Holiday camp reviewLooking back on a successful week

Kate has written at length on the Adventure Syndicate blog (link here) about the deeper currents that ran through the girls' bikepacking camp. In this shorter post I just want to highlight a few interesting observations from the surface.

• We were granted a 3 year licence from the Adventure Activities Licensing Authority back in the summer. During the bikepacking week we welcomed an inspector from Adventure RMS to do a moderation visit. It was great to have him along for a successful visit with some very positive feedback. Besides a sprained ankle which meant that one participant had to miss out on the cycling for the last two days, it was just the usual bruises and minor cuts you'd expect from a week's biking. To her credit the participant with the sprained ankle got a lift out to the campsite so she could hobble along and join in with the bivvy!
• The Green Drive Hall worked really well as a venue. There's biking in Culduthel Woods, which is looking really good thanks to the hard work of the volunteers at Culduthel Community Woods (link here). It's great to be building relationships with these organisations, keeping true to our ethos of working in small, local, independent networks wherever possible.
• Our distinctive full catering plan worked well, thanks to Sarah and her team at Red Pepper Catering. Feedback from parents on the full day timings (8am to 5.30pm) was very positive, and they enjoyed not having to make packed lunches (I know that feeling).

Looking ahead to Easter 2022, it's really a case of how to expand. We definitely want to cater for a broader - especially younger - age group, there's no doubt about that. We're going to offer some hill-based activities, and that will almost certainly require the use of a small vehicle. It was super special that we didn't use a vehicle once during the bikepacking camp, but that just isn't realistic for other activities such as hillwalking and rock climbing. So maybe a bit of compromise there, as long as we're not driving miles. Keeping going with girls and boys groups too: there is clearly demand for that based on the feedback received so far. It's an interesting one: in my view so long as there's plenty of socialising in the morning around breakfast, and in the afternoon for soup, then there clearly is an argument for offering boys and girls activity groups, and some mixed groups too.