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Fairburn Trip
Early Saturday morning, 15th September, saw 9 sleepy TaMYG members climbing aboard Iris Mackay's minibus from Durness for a day out at Fairburn Outdoor Activity Centre, accompanied by an equally bleary-eyed Stuart and Christine. The weather wasn't brilliant, but the showers let up at midday to be replaced by clouds of midges, soon chased away by sunshine and a breeze - or perhaps they were scared off by Jessica coughing like a seal.
First activity was the Death Slide - a high wire flying fox system across a shallow loch. It was too fast to have time to worry about the height, and everyone was clipped in to safety harnesses in case hands slipped off the t-bar, which happened a few times. Alan came across with knees up like a Commando on a raid. Chloe was more like a tiny pixie - but she was the first to score a bullseye dropping a plastic ball from her feet into a target floating on the water below.
Next up was archery, which everyone seemed to be pretty good at, especially when aiming at balloons. A quick break for packed lunches and a raid on the vending machines followed, then it was back into climbing harnesses and helmets for a session with the Big Tree. This monster looked about 100 feet high, with safety ropes on 2 sides for climbing and abseiling. Team members manned the ropes while folk took turns to climb as high as they dared on either side, using tiny wood pieces nailed on as hand- and foot-holds, and sawn off branches on one side. Carly, Jonathon and Andrew went up like monkeys to the very top, restoring our faith in evolution. Others stopped at lower levels, but the height wasn't important. The main thing was that everyone did as much as they were able to. Even Abby, who said she would just watch, got hooked and scampered up a fair height before falling off and being lowered like a demented fairy with a big grin. Coming down was definitely the best part.
The day ended back at the shallow loch, this time in life-jackets instead of harnesses, and we split into two teams in a race to build rafts out of plastic drums, thick rope, and logs. Jonathon, Abby, Daniel, Jessica, and Jennifer got their raft built fastest, but then had to wait until Alan, Carly, Chloe, and Andrew had their raft finished. Alan's team then shot ahead with brilliant professional paddle strokes that mostly went the right way. Jonathon's team were floundering a bit, especially when Jessica's barrel began taking on water and sinking. Alan's tream won the race on the water, but once back ashore, Jonathon's team ripped their raft apart fastest and won that part.
Now most folk were seriously wet, so a race to the island and back on foot was next - won by Jonathon who simply ran along the bank to the shortest crossing place and waded across there. Then there was a quick game of underwater football, and lastly a race to fill leaky barrels with water to float a cork to the top. For some strange reason, the buckets kept tipping over heads as well as barrells! I don't remember who won that race, but everyone got equally soaked.
Changed into dry clothes, we were back on the bus at 5pm and off to Dingwall for fish and chips and sushi and other goodies, then headed back up the road. The trip home (strangely) was considerably noisier than the trip down, with many protestations of undying love between unlikely partners. The less said of that the better!
All in all, a good day.
**Click on image to enlarge and each image has a number on it to quote if you would like to get a copy from Stuart.
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