Activities – Gorge Walking Climbing & Abseiling

On arrival at Dinas Rock, the car park was empty and very peaceful, the sun was just creeping over the tree tops and wagtail birds were bouncing around the cracks of the rocks looking for breakfast…Unlike me that passed MC Donald’s en route and had made a little detour. Nick Meers a local photographer from Hereford had come along for the day and as he got out the vehicle, I noticed his pupils dilate as the inspiration instantly started firing up. I got the feeling he was going to take better pictures than the usual photos I capture from time to time when I remember to take my camera with me! By 9:30am the car park had become quite vibrant as other groups started to arrive with excited people ready to take on their activities.

After setting up for the mornings climbing & abseiling session I headed down to the Angel Inn car park to meet the group. Unlike most Saturday mornings when I usually have twenty guys on a stag weekend to contend with, on this occasion I was graced with five beautiful young ladies from South Wales on a team building event. By the time I got back to our activity site, there must have been one hundred people divided between seven or eight groups. It was worth getting in early and having the best pick of climbs and area to operate from, which made everything much better for our group. I had our climbs / abseil set up by 9am and a coffee in hand just before anyone else arrived. The rock face was a little wet to start with but dried quickly and was fine by the time the group were ready to start.

After kitting up the group we cracked on with an introduction to climbing session. Some of the group had climbed before but it acted as a good refresher / warm up for them and was really good for the novices. I always like running things in this order, during the introduction to Rock Climbing you can teach the group how to get into a good seated position for abseiling, while they are being lowered after each climb and the whole session acts as a great warm up for Gorge Walking / Scrambling in the afternoon. On cold days like this was, it’s always a bonus to keep everyone dry and warm for the first part before they head into the gorge, then after the activity has finished they can get changed and head straight to the pub for tea and medals!!

With only five members in the group, we got through our introduction quite quickly and ascended to the top of the abseil. Luckily everyone had small bums, so we just about got away with sitting at the top together. If there was anymore, (Or big bottoms in the group) we would of had to split up. Everyone completed the abseil, which was great and they genuinely seemed pleased with their achievements. While I dropped the ropes and packed away our climbing gear, the group had a short break and continued to get to know each other. As the group finished their lunch, we had a good chat about choosing the best wetsuit. Color seemed to be more important than size on this occasion! By the time we were ready to enter the gorge, there wasn’t a single person in sight. Everyone got the usual “cold shock factor”, as they hit the water for the first time and I was amazed that none of the girls makeup ran one bit. Their max-factor seemed more waterproof than my dry-bag, VERY impressed as was Nick the photographer! The girls worked really well together and came across like they had all been friends for years.

By the time we got to the Gun Powder Works it was easy to see the girls were ready to finish on a high. A couple of the girls were a bit apprehensive at first and really took themselves out of their comfort zones while the others absolutely smashed the big jump at Loonies Leap. They then ran back to the top to encourage their new friends to throw themselves off as well! Very well done from a very impressed instructor!

Loads more photos of our Pageant Ladies Team Building Day – South Wales can be found on our Facebook page