Hound Tor squad weekend away

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BY: Evie Lane

Published: 8th August, 2013

Saturday

Running, I have to say running isn't my favourite thing! Anyway, Saturday morning, off we set up Hound Tor for an early morning (ish) training session. A few jumps and some skipping (we all love skipping!) later we headed back down to the bunkhouse. Later on, Harry started his tour around the local area. It was brilliant! I may have fallen off a few times but it was really great. Half way through the ride we went down the nutcracker, well rode half and walked half, which I had heard loads of scary stories about. After that we started to ride back to the house and got out of our sweaty kit and then sat outside by the stream for a nice chat! Before dinner we all sat down to play boggle, we then had lovely chilli, cooked by Maddie and Jay, for tea. After that we started a game of foreign uno with cats on the cards! We then moved on to poker! It was then time for bed, Maddie and Jay retreated to their van, Harry back home, Jack, Fin and Matt to their room and me to mine. Thanks to Harry and Matt the barn was lovely and warm because of the log burner below us. 

Sunday

Sunday morning began with the noises of the farm all around us, especially the doves in the walls of the barn and the sheep right out side! The night before we got told to try and fast before our first session in the morning but that was soon given up and the croissants, bread and pancakes were brought out for our first breakfast. We then cycled up to Hound Tor to do our morning session of hard gear sprints and then messing around on the rocks of the Tor. The weather soon turned and it started to rain. On the way back to the bunkhouse the road was really slippery and Harry slipped off going around a corner, back at the bunkhouse Harry's mum decided to take him the the local A&E so, unfortunately for Harry, he had to miss out on the days ride (hope you're feeling better Harry :) ). After that our second breakfast started and the rain became heavier. Luckily the weather started to become better so we headed off for another local tour, this time from Matt (which was just as good as Harry's!). Today we headed up onto the moors, instead of being in the woods like the day before. The rain then started to come again as we were going up a long moorland climb, later on in the day I even had to resort to taking my glasses off so every thing in the world was clearer and I could enjoy the amazing views! The descents were really fun and not really that technical but I still managed to fall off, but only once today! Back at the bunkhouse we all got changed into clean clothes and got our stuff ready to go back home. 

It was a really great weekend, thank you Maddie and Jay for organising it and Becky (Harry's mum) for getting the bunkhouse for us. Hopefully everyone will be able to come to the next weekend away, and I seem to remember the mention of the total wipeout course in north devon?!

Link for the camping barn-

http://www.yha.org.uk/barn/great-hound-tor-camping-barn