Dalmeny JASS

There's a programme for school kids called JASS, it's a bit like the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme for younger kids, and is there to encourage them to develop interests outside school, get (and stay) active, contribute to the community and have adventures.

It was in pursuit of this last that Holly and pal Sophie asked me to come up with an independent outing for them. I devised a task that would see them navigate themselves on foot from the Cramond Brig through the Dalmeny Estate to Hound Point, where I would meet them and move on to the next task.

This was duly achieved (although I did get a bit bored waiting and started to walk towards them, eventually meeting at Barnbougle Castle), after which we headed to the beach to find a good spot for a shelter and a fire. It was starting to rain and get dark so there was a genuine need for shelter, adding a soupçon of urgency to the proceedings.

We found a small, sheltered beach with a fallen tree, ideal for putting up a shelter. Fire starting proved a little harder (as ever) but we soon had it going and the girls tucked into their tepid pasta.

At this point, warm and fed and sheltering from the rain in the growing darkness, it would have been prudent to make a beeline for the car (which I'd left at South Queensferry). Instead, the girls insisted they wanted to go ahead with the "optional" quarry zipline part of the adventure.

I had recce'd the area while waiting for them, and found a small disused quarry. I lashed up a Tyrolean traverse as I have done many times in Davidsons Mains Park, only with more swearing because it was dark and raining. We all crossed the yawning chasm (satisfyingly filled with spiky brambles) safely, and called it a day.

The walk back to Queensferry in the dark was a bit of a trudge, but we kept our spirits up by singing "It's A Long Way To Tipperary". We arrived back wet, tired and smelling of wood smoke, but full of the satisfaction of a self-sufficient day in the outdoors.

The girls carried my GPS watch to track their progress but it seems to have pegged out once we got to the beach: