Following our recent trip to the Caldecotte Xperience, VICTA took another group of 14-17 year olds to the Royal National College for the Blind (RNC), in Hereford. The start of the trip began with a nice relaxed evening in the college’s halls of residence and dinner courtesy of the RNC.
Day two began with a hearty breakfast and a short journey to Oaker Wood Outdoor Centre where our group enjoyed a full day of high ropes activities. The monkey challenge involved climbing up set routes on some very tall trees and the tree treking course presented several challenges to help build confidence whilst being high up. The zip wire from the top of the Oaker Wood hill down to the bottom, and lastly, the dreaded ‘leap of faith’ both called for real courage. A busy day out was completed with a lovely meal out at a nearby pub, and a nice evening of games and music.
Courage on the zip wire
Day three at RNC saw us have a day of pampering, sport and more fun and games. A trip to the RNC spa, gave everyone the chance to relax amongst his or her new friends and treat themselves to some much-needed TLC after the activities the previous day. This was succeeded by a sports taster session provided by the staff at RNC.
One member of RNC staff was in goal as participants took part in a blind football shootout, next up was a swing at the golf simulator, where technique was critical. A short taster of Boccia rolled up next, where strategy and patience was the key to winning the game, almost like playing battleships. The last sport to be trialled was Goalball, where participants threw the balls towards the 9m wide goal at a single goalkeeper to try to score.
Fun on four wheels!
Continuing on the sporty theme, we travelled to a nearby roller-skating park to have a go at roller-skating, and after learning how to fall over properly, we set off to try and stay on our feet as long as possible. A few tumbles, slips, slides and a little bit of crashing into others later, the fun and games were over, and left us with one more activity before dinner, bowling. Following some tremendously competitive bowling, there was only dinner remaining: pizza… and lots of it!
Our last day saw a quick scramble to pack following another lovely breakfast. Everyone wished each other goodbye before travelling home.
Our thanks go out to our volunteers for the four days we were at RNC, and to all the staff who helped make it a brilliant experience.
Leave A Comment