Back after a week in a forest in Devon training for me to this weeks knots and rope walks. We take a vote on want we are going to do at the next session and last time it was more rope swings and a ropewalk and learning the knots we would need to build these aerial constructions.
We had some good stick collecting although one or two have forgotten the no thicker than your thumb and not longer than your arm rule so next week we will just go over the rules again. We had three new fire builders today and their fire went very well, the kettle was boiled before we had finished our knot revision.
We have not looked at knots for a whiled so we started with a stopper knot and then the figure of eight. Then to get everyone working together we learnt a new knot; the sheet bend. This is made by first tying it in our own cord then standing in a circle we tied our cord to the person standing on our right. Once we had a complete circle of cord we tested our knots by holding onto the cord then leaning out with everyone supporting each other, we then stood inside the circle and leant back on the cord using it as a seat.
After hot chocolate and a biscuit we started on the rope bridge. Between two trees we tied a low rope and a rope just above head height using round turns and two half hitches at each end of the bridge. To get the rope tight enough there was a lot of pulling. With too many children on it, it did touch the ground in the middle. Once we had made a bridge just off the ground we went up a foot, but still with too many on the rope it touched the ground. Next time a less stretchy rope we think.
No comments:
Post a Comment