Issue 82 | Autumn 2020
News from Bablake
Messing about
on the River
D
uring half term, over 70 pupils from Shells to Fourth Year took part in an outdoor adventure trip to the Severn.
After an early morning minibus drive to the river, (Mr Wright’s choice of music is interesting) and following a safety briefing, we got into our canoes. The first task was to paddle upstream to get used to how the boats behaved in the river current. It turned out that this was quite hard work, especially if the other person in your canoe doesn’t paddle.
www.bablake.com
Once the group had been rescued from the riverbank, our instructor said that the next task was to canoe in a straight line and avoid all the people enjoying their quiet weekend fishing. This also proved to be difficult. Luckily, the current meant that most people were, on average, moving in the right direction. The journey down the river was spectacular; autumn colours made the valley look beautiful and we even saw a number of kingfishers. We paddled under a bridge taking the Severn Valley Railway and even saw a steam train. There were a few patches of rapids, which added to the excitement although most of us managed to stay dry in our boats. It was at this point, my partner in
the boat, who was steering us, decided that we needed to take a closer look at one of the trees on the riverbank. Once we had removed the branches from our helmets, we moved on and it wasn’t long before we saw our next challenge. Rounding the river bend, we came across an old railway bridge and were told that we needed to stop on the bank just beyond it. Getting out of the boats was one of the hardest parts of the day, as we tried to pull ourselves up the muddy bank with various degrees of success. Once on dry land, our instructors set up an abseil from the bridge. We all had a few goes before it was time to get back in the boats and complete our journey to Bewdley, where we made some hot