Tuesday is the first full day at Marchants Hill and children have been participating in multiple activities.

It seems that Monday was so full of excitement that everyone really needed a good night's sleep. The songs and stories around the camp fire rounded the day off perfectly and everyone was in their room and drifting off to sleep by mid-evening.

Rising early on Tuesday (some a little earlier than expected!) everyone made their way to the canteen for a good breakfast to fuel their morning. Breakfast options are hot and cold with more than enough for the hungriest of children. There's no time to hang around though - once everyone has eaten it's off to the main play court for the morning activities.

On the play court, children all line up in groups. Each group is comprised of approximately 10 children and they will spend the week together experiencing all the difference activities on offer, sometimes with other groups. One by one, instructors join the groups before the activities for the day are announced.

Two similar activities have dominated the agenda today - climbing and abseiling. Before anyone can start, groups are led to their respective activity areas and given an explanation of the activity, including a safety briefing. Instructors offer very clear and specific instructions to all participants and in many cases, children have specific roles to fulfil during the activities in order to support the others in their team.

Near the edge of the rafting lake, a wooden tower stands with activities on its four sides - a climbing wall, two abseiling walls and a zip line. Two groups are present for the abseiling with one using each of the two tower faces equipped with abseiling ropes. Before everyone starts, they must put on a harness and safety helmet, each of which is adjusted by an instructor. Abseiling requires team work; instructors are at the top of the tower, securing each child to the rope and ensuring that everyone descends safely. At the foot of the tower, children have a 'buddy' role when an abseiler reaches the bottom - they must assist the abseiler in disconnecting from the abseiling rope and signalling to the instructor at the top when this has been completed. For most children, climbing the tower and standing at the top is already a challenge - the tower is much taller than it looks! Coming down may not be physically demanding, but it does demand that children have the courage to step over the edge and trust the ropes.

On a second tower, nestled in the woodland area that surrounds the PGL Marchants Hill complex, children are ascending. This requires a similar equipment set and safety considerations, however, instructors work at the foot of the tower with the group. Children have roles to assist the climbers and instructors, one having a 'buddy' role in disconnecting the climber from the safety line and another acting as the belay - the belay is responsible for tightening the safety line as the climber ascends the wall. Like abseiling, climbing the wall presents a similar challenge for each child and is also more physically demanding, with whole-body strength being required to scale the wall.