Wetsuits, Wipeouts and Way Too Much Breakfast

If we thought the rain yesterday was bad, when we looked out of the window this morning it was positively biblical. Coats and waterproofs were essential just to walk down for breakfast.

The effort was more than worth it, however, as breakfast seemed never-ending and full of delicious choices — full English, continental options, cereal, crumpets, croissants… it just kept coming. The discovery of chocolate spread to accompany all of this was, of course, a huge hit. Fully loaded with lashings of food — and with Casey quickly becoming the favourite of the kitchen staff thanks to his yo-yo-like trips back and forth for more — we declared ourselves ready for the day ahead.

If you looked at the faces of the children as we left our accommodation, standing in the rain while being told we were going to the beach to play, you might have been forgiven for thinking they had just been told they would have extra homework every night for the next four weeks! Mr Rooney and Mr Suter were once again optimistically dressed in shorts while everyone else was wrapped up in warm tops and waterproofs as we climbed the hill out of Boggle Hole — it’s called that for a reason! — and up to the minibuses. Windscreen wipers were on full blast for the journey, but as we approached Cayton Bay it was almost as if Moses himself had arrived, the way the dark clouds parted before us. With sunshine appearing, the obvious next step was ice cream, so off we trotted to the Salty Dog for an icy treat.

Morale boosted by sunshine and ice cream, it was time once again to tackle the infamous donning of the wetsuits. “This will be easy,” thought the staff. “They practised yesterday — they’ll be much quicker today,” thought the staff optimistically.

One hour later, we were ready for the sea.

We’ll let the photos show just how much the children enjoyed themselves, but what we can say is how well they did in the water. We were originally supposed to be coasteering, but the high winds made that a little too risky. The upside was that it created perfect surfing conditions. Our instructors challenged the children to perform tricks while on their boards, and it was fantastic to see so many achieving them — along with an equal number of spectacular face-plants and wipeouts! What stood out most, however, were the constant beaming smiles. Robyn and Gabriel were awarded the surfing staff medal for their tricks of the day, but in truth there could easily have been medals all round for the resilience and endurance shown by everyone.

We’ll gloss over the removal of the wetsuits and the mysterious multiplication of wet socks left behind in the changing area — suffice to say we eventually made our way back to our hostel for another hearty feast. Afterwards we headed back out to explore the nearby beach once more.

Tig, crab hunting, writing in the sand, sailing Crocs out to sea, paddling, stone skimming, bug hunting… a whole host of activities took place, all entirely self-directed by the children. Austin simply enjoyed stripping back down to his swim shorts and jumping into the large rock pools — surely he’s destined to become some sort of cold-weather marine in the future! And the weather gods really have been smiling on us, because the moment the last person walked through the door of our accommodation, the heavens opened once again.

What a fabulous — and sunny — day. We suspect the children will sleep well tonight… not to mention the staff.