Sunday

I join the coach at Oxford services, and quickly get reacquainted with “Team C” – Anita, Caroline, Charlotte, Claire, Jamie, Rachel, and Richard - whom I had met almost a month ago at the RYLA induction day. We arrive at Rhos-y-Gwaliau late afternoon, unpack our belongings into the dormitories, and then troop downstairs for our first meal. 

After dinner, we assemble in the common room to receive the briefing for our first team exercise – a simple, countryside waypoint navigation. We set off for a gentle stroll on what turns out to be a stunning summer evening.

 Monday

After breakfast and morning chores, we fill our minibus with tubing, string, tape, and sheeting, and drive down to the shore of nearby Lake Bala. Our first exercise of the day: design and build a traditional style “coracle” - in just 90 minutes – which we will use to race against the other teams. After a certain amount of debate and negotiation, we settle on a “tea-cup” style frame and set about construction. 

At the end of 90 minutes, six of us wade into the cold, uninviting lake and propel the coracle (with two of our lucky, lightest team members aboard) around an offshore buoy as many times as possible within 20 minutes. We stagger up the shore, 20 minutes later, breathless and dripping, but victorious with a winning score of 2050 points for our effort! Go “Team C”! 

After towelling off and warming up over lunchtime, we kit up and head a few minutes down the road to a local gorge for our second team challenge – a gorge scramble… with an added twist. We have to transport our Rotarian leader, Sandy, up the gorge, but she must not get any water in her boots! This means that, in addition to navigating the gorge ourselves with water flowing as high as our chests at times, we also have to carry, support, push, pull, steer, and balance Sandy all the way. The exercise is physically demanding, and also represents the first occasion where we have to really work together to ensure the safety of each team member. 

Sandy does get wet, unfortunately, but the instructors are impressed with the way our team starts to gel. During debrief, back at the centre, we discuss key moments from the day, and reflect on the improvements that we can make within the team, notably communication techniques.

Tuesday 

Today is the first of the two skills days. Claire and I join members of teams A, B, and D for a day of gorge walking. The emphasis is more technical today, and our instructor, Ed, spends most of the morning demonstrating the use of harnesses, ropes, and karabiners, all of which we will need to set up a “Tyrolean Traverse” later that day. 

Late morning, we drive 45 minutes through the Welsh countryside to another gorge, and stop briefly for lunch. With waterproofs, helmets, and buoyancy aids, we ascend 400m over the next 2 hours through a beautiful gorge, traversing three sections on harnesses. At the very top, having stayed relatively dry until now, we get the chance to jump 10ft into a deep plunge pool – extremely refreshing!

 Wednesday

Next day, and Charlotte and I have plumped for sailing, led by the head instructor, Dina. In the morning, we focus on rigging and sailing “Toppers”, small single-man craft, tacking back and forth. There is lots of new vocabulary to remember! We will be responsible for instructing our own teams in these skills later on in the week, so concentration is very important. 

In the afternoon, we learn to rig and crew an 8-man yacht. Fortunately, Heidi, from one of the other teams, has some experience of sailing larger boats, and successfully captains us across the lake! 

In the evening, following our daily debriefing and dinner, we assemble in the common room to have the scene set for the 2-day exercise, the climax of the RYLA week. A “bomb” is known to be located somewhere in the surrounding Welsh countryside, but, in order to find and diffuse it we will have to retrieve a series of clues, starting with a cluster of grid co-ordinates with a few kilometres of the Rhos-y-Gwaliau centre. We send out small teams while Caroline and I prepare equipment and load our minibus, which will act as our headquarters until Friday afternoon.

Thursday

Having only managed to locate 3 out of the 5 clues late last night, we send out teams before breakfast in a last ditch attempt. Returning with the fourth, but not the fifth clue, we have to purchase – with the points we accrued early on during the week – the missing information, and leave Rhos-y-Gwaliau on time at 9am, heading for a grid co-ordinate out in the middle of Lake Bala. 

