EFSC visits Essex Outdoors Centre in Harlow

On Thursday 10 April 2014, Epping Forest Sportability Club spent the day at the Harlow Centre for Outdoor Learning. 


In the morning we took part in a climbing session on the indoor climbing wall. A couple of our members are regulars at the climbing wall. One attends with his school and the other attends a regular climbing club. Therefore, they were the ones to demonstrate to the rest of the group how to do it, including all the safety aspects, under the supervision of the centre’s instructors. 


We then took turns on the wall trying to get to the top.  To say it is a lot harder than it looks is an understatement! As the session went on, the climbs became progressively more difficult with the best climbers attempting an overhang. Check out the pictures to get an idea of how hard and how high the walls were.

Once the climbing session was complete we recovered in the sun while we had our lunch. After lunch it was time for dragon boat racing. The group was split in two as the centre had created two boats out of four canoes with each boat being two canoes tethered together. 


With our instructors guiding us, we made our way down the river until we reached a lock and could go no further. We had a rest and played a game or two whilst in the boats which was a lot of fun. We then made our way back and with the good weather it made for a really enjoyable journey.

Overall the day was a great success and a good time was had by all those attending.  A big thank you to all the staff at the Essex Outdoors Centre for looking after us so well.