RM Outdoor Adventure: Crainlarich Residential Work...

Lunch spot on Loch Dochart island...

For the past 3 weeks (4th - 22nd July 2016) I have been working in Crainlarich on behalf of Can You Experience. The work has been based out of the Crainlarich youth hostel and has involved the running of a variety of activities for a range of youth groups from both Glasgow and Ayrshire.

Each group started their week on Monday which involved ice breakers, team building games and generally bonding as a group. On the Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays of each week the groups would alternate between three different activities. The activities included Canoeing, Mountain Biking and Hill Walking.

Myself and Lucy ran the canoeing with Ryan, Lee and Scott doing the mountain biking and Darren and Danny doing the hill walking.

Loch Dochart castle...

Flying the jolly roger on the river...

Due to the age range of the young people, ability level and weather conditions we were fortunate enough to do ensure every group was catered for.

The canoeing was run on the river Fillan and involved a down river journey to Loch Dochart in order to have lunch at Dochart Castle. The castle was built by Sir Duncan Campbell between the years of 1583 and 1631.

After lunch we would generally build a diamond raft and allow the team to race back up river to Crainlarich. The fastest time being 56 minutes and the slowest time being 1 hour and 16 minutes.

Once back at Crainlarich we allowed all of the groups the opportunity to swim in the water before a thorough debrief back at the hostel.

A tough but rewarding few weeks of youth work.