I woke up sad this morning. I love coming over here and it's time for the LONGGGGG flight back to Australia today. I've had a great time over here (always do) but I'd really like another week to finish of the trip. However, school calls for Monday! I've seen some amazing things, some really, really old and some no so. Met some amazing people, joined a group of enthusiastic forest schoolers who are all about developing wholistic children and young people through the outdoors. Our presenter was amazing with so much knowledge and experience in developing confident children. I learnt how to tie knots, build tarp shelters, light fires with a flint, use the fire for cooking, different herbs and trees in the woodland. I saw a vole and naughty grey squirrels, giant bumble bees and ... read more

We had a great day today. A good mix of theory and practice. We began the day with a silly game: mouse, hunter and mammoth. It was a bit like scissors paper rock. We learnt how to use the sheath knife today and started to practice carving and whittling. This was great fun and really relaxing. We were all in the zone! We had a tree talk on the English Oak tree. They are a hardwood and take so long to grow, but are an important part of the ecosystem. They sustain over 400 types of invertebrates. They have a great lumpy bark perfect for crayon rubbings. We didn't have time to do that today! We then had to throw a rope through the fork of a tree maybe 3 metres in the air. Everyone tried ... read more

The second day of training was much better than the first. We are getting to know each other and we are doing a lot of activities in groups. We start the day with a couple of forest games. They played this hide and seek game where we had to hide in 5 seconds. There is this guy on the course, Ray. I was hiding behind a tree with 4 others and he couldn't find anywhere so he picked up a short log and stood with it up to his face! lol... I had to take a photo of him. Probably the most important thing that we worked on today were Risk Assessments. We surveyed the site and made judgements on the various things around that could be a hazard. The forest area that we are using ... read more

Rain all day today made for a slow trip from Bognor Regis to Hailsham. I had all day so I called into McDonalds to have a coffee and take advantage of their free wifi. I was planning on going through Brighton and Eastbourne but the rain made me change my mind and I went straight to my accommodations. I'm staying at the Boship Lions Hotel Farm for the next 6 mights. It is a really nice place. I booked a couple of months ago and got a great rate. There is a small farm at the back of the hotel with Rheas, emus that have pulled out half their feathers. I think they must miss Australia! There are sheep and alpacas. I drove down the road and found the place I need to go to tomorrow. ... read more

Had a lovely sleep at Michele's and had a sad goodbye this morning. They are like my English family. Big hugs all round. I left Olney at about 9:30 and started the 3 hour drive to Uckfield and the Bluebell Railway. The traffic was pretty ordinary, particularly on the M25 (I hate the M25). Found the Bluebell Railway at about 12:30. Train was leaving at 1:30 so I had some time. I found the ticket office and learnt that I was the only person booked on for lunch. I had a whole table to myself. The buffet car filled up with ordinary passengers but they only bought food on for me! The lovely lady said that food would start once we got underway but would I like a cup of tea to start. Oh my, the ... read more