Coven Day Two

We managed to camp on night one after all!

At about 6.30 p.m yesterday evening we conducted a tent inspection to discover that the tents had dried out better than expected.

Instead of having evening activities, such as diary writing etc. "Operation Tent Swab" came into force. Anything absorbent that the Centre had was pressed into service to dry the floors of the tents.

By 8.0 p.m., all the tents were dry with additional ground sheet linings fitted and full of Cheslyn Hay belongings. As the temperature was forecast to drop to near 2 degrees, all the kids were issued with two additional blankets.

They went to sleep relatively quickly and didn't come to until about 7.0 this morning.

The camp site with field toilet block to the left of the tree and main Coven Centre buildings behind

View of the camp site with the woods behind

Lewis recommends life in a tent

And so to Carding Mill Valley in Shropshire so named after the original water powered Carding Mill pictured above. The mill is now converted into residential flats

The first task of the whole group was to undertake a field study of the stream that used to power the Carding Mill and went on to flow into England's longest river- the Severn.

A baseline for accurate measuring was established and pupils told exactly how to map the two banks of the stream

How many metres to the far bank?

Josh checks the tape a second time

How do you discover the speed of flow of the river?

Section off a 20 metre strip with a start and finishing line and time how long it takes for the balls to pass the finishing post

The balls float downstream

And pass the finishing line.

A rain shower forced us to retreat to the coach and minibus for lunch. The rain did not deter some very tame sheep as Abby discovered!

In search of the source of the River Severn A very long walk to the top of the hill and down again

This car park used to be a reservoir for the carding mill

As this old sign proves

The waterfall near the summit

The last ascent and most hazardous part of the journey

That muddy puddle in the foreground is the source of the Severn!

The group are briefed about watersheds, the water cycle and what you see from the top of the Long Mynd.

We could see the Malvern Hills in the distance.

The children were again excellent today and not one moan about the length of the walk.

Meanwhile, spare a thought for Alex who had to have some emergency dental work. After phoning her Mum from the Coven office, she returned, minus one tooth, to rejoin the group this evening.

Tuesday, 23 September 2003 6:14 PM