A hill walk celebration

The P7 John Muir Award finale involved a hill walk up Quinag today. We were guided safely up the mountain by several mountain leaders, including the head teacher of Ullapool High School, Robbie McFedries who joined us to spend some quality time with next academic year’s S1s.

It was wonderful seeing how the P7s from the area’s primary schools have gelled; getting to know each other over the duration of the year with this high school transition programme as we have met up to discover, explore, conserve and share a special place from the locale of each school. Our day together today provided the opportunity to get up high and look over the landscape that incorporates all these locations. We managed to get brief glimpses as clouds shifted and cleared intermittently.

There was support all round as we faced the challenges ahead of us. For many it was a first time up a hill, and everybody did extraordinarily well. We are so proud of each and every P7 for going for it and embracing the walk, which wasn’t always easy.

It was a wee bit gusty to be handing out certificates at the high point we reached, as originally planned, so we saved the celebration until we had all made it safely back down to the start (end!) of the path.

Thanks to everyone involved in making this day the special and fun experience that it became, both the P7s and the adults – a mix of Highlife Highland Countryside Rangers, Teachers, CALLP staff and additional Mountain Leader qualified guides, without whom the day could not have happened.