MONDAY: DAY 1
8am
The Wake up Bell was sounded.
Groans came from every lad in the Lion Lodge except Cal who was sensible and stopped drinking at dinner time.
Dixie and Rita awoke with slight hangovers but that was curably with a shower, breakfast and a couple of paracetamol.
Connie, Zoe and Lily all awoke with smiles plastered on their faces.
The Snake Lodge all awoke happily and raring to go.
Eagle Lodge: 8.10am
'Morning Zoe' Tess spoke to her room mate a few moments after they had woken.
'Morning Tess, Did you sleep well?' Zoe replied sleepily
'Yes very well thank you?'
'Me too, they're incredibly comfy beds!' The pair laughed but were interrupted by a indulgent smell coming from the kitchen which was opposite their room.
Robyn awoke too to the smell of cooking and got out of bed and opened her door.
Connie was found by the sleepy three cooking in the kitchen. Immaculately turned out and ready for the day ahead.
'Connie?' Robyn spoke
'I've been up since 7 couldn't get back to sleep for the last hour so decided to get up and get ready then start cooking some breakfast for you all! I hope you like blueberry pancakes?'
'They may just happen to be one of my favorites Connie' Zoe laughed and made her way with Tess to the table.
Robyn bounded over with excitement at the words 'pancakes' and the three laughed.
Lily however had chosen not to show her face and get ready before going out to meet the rest of her team.
Bear Lodge: 8.10am
'DIX! WANT A CUPPA!?' Louise shouted from the kitchen
'YES PLEASE!' Dixie shouted from her room whilst trying to get ready
'Rita?' Louise asked talking over to Rita who was eating a bowl of cornflakes
'No thanks Louise, I'll just have some juice once I've finished this' She smiled.
'Okay' Louise replied making Dixie and herself a cup of tea.
Lion Lodge: 8.10am
Cal felt fine this morning and had a shower and made breakfast for himself.
He and Ethan were the only ones awake, the other two had fallen asleep again.
Snake Lodge: 8.10am
Ash, Charlie, Noel and Mac where all up and getting ready and eating big healthy breakfasts ready for the day ahead.
'Okay guys so we've all agreed to give everything a go and to get to at least Stage 1, yes?' Mac started
'Yes. Even if we live on rice and plain pasta for the week i'd prefere to leave having worked as a good team then getting greedy and just doing it for the food and alcohol.' Agreed Charlie
'Definitely. We can just think of it as bonus' if we get to stage 2 or 3. I believe they're going to be pretty tough challenges' added Ash
'Yes, and work together as a team, if we see another team struggling with something we can help them too?' Noel finally added
'Good thinking Noel. Then we can get to the end of the week and think we may not have won but we were kind and worked as a team and helped others.' Ash stated
9.30am
All 4 groups were at the tent ready to go to their first activity of the day.
'Today we will only have one activity. Orienteering. Station 1 will be our lunch stop 6 miles from here. Station 2 will be our afternoon stop 5 miles from Station 1. Finally station 3 will be dinner spot 11 miles and bringing you to return back to the hill we visited last night. You can take as little time or as much time as you want to do this the food will be there in your labelled hampers ready for you. These walky talkies are to be used to communicate with us and other teams. channel 1 is Tony and I, Channel 2 is the Eagles, Channel 3 the Bears, Channel 4 the Lions and 5 the Snakes. To pass the challenge you must clock in at the station by having your group photo in the photo booth at each stop, you must all stay together' Amanda explained the task
Tony carried on 'All you have to do is get yourselves there however way it may be. Here's a map, compasses for each of you and water bottles. there are taps along the route to fill them up if you run out. You have half an hour to start whether you wish to get going straight away or leave it to plan your routes. Good luck'
'Right I think we should just get going, get it done and then we can hang about for a bit this afternoon before the long treck back?' Ash stated to his team and the Snakes set off first.
'Okay let's go because we can do roughly 6 miles and get to the Lunch spot around 12.30/1sh?' Louise instructed her team and they set off a few minutes behind the Snakes.
The Lions and Eagles watched as the two "keen" teams set off
'Eh Girls!' Cal shouted over to them and the girls walked over
'If we wait a few moments we can ally up and go together?!'
'That's a good idea Cal!' Robyn got excited
'They said that all we have to do is get there right?' Lofty started
'Yeh?' Max replied
'Well at 9.45 the bike hire opens? we could all just grab bikes and get there in half the time?'
'Lofty that's a great idea, we'll wait here 10 minutes and plan our journey then we can get the bikes and make our way' Connie instructed
12pm
The Bears:
'For god sakes im so tired and hungry now and were 2 miles away!' Rita started complaining
'Come on guys we can do it, we should only be another half hour or so then we can eat' Dixie tried to lift her spirits
'I bet the snakes are already on their way to Station 2 by now...' Louise complained
'Guys we're not going to get anywhere complaining like this come on have some faith! besides we could be with Lily right now!' They all laughed
The Snakes:
The snakes in fact were at Station 1 settling down eating there lunch thinking that they were in the lead.
