Day 2: Exploring

Today we woke up prompt at 6.40am and after battling for shower rights and getting ready, had breakfast and packed our bags for the day. We left the lodge and began our journey to Brodick castle and beach. As the day's bloggers, we recorded the different species of birds we saw (our goal is to spot 25 different species by the end of the week and we recorded 18 today!). On our walk through Brodick we came across a field of highland cows which were very hairy but cute!
After investigating a bronze age house and playing factual/running around games on the beach, we walked back to the lodge and had lunch.

 Once lunch was eaten and everyone had a quick change into comfy clothes, we headed out to see the Highland Games which was a scenic 30 minute walk away. When we arrived we watched the sporting events, inluding caber tossing, boulder and barrel lifting and track races. Aswell as this, we browsed different stalls, watched the scottish dancing competition and ate chips. The bag pipe band was playing throughout and it was impressive as they made it look so easy!

When we got back to the lodge we split into pairs and began brainstorming for our John Muir awards. We chose different subjects and started preparing a presentation on our them whilst Ollie, Javie and Subin made our dinner. They made chile served with rice, nachos and cheese...yum! We will hopefully now watch the Olympics and cheer on team GB!

day 1: Stranded on Arran

Our quest to shore lodge bunkhouse began with the group meeting promptly at Glasgow station of which we departed from via a slow but fairly decent train. Immediately after reaching Ardrossan harbour, we caught the 3.15 ferry to Brodick and we finally had the opportunity to begin to mingle with our fellow team mates. After the ferry docked at Brodick, we wrestled our way onto the local bus and we were dropped off at the bunkhouse.

We reluctantly made our beds and decided on a rota for duties over the following five days.  Thank you to Andrew, Ali and Maddi for cooking a wonderful gourmet spaghetti bolognese on our first night at the lodge.  Your superior cooking skills will be hard to beat!

Whilst many of us will be heading to bed early tonight, some will be watching the Olympic Games opening ceremony which starts at 11.40pm. We are all eagerly awaiting the Brodick Highland Games which we will be attending tomorrow.

Thanks for all your hard work!

Hi, Lucy here again. I've just said goodbye to our second residential team after a morning on the beach.  The team were set the challenge of creating a sand sculpture based on something that they had done during the week.  Behold, the creation of Goat Shell!

Thats it from us for 2015, its been a great couple of weeks and we have hugely appreciated the effort put in by the teams of young folk that have joined us. I'm already looking forward to next year.... Thanks all!

We saw a Porpoise!

Twas a wee early morning to be had by us all. And all through the lodge folks were stumbling like drunks. We set out very early (seriously very early) at 8am after a hectic breakfast. After rioting on the local school bus, we went down a dirt track (for like, 2k might I add) the beach was reached! We met Andy, the lovely fellow, who kitted us up with litter-pickers, bags and clipboards!!

We scoured the lands for life threatening litter, but much to our relief, not much was found. This is due to the good work of COAST in Spring 2015, who cleared tons of waste off of Arran's beaches, and the considerate walkers and coastiers who pick up litter as they go. Interestingly, we found an 18kg gas canister, a football, a coconut shell and a tap-dancing shoe (we think). Whilst cleaning, a group of us stopped to watch a pod of porpoises playing in the Clyde! IT WAS AMAAAAZING!!!!!!

 We soon set off back to Brodick. Wilf and Alex had a 'Hat Off', which inspired the following Haiku;

Wilf and Alex fight

The deadly hat off goes on

The winner takes all 

#alexisthewinner

After visiting Brodick, we watched Lucy's mum, Sue, on her Exxpedition across the Atlantic Ocean, from the Canaries to the Carribean. The expedition consisted of 14 women with the aim of raising awareness of the plastic problem to marine wildlife and humans. This was both interesting and inspiring to us all to protect our planet. 

Finally we ate a well deserved (and well cooked) Roast dinner which was enjoyed by all and was a very yummy meal to end this exciting week on. Despite our sadness on the conclusion of this fun-filled week, this Haiku emphasises our happy times here;

 We've had some good times,

Are we all ready to leave?

Not presently, no.

 #muchbanterwashad

#bensoneliners

 

Suns out, guns out!

