National Network Gathering 2008

This year Genus Network did something different for Easter. Instead of holding our own Easter Camp we decided to go to the National Network Gathering in the Lake District, joining Lynx and Sandiacre Networks in the process. The camp had plenty on offer, activities, fun & games, and much more. Genus members definitely made the most of the weekend.

Day 1

As per usual for an Easter Camp an early start was in order. We arrived at THAT cafe in Windermere in mid-morning and soon after met up with the Lynx contingent. Then it was off to the campsite for setting up camp, but not before a car rescue was in order as Dan (Lynx) managed to get his car stuck. Thankfully the rescue operation went well.

After setting up it was off to rock climbing for myself at a rock face near the campsite. Here I joined other Network members from across the UK, mainly chatting to ones from Yorkshire. For me it was the first time I had done rock climbing in nearly 6 years so I was really looking forward to it, and I even got to do some belaying, again something I hadn't done in ages. The other Derbyshire members went to an aquarium before heading to a pub for a carvery meal. I joined them later on after climbing.

We returned to the campsite and headed off for the main disco and Karaoke, and most of our group were keen to take part. We were struggling to think of a song to sing, and then in an eureka moment Josh suggested "Yellow Submarine" by the Beatles. We went for it and soon were called on stage to "perform" our piece, which we all thoroughly enjoyed.

Day 2

Day 2 was a full activity day. Andrew went on an extreme mountain bike ride whilst myself and Josh did High-Ropes, Air-Rifle shooting, and Archery.

First up was the High-Ropes course, which involved the following teamwork activities:

climbing up a "ladder" where the steps are so far apart that you have to help each other up, and the steps get more wider apart the further up the ladder.
making a tower out of milk crates and climbing it to see how high you can get, again helping each other.

For the ladder task Josh's team managed to get up to step 3 whilst my team got up to step 4. The ladder task was quite difficult but good fun, as was the tower task, which our teams also did well in.

Individual activities in High-Ropes were an aerial runway, a "leap of faith" where you jump off a platform and try to grab a overhanging bar, and a "one step drop" where you literally walk off a platform holding a metal bar and drop slowly to the ground whilst attached to a safety rope. The drop was very scary at first as your safety rope was NOT attached to a belayer, and I nearly bottled it but thankfully I succeeded to task, and I glad I did it.

After High-Ropes it was off to Air-Rifle shooting. Myself and Josh were certainly able to get our monies worth for this activity as we were 2 of only 3 to attend, plus the instructor, and were able to do the activity non-stop. Great fun indeed.

After lunch it was time for archery. A few basic rounds were done before we took part in some games of "Cricket" and "Tennis". Don't worry though; they don’t involve shooting at each other. The games use gameplay and scoring elements of Cricket and Tennis applied to Archery.

That was activities over for the day. For the evening we went out to a couple or random pubs.

Day 3

Day 3 and guess what greeted as we got up, that's right snow. It snowed quite a bit overnight and it was a glorious sight come morning, though spare a thought for Dan (Lynx), for whom the snow brought problems, mainly causing his tent to snap whilst he was in it. Thankfully he was OK and managed to find other sleeping accommodation (his car and then the frame tent).

Day 3 was more of a chill day with us going off sightseeing before having a snowball fight (Come on, there was snow about, we had no choice)

For the evening we headed down to the disco and comedy show, which I have to say was a bit disappointing mainly because we didn't have a clue what was going on.

Day 4

Day 4 was simple. Pack up and go!

Overall it was a brilliant camp and I would certainly recommend it to all Network members.

Adam Thompson

Photos

The rockface that I climbed up, not far from the campsite.	It's the circle of Gynxiacre!
Josh about to tackle the "Leap of Faith", where you have to jump off the ledge and grab an overhanging monkey bar. Both myself and Josh managed to do this.	Later on Day 2 we did Air-Rifle shooting...
...and Archery	Day 3, and SNOW!!
It was the first time I had ever camped in snowy conditions.	Snowball fights were inevitable. Here we are up against another Network (before then we were up against Merseyside)
	We had to have our own snowball fight.
	Hi Ho Hi Ho!