Visits and Exchanges Geography Field Trip to Arran, June 2017 Day 1: Travel day On Saturday morning we gathered at school to begin our long coach trip to Ardrossan Harbour. We loaded our overflowing bags onto the coach and began the journey which included what Mrs Tooby-Smith called ‘a two minute toilet stop’ but constituted a ten-minute stop for the boys to ensure their food supplies were fully stocked! When we arrived at the harbour we had some time in which we all took a quick trip to Asda to, again, grab some snacks to get us through the final leg of the journey. As you might have already guessed, food was a recurrent theme during our trip! On our arrival at Brodick we took a final coach journey to our home for the next few days: Lochranza fieldwork centre. Unsurprisingly, our first priority that night was to suss out the best mobile signal spots (behind the equipment storeroom) and we received the good news that for the first couple of nights we were the only school in the centre, which meant optimum seats in the common room for our nightly Love Island viewing.
Day 2: Saltmarsh and Slope day On the first morning we arrived into breakfast feeling slightly sleepy from the boys’ late-night competition to who could bang the wall the loudest. Nevertheless, we fuelled up for the day and were raring to go for the first morning of fieldwork on the salt marsh followed by an afternoon collecting data on the hills. Here we learnt lots about the geology (and the midges) of Arran from our two tutors Gayle and Hannah. Despite our best negotiation we did not have the night off classroom work,
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The Peterite 2016-2017
but were reassured that we would be finished before Love Island came on, which eased our clamour.
Day 3: Coast day Tuesday saw a slight drop in numbers from Monday on the optional morning run with Mrs Tooby-Smith; however, her stamina had not put everyone off. After breakfast we headed to the coast where we collected some data before spending the rest of the day walking the many miles to Blackwaterfoot. Luckily the sun shone on us for the whole walk and we further added to our knowledge of geology and enjoyed a cairnbuilding competition in which Ollie and Eddie came out on top. That night when we returned some of us were sporting a slight glowing tan while others wore a more reddish flush and learnt that even in Arran you can burn!
Day 4: Human Geography day On Wednesday we found ourselves doing human geography. However, this really meant being chased around Brodick by Mr Bowden! At least we were reconnected with civilisation for the first time in a couple of days. We had to fill out several worksheets and talk to the locals (average age: 70 years) to complete our questionnaires. It made a change from measuring rocks and counting grass types in a one square metre quadrant. One of the highlights of the day was the opportunity to buy more food. Some of the ‘lads’ decided to stock up on the ‘Weetabix-on-the-go’ drink and protein shakes, as it was bulking
