to take some photos which will be used in new promotional brochures for the centre. Some of the cubs had willingly agreed to pose for photos of some of the activities, including the new traversing wall, circus skills, stilts, spacehoppers and slingshots. Everything went to plan with the exception of the stilts, which were a bit too tricky for the cubs - although the problem was solved by propping the cubs up against the wet weather hall wall (which may be cunningly photoshopped out for the brochure).


Above : Auditions for 'Fordell's got Talent 2009' in full swing.


Above : Cubs attempting to launch Bob into space.

Sunday continued in much the same manner with a mixture of activities, odd jobs and copious amounts of tea and coffee consumed in the staffhut. Sadly the snow has pretty much disappeared now but it looks like there's a fair chance we'll see it back soon.

Spot the difference

Above : Huge mole caught in the act on the main field

Well, things are still pretty quiet here at the moment due to the time of year and cold weather, but there's been a huge amount going on in the past few weeks. Visitors should notice quite a few changes since the new year, and here's a quick photo summary.

We've been busy...digging a huge trench across the main field to allow the radio club to connect to their aerial (and to supply power to the centre of the site for big events)...refurbishing downstairs in the Richmond Chalet...digging a drainage ditch behind the chalet...installing a new PA system into the wet weather hall...putting up a new climbing (traversing) wall in the hall...doing some more DIY work in the staffhut as well as the usual onsite activities for the groups who have been staying. Anyway, enough waffle - here's the photos.

Above : Halfway through digging the trench for the cables




Above :digging a drainage ditch to coax the rainwater away from the Richmond Chalet.

Above : Newly-refurbished dining room with kid-resistant plastic easy-clean walls. May also be the world's largest whiteboard now.

Above : New Richmond kitchen midway to completion

Above : starting out on the new traversing wall in the wet weather hall

Above : Come and have a go - those who suffer from vertigo need not apply :-)

Above : We were delighted to receive a visit from Mr Rod Stewart, who unveiled the new PA system. Despite having put on a bit of weight in recent years, his voice is still in top form.

Above : The Bridge of Weir scouts resorted to desperate measures in order to save diesel while travelling to camp

Above : Staff weightlifting endurance competition - Bob showing everyone how it's done with a winning time of 1 minute 30 seconds

Above : Ginga showing everyone how it's not done with a dismal time of 26 seconds

Happy New Year!

Above : Just a normal sunday flagbreak.


Hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year - although the centre's open again there's not too much happening for the first few weeks so here's a wee look at what's been happening in the last month.

December started off with a fairly quiet weekend activity-wise, which meant only one thing for the staff...lots of time to get on with moving the endless pile of tyres from the old quad track down to the main car park. The good news is that the task is almost over, and they should be disposed of in the near future, but in the meantime visitors can experience the majestic sight of 'Michelin Hill' as they drive in (and it is even on the official site map, thanks to Ian).


Onwards a weekend and it was the long-awaited staff/Fellowship Christmas party. This year we were thrilled to receive a visit from not only Santa, but also a certain Buzz Lightyear and his friends during the same weekend (see photo above)...and although there was mild disappointment when they turned out to be the local cub sea scouts in disguise, their efforts were much appreciated and livened up the weekend.



Above : Ali wins the Christmas talent show with his fantastic Kenneth Williams impression once again.

After last year's successful Archery competition, it was time to try out the new crazy golf centre along at Halbeath for the highly competitive staff competition. Despite freezing weather everyone had a lot of fun, with old pro Henry teaching the youngsters a thing or two about how to play (see our exclusive video highlights at the end of this post). After that it was back to Fordell to get warmed up then off for a meal locally and back again to the conference room for another first - a staff quiz. Cheers to Lindsey and Claire for organising this, it was great.


Above : Nearly there - moving a few more of the tyres from the old quad track at the start of December.


Onto the following weekend and we had a youth football team staying in the Henderson, who turned out to have one of busiest programmes of any group we've had staying...saturday saw them taking part in onsite actitivies for a couple of hours then being driven through to Lanarkshire straight after to play a game...then straight back for more activities!
The only problem at this time of year is the lack of daylight hours, which resulted in us running out first ever fully-floodlit bungee trampoline session early on the saturday afternoon!







Above : Not much daylight in December - time between first and last photos was under a minute! Well, nearly.



Although the centre is usually closed between Christmas and New Year, this year we had a busy weekend on the 27th/28th with a group of Edinburgh scouts staying in the Henderson Centre. The weather was pretty kind and although it was chilly in the mornings there wasn't much in the way of rain or indeed snow so all activities went ahead as planned.



Above : Edinburgh scouts enjoying a very cold climbing session on the 27th December.





Above : The Dalgety Bay Ramblers popped in on the 28th December during one of their walks through Fordell estate and seemed surprised to see that there were actually groups staying and even pitching tents in the freezing cold.



Above : the highlight of today's blog...sit back and relax whilst old pro Henry gives you a golf lesson!