On the first week back from Easter Break, the Lower Fifth braved a six hour coach journey all the way to the Lake District. We were greeted by our instructor Dave who gave us an introduction about what we should expect and he showed us around the campus. Dinner was served earlier than expected at 5.25pm with lessons in the classroom following at 6:30pm. After lessons we were given free time, some went and ran on the hill, some accumulated in a room playing Psych, and many enjoyed a nice evening tea!

On our first full day we were up and ready to go by 8.30am, and we were tasked with measuring rivers and learning about sand dunes. Luckily for us the weather was warm, however it had been so warm and dry that the river we meant to visit had dried up! We then went to another location and in groups of four we used new equipment like a pebble caliper to investigate the size of rocks, and a hydro prop and impellor to measure the speed of the river flow. Our wellies and waterproofs came in very handy! After a well-earned lunch we took a visit to the sand dunes. We investigated changes in vegetation and abiotic conditions the closer you get from the shore, once again using unfamiliar apparatus such as a soil and pH probe for soil moisture and pH level.

The next day we had a change of scenery as we headed to the local village of Lindale. Our task was to measure the tourism. We analysed the environmental quality and counted the traffic and pedestrians for 5 minutes but due to the small size of the area our recordings had no more than 4 cars and 1 pedestrian. We then went to Windermere and set off on a 30 minute hike up Orrest Head and ate our lunch with a very rewarding view. A short coach journey later we came to Bowness-on–Windermere and did the same task as we did in Lindale however with much more traffic overall and looked at the lake user survey with an ice cream in hand. A nice way to end the very memorable trip!

My-Anh Nguyen, Lower V