Beamish Wild - School Holiday Camp

Beamish Wild are expanding their offerings to include School Holiday Camps. Today was a sampler day that we had been invited to try out. I’ll admit that we’d never been to Beamish Wild before today, but had been to an event at Beamish Hall. Imogen has tried a few tree top adventure / high rope courses, but Abigail has usually been to small. Today was her chance to challenge herself.

Beamish Wild – Wild Camp School Holiday Club

The Wild Camp is aimed at Children aged 6 – 13 years old. Our Abigail had only just turned 6 and I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure how she would take to it. Adventure is in her heart, but she also likes her own space to create her own adventure (usually with dolls). We arrived nice and early and got some extra time on the Adventure play area, before the rest of our group turned up.

Usually you would leave your children with the staff at Beamish Wild. As today was a taster session to share the experience, tried to observe, but occasionally got “roped” in!

Use discount code Blog17 to get a 10% discount when booking a place at the Wild Camp School Holiday Club

Beamish Wild School Holiday Activities

Our day was based upon 4 activities each posing a challenge and each with a personal goal. Before we even got near the equipment we our kids had a quick safety briefing and were kitted up with safety harnesses and helmets.

Beamish Wild Safety

When everyone was happy we made our way through the woods to the first location. First up was Crate Stacking.

Crate Stacking at Beamish Wild

The idea behind crate stacking was to stack 4 column of milk crates as tall as you could… with two people standing on the top! The top two were secured onto support ropes. The personal challenge was to go as high as you felt you wanted to go. The higher the crates were stacked the more wobbly the tower became. Tom (Beamish Wild – Leader) was brilliant with the kids and was able to encourage them to push their ‘limits’. Although Abigail did get a little scared at 6 crates high, she was given the option to try an extra level. Which she did.

Beamish Wild Crate Stacking

Tree Creeper at Beamish Wild

This activity involved climbing a tree. The tree had been set up with hand and feet holds, just like a climbing wall. Again safety was important and we were given clear instructions, before taking our turns to be attached to the safety rope. Just like with the Crate Stacking, each child had their own aims and goals. Some that wanted to climb to the top, could only manage about a fifth of the distance. But it didn’t matter how far they climbed it was about creating the personal challenge. Abigail got about 5 or 6 steps up the tree.

Tree Climbing at Beamish Wild

Den Building at Beamish Wild

We’d been den building before, but as a family. This time the emphasis was on the kids to work as a team and build their own den. The rules were the den had to be big enough for them all to sit inside and it should be waterproof. The kids scavenged the area for branches, twigs and broken trees. Once the structure was built up around the base of a tree, a layer of leaves was added. Abigail got involved and dragged branches towards the den, but found leaf work easier!

Den Building at Beamish Wild

Archery at Beamish Wild

It was time to leave the comfort of the woods and head into an open field opposite Beamish Hall. Two Archery targets were set up with clearly defined safety lines. Tom patiently explained to everyone how to hold the bow and load in an arrow. All children got at least 3 goes at shooting at the targets. Which also meant that every child managed to hit the target. Even Abigail hit the crate that the Target was mounted on.

Archery at Beamish Wild

Abigail came away from the days experience buzzing with her achievements. Each challenge was something new to her and she was so proud of how well she’d done. A huge thank you to Tom for leading us through a great day and making the kids feel comfortable, even when they were on the edge of their comfort zone!