YEAR 6 RESIDENTIAL TO BRYHER
This year, we went on a 9 day residential to a place called Bryher (in the Isle of Scilly). We travelled on a coach over night; then we went on a boat called the Scillonian III and finally we went on our second boat called the Firethorn to the island of Bryher. We arrived at around 2 o’clock in the afternoon after setting off at 10pm the previous night.
On the first day, we had fish and chips for dinner. It was raining heavily but it did not matter as we had a big tent that we could eat in to shelter us. On the second day, we went to a beach called Rushy Bay and some of us had fun jumping off rocks into the sea. Some people stayed on the beach collecting sea glass and some were diffing holes on the beach. For dinner, we had jacket potato with beans from the Fraggle Rock. After we had eaten, we were allowed to go the beach next to the campsite .
The next day, which was Father’s Day, we made a sign on the beach to say Happy Fathers Day and took a photo to share with our grownups. We also played in the sea and enjoyed playing in the sand. In the afternoon we visited another island. We were really lucky because we could travel by boat to an uninhabited island: Samson. It was a beautiful beach with more sea glass and shells to collect and we could see big fish swimming in the shallow water. It started to rain just before we got on the boat back but the rest of the day was sunny. Tonight’s dinner was hotdogs and salad
We also had a day on Tresco, the neighbouring Island, to visit Tresco Abbey Gardens. Within the gardens, we saw red squirrels, golden pheasants and more. There were many beautiful flowers, bushes, palm trees and home-grown vegetables. Once we got there, we found out that we had to be very quiet or we would disturb the animals like the squirrels.
After entering, we went on a bridge and immediately saw four very nice looking red squirrels; we stood and watched them move around and jump between trees. Soon after, we all got to split into small groups to explore. They had another area of the gardens dedicated to figureheads from shipwrecks. The owner of the gardens had begun a collection of them and he had lots of different figureheads from boats that had sank. In the vegetables section, a member of staff at the gardens allowed us to try some different vegetables such as carrots and runner beans – they were very tasty. The gardens were definitely one of the highlights of our trip to Bryher.
On Wednesday, we went to Rushy Bay and Popplestone beach on Bryher we really enjoyed playing in the sea, digging holes and building sand castles. We were really lucky to see several military planes flying around and over us, someone told us that they practice their sea landings around Scilly and can often be seen. That night, we had Miss Starr’s famous pasta.
Then came Thursday and it was the day before we left. In the morning, as the tide was in, we went crabbing and caught some really large crabs which we put in a bucket to look at and then carefully released back into the sea. In the afternoon we had an amazing tour of the Hillside Farm with the farmer, who was called Graham. He said they had grown 3 million chillies since he has been the farmer. We saw the different fruit and vegetables they were growing and he even let us pick some. The first group were allowed to collect the eggs from the chickens; they second group had to pick cucumbers and the third group had to pick strawberries to share with everyone. We met his horses, chickens and pigs. Did you know that pigs can sense when it is going to rain and move their houses around so they are sheltered!! After the tour, Graham let us taste some of the chocolate and the sauces that they make using the chillies. Lots of people bought items that they had tried from the stall outside the farm. Tonight we had pizza and chips from The Fraggle Rock.
On the last day, Friday, we had to pack up the tents. Miss Starr and Mr Devine showed different groups what they needed to do. We had to pack our lunch and dinner for the journey home and then we set off on our journey.
Most nights after dinner we went to the beach next to the camp site. We could paddle in the sea, collect shells and sea glass, explore or just sit and play with our friends. We really enjoyed this time of day and were definitely tired and ready to go to bed after. One of our favouratie activities was to visit the island honesty stalls. The people who live on the Island made things like jam, candles, fudge, paintings and sauces and sell them on stalls at the side of the road. There is never anyone there to take our money we just have to leave it in the cash boxes.
It was an amazing trip and we made lots of memories to remember!
Have a look at some photos of our adventures by clicking on the album numbers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 or go to the gallery :)
By Austin, Cain and Bogdan