Hendre Isaf

One volunteer from Hendre Isaf residential talks about what we got up to.

This residential  was  from Friday the 12^th June to the 14^th June 2009.

It was based in Hendre Isaf in Wales it was all about going there for the weekend and doing some conservation work with the help of the national trust association the volunteer centre goes here every year .

This presentation will hopefully show you what it involved us doing while we were down there and what we were going to do to help the national trust.

The day we arrived at the base camp in Wales the weather was ok but not the best.

We all arrived and took all the bags from off the coach and into the place where we all stayed for the weekend as soon as we walked in it was a really nice place the kitchen was pretty big, the bedrooms were pretty big too bunk beds in and showers and toilets, there was also a sitting area where we could all relax and just chill out.

After we had unpacked all our things we decided to go on a little walk out in the countryside and Michael meggison one of the young volunteers got named to do the map reading on the walk we walked from the base camp 2 miles to a village called Ysbyty ifan and we had a couple of pictures from this walk which we all enjoyed.

I really enjoyed the walk I thought it was really great the scenery and all other stuff was great especially my map reading skills and I was really proud that I achieved what I achieved when I was doing my map reading on the walk and I was really proud that I never got us lost or got stuck on anywhere but I didn’t manage to find the bridge I was looking for which was a real shame but I really enjoyed the walk and I would recommend it to anyone that enjoys walking to do the walk that we did it was really calm and relaxing and I really enjoyed myself.

After we all had played cards we all went to bed because we all had to be up early in the morning we all had to get up at 8am for breakfast and then out at 9am to go and help the national trust.

On breakfast duties was one of the volunteers Michael Meggison  and Aaron another young volunteer .

This was the day that we all had to go out at 9am and help the national trust we didn’t know what we were going to do until we actually got to the place where we were going to do the conservation work.

As soon as we all got there we were all really excited about what we were all going to do and what were going to get involved in.

Andrew from the national trust who was helping us and showing us what we were going to do went through a brief safety part of the work and the work we were going to do the work that we all were going to do was cutting down willow trees and birch to help save the oak trees because they were getting in the way of the site of them.

We used bow saws and loppers to get the trees down and we all did a really good job even though we lost sum loppers at the end of it but Andrew said whoever finds them gets a prize so we all went hunting for them and yet again the star of the weekend so far Michael Meggison found them.

On the Saturday evening after we all had got back from doing all of the hard work that we all had done in that day time we got back from the work at 4pm that day and we were all dirty and all tired but we all got in the shower and just sat outside on the step as it was a really nice day that day really hot and sunny.

After we were all relaxed and all finished getting a wash and doing things we had to do we all played a game called the winking game there is one ace in the pack you get 1 card each and the 1 with the ace is on and has to try and get people to put the cards in the middle by winking at them and if they got caught doing it they would lose a life .

The second game we played that day was called who am I and we all had to guess who we were by guessing what the other person had put on our heads with a sticky poster and we all had to try n guess who we were we all got it eventually and there were the games we played on the Saturday night after that we had tea and once again the girls cooked and the others helped wash and put away and then it was time for bed..

This was the final day that we all were there and we all got up for breakfast at 9am and all started packing our things and putting it in the van ready for us to go back to Liverpool but unfortunately we couldn’t leave until the RAC had been to fix the key that Chris had broken the day before we were about to go so anyway it was a lovely day so we all thought that we should have a little bit more fun while we were there so we all went out into the garden area at the back of the house and we played another 2 games that day the first game we all played was called ring toss and that got us all in a really happy mood and a really enjoyable mood the winner of that game was Michael Meggison again who got 160 points in second place was Chris with 120 points.

The second game we all played was called spoons and you all had 4 cards each and the one with a full set of 4 cards the same number had to pick a spoon up and the person that doesn’t pick a spoon up is out of the game and the winner of that game was Laura who won that game twice in a row  but poor Ella went out first each go she was just too slow for the volunteers.

After that the RAC had been and we all got on the coach and said goodbye to Hendre Isaf for the last time till another year we got back to Liverpool for about 3pm and all said goodbye to each other and went home!!.. 

Michael Meggison – I really enjoyed the whole weekend and I think that it was really enjoyable I would really like to thank all the staff that helped make this weekend a great weekend and thank all the people that went on the trip to make it a nice weekend and relaxing weekend so I would just like to say I would definitely want to go back and do it all again and I would like to thank Chris and Ella for a great weekend away and I hope to go back in the future thanks Michael..

If anyone who went on the trip or who wants to make a comment about the weekend that they had then please don’t hesitate to ask one of the members of staff to put all your comments onto the slide show that I have done all your comments are appreciated in every way the more feedback we get from the people the better the show will be so thanks and hope to hear from yah all soon …..

Michael Meggison