'Set off in about 15 minutes and we'll be at Station 2 in 3 hours?' Mac said
'Yep good idea mate' Charlie replied tucking into a cheese sandwich
The Eagles and Lions:
They decided to grab their hampers and empty the food equally into their rucksacks and carry on. By now they were a good hour and a half ahead of the snakes because of lofty's idea to use bikes.
They were an hour from station 2.
'Do you mind if we stop now guys? Im a bit hungry now' Connie asked
'Yeh me too, i think we should have a break' Lofty agreed
The team of 9 all came to a stop on a grass bank on the other side of the lake.
'Hey if you look over there by those rocks? I think thats Dixie, Rita and Louise?' Tess shouted
'Oh yeh it is! Gosh they're far away! shouldve used bikes!' Max replied
The group laughed.
'This isnt against the rules is it?' Robyn asked worried
'No Robyn because Tony said we just need to get ourselves there how ever it may be! he never said anything about not using bikes or teaming up!' Ethan re-assured Robyn
'Yeh I guess' Robyn smiled
'Is everyone alright now?' Cal asked the group
Everyone nodded
'Right i think we should hit the track again then if that's okay with everyone?' Connie stated
'Yep good idea! In an hour we can stop properly when we get to station 2'
The team packed away their lunch bits and filled up water bottles. They all got onto their bikes and followed Connie and Cal who had seemed to have taken charge of the two teams.
4pm
The Bears and Snakes:
The Bears were now at Station 2 and had caught up with the Snakes who had stopped for an hour as Mac was getting tired.
'Hi Guys!' Rita waved frantically at the group they saw in front of them
'hey look its Rita and the Bears!' Noel waved manically back
The groups chatted and wondered where the other two teams were
'Those biys are probably lost out of their minds!' Louise laughed
'They left after us aswell' Ash added and laughed with the rest of the group
'I bet Connie and Lily and driving each other nuts with wanting to get there as quickly as possible!'
Everyone started to laugh.
'Now guys we should probably get going now we've been here quite a while and we need to get going if we want to aim to get back by dinner time'
'We're gonna break here for a bit because we haven't stopped since we left Station 1 at 1.30'
'Alright then, see you in a while then guys' The Snakes stood up to leave and waved to the Bears as they walked off
'Right we've caught up with them well so if we use this as a quick stop before the long treck we'll be back shortly after them or may even catch up' Dixie started planning this final part of the challenge
The Lions and Eagles:
The group of 9 were now 2 hours from finishing and were getting extremely excited at how quickly they had done it.
They wondered how the other groups would be doing.
'I'd say they're just finishing at Station 2?' Lofty assumed
'God they wont be eating until 9ish! poor things' Tess worried about them
'They'll be alright and if they're sensible they'll have saved food like we did!' Cal said whilst eating part of his ham sandwich whilst trying to steare his bike
Lily was beginning to get very tired
'Lily you alright?' Zoe asked
'Yeh just tired that's all, cycling is hard work and we'll feel it tomorrow!' Lily replied peddling
'LOFTY WATCH OUT!' Tess shouted as lofty was about the cycle into a ditch full of muddy water
'WOAAHHH!' Lofty fell into the ditch and got soaked
The rest of the group laughed their heads off
'Teach you to take the mic outta me!' Max shouted
Ethan and Cal helped Lofty out and wiped him down
'Come on we're not far away now' They helped lofty back onto his bike
'Lofty are you alright?' Connie asked cycling next to him
'Yeh thanks Connie, apart from i stink and i think I've grazed my leg slightly but thats all' Lofty relplied
'Okay if you need to stop becasue you've hurt yourself i'm sure the group'll be happy to wait for you'
6pm
'FINALLY DONE!' Cal sung as he threw his bike to the ground and ran over to the table full of food
'I'm impressed guys though i wont ask what happened to lofty! your only the 2nd people to have done it on bikes. But the first to do it in 8 hours and 45 minutes. But teaming up was a very good idea! Enjoy your dinner' Amanda smiled
The Lions and Eagles sat down and chatted and tucked into their meals'
8.45pm
The Snakes arrived with a limping Mac and their jaws dropped when they saw 9 bikes and the Lions and Eagles swimming in the lagoon.
'What... How?!' Charlie's jaw dropped
Cal walked over to help Mac 'We cycled and it got here nearly 3 hours ago, but well done to do it this quickly walking guys!'
'Thanks Cal, whos idea was it to cycle?'
'Lofty's!'
'LOFTY'S?! oh my word!' Ash laughed
'Hey guys welcome back' Amanda and Tony greeted them
'Well done for completing it to Station 3 especially as I know some of you don't like this sort of thing! Go and eat your hearts out!' Tony indicated the table
9.30pm
The last group The Bears arrived and ran over to the table of food.
'When did they get here?!'
'6 apparently!' Ash laughed
'Would explain the bikes then' Louise raised an eyebrow
All the groups were back and were enjoying the warm lagoon and were proud to have completed a very challenging task on the first day.