johnsunter.com >> adventures - uk >> rh farm activities 1
A weekend of adventure activities and curry at Rookin house farm in the lake district (1/2).
A few friends and I decided to spend a weekend at Rookin House Farm, doing activities like quad biking and shotgun shooting.
Here we assemble in reception, ready for action.
We chose to stay in the Luxury Camping barn at the farm (to avoid people arriving late, cars breaking down etc) on Friday night.
On a lads holiday, most people are hammered when the go to bed and the curtains matching the quilt cover is hardly an issue.
Fantastically, it featured a pool table !.
On the right of this picture is a stalwart all terrain vehicle, that I had previously driven.
Frank and I arrived earlier than everyone else, so we were able to go Pony Trekking.
I have sat on one many times, while someone led it, but this time, I wanted to "take the reigns" myself.
The horse I was riding, was called Minstrel.
I found a web site with some horse riding instructions here.
Riding, really is a fantastic way to see the countryside. The horses are virtually silent, and can travel over almost any terrain.
Sometimes my horse didn't want to go so I had to talk to him.
It was great the way I could "steer" the horse with the reigns.
With a few hours left, before everyone arrives, Frank and I decide to try out hand at fishing. We borrowed the relevant equipment, and got started.
To be honest, there were hundreds of fish, and you could practically put your hand in and pull them out.
In any event, we were delighted, when we actually caught one.
This is the fish that we caught, it was nearly a foot long.
A very manly hunter/gatherer moment, turned to farce, as the Fish flapped about (he wasn't the only one flapping at that moment !) and we realised what the fishing priest was for !.
With my Bushcraft experience, I was able to "prep" the fish, and here, I eat it for breakfast.
On Friday evening, we had a big party ( a £10 night out, who could argue).
Saturday morning, I cooked everyone a big breakfast. It was going to be a hard day for a group made up of mostly office workers.
A short walk to our first activity, Archery.
My friend Jon Knight, pictured in the Archery Barn
The weather wasn't great, so we were able to do Archery indoors, which increased the accuracy of our shots (no side wind).
I had a go at Archery some years ago, and realized that although right handed, I "bow" left handed.
I surprised myself, by coming 2nd at the Archery.
Everyone poses with their bows.
In the end, it was super competitive Brother David (here and here) who won the Archery.
Since then, I have actually done a course where I made my own bow and arrows. Details here.
Next we had a ride in an Argo Cat.
Its an all terrain vehicle, which is also amphibious.
It was really exciting riding in it, but if you had too many the night before, it could separate you from your breakfast.
While up there, we decided to visit the The National Mountaineering Exhibition the the exhibition had closed for the day when we arrived.
The exhibition, is hosted in the Rheged centre and since we were there already we decided to have a look around.
We were delighted to find a real ale festival was taking place and the non-drivers got involved in that instead.
