Back to Beaumanor.

This weekend, we had a return trip to Beaumanor Hall nine months on from our previous trip.  There were some similarities and some differences between the two trips.  This time in addition to the cabins with bunks, there was the option to camp, either in pre-pitched tents or taking your own.  As last time there was a mix of (optional) paid-for activities for our group with the centre, self-organised things and free time.

K & M were keen to camp and A happy to as well, in the new-to-us tent that was a hand-me-down from my brother.  I don't camp so I stayed in the cabin with a couple of other families (most people did camp though).

We got there mid-afternoon on Friday in the rain, but it cleared enough to get the tent up without too much difficulty and for a good time to be had playing outside and exploring.

On the Saturday we had two organised activities arranged.  In the morning we had 'challenges' of which there were four.  The first one involved a cross with half a dozen concrete filled tyres on each of the four arms, the group was split into four and given a wooden plank that was long enough to reach between the tyres.   The aim was to get all of the people from the end of their arm, to the middle and then to the end of the arm to the left.  The rules were that you couldn't have more than two people on any one tyre and if anyone fell off a tyre the team had to go back to the start.  We did really rather well and everyone co-operated beautifully.  Mark, the Beaumanor bloke, told us that they allow half an hour for this activity and all sorts of groups do it, from schools to corporate ones.  We took about 15 minutes, but it often takes groups up to an hour and even though the aim is for *everyone* to get where they need to be, sometimes people push other people off!

The second activity was in the sports hall and this time was a bit more competitive.  We got into four different groups and stood on wooden benches (the sort you have in school sports halls).  Firstly we had to organise ourselves, without stepping onto the floor, into height order, then in order of shoe size, then in order of house number but without speaking.  After this each group was given three carpet square 'stepping stones' and had to get across a 'swamp' to another bench.  This was subsequently made progressively more difficult as the benches were moved apart and then swamp monsters joined in who could try to steal the stepping stones.

The next activity was hide-and-seek in the cellars under the hall.  M got a bit teary about this, as she's really quite claustrophobic, but she really pushed herself and managed to join in.  She stuck with a friend the whole time, but by the end was quite enjoying it and was glad she had given it a go.  The cellars are quite extensive with quite a number of different rooms and plenty of nook and crannies and pillars for hiding.  The hiders were given time to hide, then the lights were turned off and the seekers came looking with torches.  It was really good fun!

The only slight dampner, which happened at the beginning of the hide-and-seek was that Mark, who was otherwise excellent as a leader for both the morning challenges and the afternoon activity, asked for 'strong boys' to carry a box.  That alone would have been just a bit annoying, but when I challenged him and suggested he meant 'strong children', instead of accepting he'd made a mistake he tried to say that he just happened to want boys (and this was in a group of children where there were not only more girls than boys but the oldest and biggest couple of children happened to be girls).  That irked me more than the original comment.

The final challenge was the pirate canons.  These consisted of mounted drainpipes, large plastic bottles with special nozzles, softball balls and hand pumps.  We had to fill the bottles 1/4 full of water, fit the pump tubes into the top of them, load them into the bottom of the canon, put the softball in the top and start pumping.  There were some pirates to aim at some way away.  The pressure built up in the bottles until the pump tube was pushed out, the water shot out of the back and the bottle and ball whizzed towards the pirates.  This was very entertaining too.

M pumping the canon.

In the afternoon, there was a smaller group of us taking part in the organised activity, canoeing, partly because there was a lower age limit of 7.

There were a dozen of us including Mark and after kitting us out with floatation jackets and paddles at Beaumanor, it was a short minibus ride to the river.  We had the choice of going in separate canoes of 2-3 people (depending on size) or lashing a couple together to make a sort of canoe-y raft, which is what we did.  What we did was a circuit on river and canal that took a couple of hours.  It was surprisingly interesting as it took in not only a lock, which we had to work, but also a weir; we had the choice of getting out and walking along the bank to the bottom or getting our feet wet and helping walk the canoes down it, about half of us went for each option.  In addition to those things, we also picked a few very big and juicy blackberries which were hanging over the canal and paddled past a naturist doing his thing in his garden; he has a big hedge of evergreen trees at the bottom of the garden, but the bare trunks meant you could see in just about to waist high! I don't think any of the children happened to see him, but the look on some of their faces when they asked what we were laughing about (Mark had told us that when he'd mentioned it to the teacher of a school group he was taking out, she had seen the man and screamed and pointed, which meant that all the children had turned and seen him too!) was absolutely classic.

The canoeist (except K who generally avoids photos).

In the evening, M, L and K organised some 'wide games', although some weren't particularly 'wide'.  We played dob, stick in the mud, blind man's buff (mostly with adults being the blind men) and a game where you have to get a set of keys from underneath the chair where a person is sitting blindfolded and they then have to guess who took them in the space between the cabin and the camping area.  Then once it was getting dark we moved to the formal garden area, where we played 'manhunt', which is basically hide-and-seek but you are allowed to move about.

A in blindman's buff.

On Sunday morning it was time for C's treasure hunt (a requested repeat from the last visit).  There was a bit of tension as a few of the older boys wanted to run on and get to the next clue as quickly as possible, while most were happy working things out co-operatively, but this was sorted out so both could happen without spoiling it for each other, and it went really well after the first couple of clues. 
A & I struck the tent while K & M were off treasure hunting and had pretty much packed up by the time they got back.

All in all it was a lovely weekend.  The activities, both those arranged by Beaumanor and ourselves, were great fun.  There was a games room with table football, table tennis and a mini pool table, as well as space for the crafty things that people had brought along.  Meal times worked brilliantly, the first evening Ma baked an enormous number of potatoes and we had brought along our own toppings and the same with pasta the next night.  Apart from some very minor inevitable little disagreements everyone got on really well and we met some lovely new people.  And it's always a good sign when both children and adults are talking about 'next time' before you even leave.