After breakfast and a quick meeting in the lodge, we were all ready for our next adventure in Arran. We walked for about 20 minutes through the beautiful castle grounds and on the way we spotted some tracks in the ground, which were most likely to be from a red squirrel. We then arrived at the area of forest where we were going to clear the Rhododendrons. We met with our guide Katie from National Trust of Scotland, who explained to us about the Rheodedodrum Poticus and how it has had  a negative effect on the forests ecosystem. She showed us how to safely handle the equipment we would be using and how to dispose of the plant after it had been cut ( in the fire!) We were so excited to get our hands messy and begin our hard work.

As soon as we had the equipment in hand, we arranged ourselves into teams and moved to different areas of the forest. We used a saw for the thicker branches and used clippers for the smaller, thinner branches.  As a team, we transported the Rhododendron cuttings into our huge fire to prevent it from resprouting from the fallen branches.

After hours of hard work, we were so excited to dig in to our sandwhiches for lunch and some chill time. We then continued with our work for another two hours and after making huge progress, we stopped working and tucked into  roasted marsh mallows around the fire with our group.

We thanked Katie for the awesome experience and headed back towards the castle. To our surprise, instead of heading straight back to Shore Lodge we got the chance to be small kids again and went to the Adventure playground. After 20 minutes we were fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to visit and enter the Bronze Age Roundhouse which is situated on the Castle Grounds.

A Golden Ticket

 How do you like your eggs in the morning? In a butty? After breakfast we started the morning walking towards Brodick Castle, with a slight detour to a pine cabin which amazed us all.

We then proceeded to the castle, but our attention was soon diverted by buzzards calling and a wide variety of plants from the foxglove to the Rhodedendron....both poisonous.

Just before reaching Glen Rosa much banter was had, as we stumbled upon a squirrels dining table,   a caterpillar and House Martins. As our luck looked as if it was beginning to run out in our search for Golden Eagles, we stopped by a flowing river for our lunch. This turned out to be a fantastic choice, as some of the lads decided to go for a paddle in the freezing cold water!

 

Suddenly our eyes were drawn to a pair of Golden Eagles flying over the valley! Success! We watched in awe as they provided a superb display. This brought our list of bird finds to 18 in just two days- Bill Oddie watch out!.

This rejuvenated the group dynamics, as shown by the smiling faces below. Here we reached a spectacular waterfall before turning back for home.

 On our way back to the lodge, we stopped for some delicious Ice Cream and cheese before adding even more birds to our tally bringing it to 21.

We settled into the lodge whilst being told of our evening activities. Educating others in a fun and innovative way. This broke any boundaries as we all got stuck in, some more enthusiastic than others!

An unsuccesful attempt at childhood games, we stopped and now await our delightful dinner- tuna pasta bake!

Great Goat Fell Fun

Today we met for breakfast between 8 and 9 this morning. We experimented with different sandwich fillers in preparation for our packed lunch on the mountain and stuffed ourselves with breakfast. We headed to the beach for 10:00 and appreciated the local wildlife- from Herring Gulls, Oyster Catchers and Red Throated Divers we made a note of the numbers of different species and their locations.
Once we had seen most of the wildlife on the beach, we played a game called Owls and Voles; we were told statements about Arran and if true the Owls chased the voles, if false, the voles chased the owls! This prepared us physically for our 6 hour hike up Goat Fell.

We took the 11:00 bus to High Corrie where we began our hike- acknowledging a (dead) slow worm at the beginning. We took a steep track through a lush green forest until we met the path that took us up the mountain. We were shown variations of plants, trees and flowers and the history of trees such as the Rowan Tree; growing bright red berries once used to make jelly and full of fibre. We climbed the rocky terrain up to a large stream where we had lunch and took some awesome photos of the view!

We continued our ascent to Goat Fell; the climb was steep to begin with but levelled out before we reached the summit- this was very deceiving. Ash claimed he saw red deer at the base of a hill but we couldn't distinguish them until we used binoculars on our descent. We finally reached the summit of Goat Fell where we took more awe inspiring photos of the fabulous view; trying to ignore the harsh, freezing winds. The descent was more pleasant and as a group we led the way, all involved in deep conversations about future plans such as university.

Finally, we made it back to Shore Lodge where we played The Logo Game and The Best of TV and Movies Game, rapidly demolishing the copious amounts of biscuits to re-gain our energy. Dinner was cooked by Meg, Ash and Oliver which was a delicious chilli and nachos- this went down very well. After a long day including 6 hours of hardcore walking, we were happy to crash on the sofa/ in bed, looking forward to tomorrow's installment.