The wind was still blowing on Thursday morning but there was a hint of blue behind the thin cloud cover. We were all excited to head off together in the mini buses for Freshwater West and a beach clean (part of the work we're doing to achieve our John Muir awards). At first glance, the beach looked pristine, covered in sandstone pebbles of beautiful shades of red, purple and orange and dotted about with piles of seaweed but, on closer inspection, we could all see that plastic was in danger of taking over. We found plastic bottle tops and plastic bottles and plastic rope and plastic packaging and old plastic boots and plastic fragments - so much plastic rubbish that we filled an entire pick-up truck with it. It was very satisfying work but we only cleared a fraction of the beach and, as Evie pointed out, "This is only one beach and look how much plastic is on it!" We all came away thinking about how to reduce our plastic consumption.
After lunch, the Coots went off rockpooling with Matt while the Swans canoed on the moat around Pembroke Castle. It was exciting to paddle into tunnels that have been around since King Henry VII's day (there were stalactites hanging down in them)! Mrs Phillips was in charge of two canoes rafted together because of the wind and led her team to victory in the final race of the day where we all had to stand up to paddle around a buoy. Ben and Anne Marie declared that we were incredibly fast at loading the canoes back onto the trailer. It was a cold but fun afternoon!
We were all starving for our chicken curry dinner, which was followed by a rousing game of dodgeball with Ben.
We arrive at Freshwater West!
Ben hands out our gloves!
Can you spot scraps of plastic?
Lily and Ciara working hard.
What has Ellie found?!
Mrs Phillips joins in with the beach clean!
We emptied a pick up truck load of rubbish off the beach!