End of the Summer in Pembrokeshire…
Since getting back from India my feet have barely touched the ground. Straight back to work in and what seems like the end of summer in Pembrokeshire! After a great few days surfing, bouldering and adjusting back to life in Wales, I had a couple of days working for Coastal Adventures who had a group of Venture Scouts doing different activities with them. We had a day climbing at Porth Clais and a day out at St Davids Head. The team did a heap of climbing and were very independent which was mega, so we just had to mostly put some climbs up then spot Porpoises…
Climbing at St Davids Head
A day personal climbing at Stennis Head followed, being all of 40 minutes away I don’t get to climb here often as its hard to pass on incredible climbing just a short 10-20 minutes from the house! Joey and I did a few quality routes before rain stopped play… I was back in the area the next day for Day 1 of our Mountain Training Rock Climbing Instructor Training course. With stellar weather we made the most of the day focusing on personal climbing and abseiling and all the skill that entails, and making everything gold standard and perfect! Now the course is 3 days long it gives us so much more time to really get these skills dialed for the candidates – we could easily have carried on longer though!
RCI Training in Pembrokeshire
A day inside at the Haverfordwest Climbing wall coincided with properly horrible wet weather outside, so we smugly looked at coaching, personal sport climbing skills, games/warm-ups, climbing indoors with groups and managing assistants amongst other thing… Day 3 saw us back outside, at St Davids Head. With lots of flora/fauna/access/conservation talk on the way out, we then looked at what we covered indoors the day before in and outdoor context, before rigging ropes for group climbing and abseiling. It wasn’t long before the obligatory Porpoise sighting either..
RCI Training Course in Pembrokeshire
I took a family climbing for the day after that, Carole had been in touch for a long time to try to organise a day when we could get out. I rarely do climbing taster sessions for my own company these days, but when I get as cool and competent and keen to learn a family as the Cranes, it makes it so worth while! Young lads Lucas and Alec (and mum and dad!) cruised up all the routes I could throw at them, developed their climbing technique, and learnt loads of rope-rigging skills along the way. Thanks for such a fun day guys!
Family day out climbing in Pembrokeshire
After that I had the pleasure of working with Coastal Adventures again with a group of instructors I’m lucky enough to call close friends, and the group we were working with were from different renal units throughout Wales. With many of the group being on dialysis or having other associated issues, all the outdoor activities had other obstacles to overcome, but no one let anything get in their way or stop them from doing anything. We climbed, kayaked, coasteered, surfed and Sup’d over 5 days, had an amazingly fun time and as always, got shown how you can achieve anything if you just try. Thanks for a phenomenal week to all involved!
Climbing in Pembrokeshire with the Coastal Adventures group