Hello all!
Woah where's July gone? It only feels like yesterday that I was writing my last post about Hastings!
As many of you may know I have been super busy throughout July on NCS. I decided it'd be better to write about each week with its own individual post which will allow me to go into more detail without boring you all to tears.
Before I start i'll give you a very brief introduction to what NCS actually is. NCS is a 3 week (I want to say 'summer camp' but that's not really what it is) course away from home where you learn vital skills that you'll use in everyday life as well as have an absolutely amazing time with tons of memories and new friends.
Our wave traveled to Devon for the first week where we took part in a number of outdoor team building activities. The first activity we took part in was hiking! We walked for 13 miles which was definitely a struggle and there were many points where I thought I wouldn't have been able to make it to the end however with the amazing encouragement of my team all of us made it to the campsite.
Where can I begin with the camping experience? This wasn't my first time camping out in the middle of a field however I can safely say it was one of the worst! When we first arrived we were greeted by being shown the bucket that we were expected to PEE IN! That is one experience I will never forget. After this we had to assemble 5 tents to only find we had to later dissemble 2 of them and assemble a new bigger one so all of our team would fit! Whilst all this was happening 2 of our team mates did the cooking with the help of our mentor. Dinner was meatballs and pasta however hardly any of us ate it due the the very strange consistency of the pasta (worst pasta i've ever eaten sorry guys). Sleeping wasn't all that great either! 4 of us squished into a 3 man tent which left me squashed up against the side letting all the water from outside in. I was shivering constantly all night only to find out in the morning that I was left with the thinest sleeping bag! This all made the camping experience seem awful and probably doesn't make NCS sound that fun but looking back on it I had a great time and now have so many memories!
The next day we got up early to go rock climbing and scrambling! This was definitely one of my favourite days of NCS. We all hoped into a mini bus to drive us to the coach and we were on our way! It was in a lovely area and it's a shame I didn't bring my camera because it was the perfect place to do some photography. We started with rock climbing which is a lot harder than it looks and has made me realise I have absolutely no upper body strength what so ever. This was then followed by scrambling which of one of my favourite activities. It was basically climbing over and under rocks up hill till we reached the top at 200 meters. It was quite scary as you had no harnesses or safety equipment other than our helmets! On the way up I had to challenge myself to crawl through this tiny gap under some rocks and now i'm so proud that I did it. At the top there was a sheer drop which was called 'The Edge' it was so nerve racking knowing the quite easily you could trip over the edge and fall over 200 meters. At the top we took a team photo before making our way back down.
The next day was also amazing! We went Canoeing, Kayaking and Raft Building. I'd never been canoeing or kayaking before however i'd always wanted to! Both were extremely fun and i'll definitely do them again. whilst doing both we played games which were great and both times the team I was on won. My favourite game being whilst canoeing collecting balls and throwing them to the instructor each time he caught the ball you'd get a point. Raft building was also a lot of fun! Luckily for us my team had a lot of scouts in which meant knot tying came easily to them. Our teams raft stayed afloat and completed the race however the other teams collapsed as soon as it touched the water but they jumped in the water and swam the race meaning they came in first and insisted they'd won.
After this we came back and rushed for the showers before the mad rush of everyone else! In the evening after dinner we all had a final night disco in the barn which was amazing and very memorable I especially enjoyed the cha cha slide.
So that's everything I did in week 1 of NCS! It was amazing and I would recommend it to EVERYONE in years 11 & 12 if I could do it again I definitely would!
A new post will be uploaded very soon talking about week 2 so keep an eye out for that!
- Jessica ♡
that's so cool!
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