Down by the shore, we find kayaks and canoes – Caroline and Jamie lead this exercise, instructing the rest of the team in paddling techniques and safety precautions. Half an hour later, we take to the water, and manage to retrieve a clue from the middle of the lake – another grid co-ordinate. 

Once ashore, we pack away the equipment, race back to the van, and navigate Sandy, our driver, on a twenty minute journey up into the mountains. With the weather worsening slightly, we quickly select a team of five people and head out towards a “prow” where Richard and Jamie rig up an abseil to retrieve the clue that we can see dangling, tantalisingly, half way down a crack in the rock face. 

It is now mid-afternoon, and our next clue turns out to be a fine navigation exercise in the surrounding area. Navigation is proving to be our weakness, and the team of 4, led by Charlotte, have to return for backup an hour after they set out… By late afternoon, we have retrieved the necessary clues which lead us on another twenty minute drive through the mountains to a large reservoir, which is hidden from the road. 

With the light slowly fading, Claire leads a team of 4 on a difficult and, at times, precarious mountain walk around the edge of the reservoir. We reach the exact grid reference after almost 2 hours but, to our dismay, we can not find the next clue anywhere! With the light slipping away, we realise that we do not have a torch and Claire decides that we can not risk any more time searching. We return at double speed through the thick undergrowth, the drizzle now beginning to permeate our clothes. 

Returning to the coach, exhausted and disheartened, we reluctantly agree to purchase the clue that we failed to retrieve, and head off back to Lake Bala to set up camp for the night. Tired and fractious, we struggle to erect a makeshift bivouac, set up a tent for Sandy, Charlotte, and Claire, and cook our provisions… all in the pitch black, with only torches to illuminate our camp, being eaten alive by mosquitoes all the while! 

Richard and I return to the minibus after midnight. I crawl into my sleeping bag, and sleep, fitfully, until just before 6am the next morning.

Friday 

While Caroline organises breakfast and hot drinks for our flasks, we dismantle the tent and bivouac and return our equipment to the minibus. Our next exercise is a gorge traverse, and so it is my turn to lead the team. Fortunately, I remember all of the techniques we had learned, and we set up the traverse in double quick time – the moral booster that we had been waiting for! 

Unfortunately, our navigation skills are once again tried, and we lose more time searching for our final clue. By the time we reach our destination, we have to return straight away to Lake Bala to complete the “bomb defusal”, with Rachel leading. 

Ultimately, we do not manage to complete the exercise before the “bomb” detonated, but, as a team, everybody feels that we have worked well together and, importantly, we have all begun to explore and develop confidence our own leadership potential. 

Back at Rhos-y-Gwaliau, we arrive to celebratory drinks and a chance to lie back and enjoy the sun for an hour or so, before taking a well-deserved hot shower! Tired, but elated, the last evening is an ideal opportunity to relax, chat, swap ‘phone numbers, and pack, ready for the return journey tomorrow.

Saturday

The coach arrives at 10am, and returns to Oxford just after 2pm. I am sad to be leaving, but we already have plans to meet again… 

RYLA has been an interesting, challenging, and, above all, enjoyable experience. I feel that I have come to understand more about myself, about my team, and about my leadership abilities and potential. All of which gives me something very valuable to build upon in the future…

Peter Roy

[Peter graduated from Durham University in Mathematics and Computer Science before taking up employment with Research Machines plc.  He has strong musical interests, being both an instrumentalist and a composer, and takes a keen interest in cookery.  He has studied several martial arts, enjoys swimming, and attends the gym regularly (he doesn't say whether he enjoys that or not!).  He is an active member of Oxford Rotaract, and gets involved in various community service projects.  The outcomes he was hoping for from this leadership course were increased confidence and a growth in his ability to give back more to the community.  Only time will tell if these have been achieved, but both we in Rotary and Peter himself are confident that they will be.]

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