This last week I’ve been working for Coastal Adventures, on a multi-activity development week, with a bunch of great young people. It’s getting busy now we’re into the ‘summer’, and luckily for us here in Pembrokeshire, the weather has been awesome. Coastal Adventures is a relatively recent addition to the Pembrokeshire outdoor industry, but is run by Martin, who has been in the area for many moons! He loves working with groups not just running outdoor activities, but using those activities to develop ourselves, learn new life skills, boost confidence and self-esteem. With funding cuts in other sectors that have led to closures of centres that provide this sort of opportunity to young people, its great that people like Martin and Coastal Adventures have stepped up to fill this gap in Pembrokeshire.
When the group arrived we set the week up with personal expectations and goals, fears and worries, then got into an afternoon on the High Ropes course at Newgale Lodge, where the group were staying. On Tuesday we spent the whole day based at Porth Clais, where we climbed and kayaked, the group all put loads of effort in and pushed their comfort zones and had a top time! A morning surf with pretty decent waves at Newgale beach left us the afternoon to prepare kit for our canoe journey down the River Teifi the next day. We went all the way down to Cardigan, passing some super nice scenery that you’ll only ever see if you get out in a boat and paddle down the river, and had a generally all-round nice time!
Sea-Cliff Climbing at Porth Clais
The teams last morning was spent Coasteering at St Nons, where they swam in the sea, got washed around by the waved, climbed, scrambled and jumped their way along the coast. A super fun morning that the team all felt they might not have been able to face first thing in the week. Weeks working on this sort of course with Coastal Adventures always remind me how much we can all push ourselves to try new things and develop our own skills, and that we should never stop trying to learn!
The team after a successful and fun week with Coastal Adventures