Sunday, November 8, 2015

Bollington, Cheshire

I'm in the process of drawing up a list of all the places I've visited in the Peak District and elsewhere and selecting suitable photographs for the 'From The Archives' feature which I've already started with the previous post.

This would be the second post, but it can't be included in the 'From The Archives, section because I visited Bollington many years ago, probably nearly thirty years ago, and there aren't any photographs and it obviously hasn't previously been mentioned in the blog. It's mainly for this reason that I'm including it though, the fact that I haven't mentioned my visit to Bollington...it was a very important time for me. The visit I mention was actually an outward bound course lasting for a week.

My Asperger's syndrome, undiagnosed at the time, was misunderstood and misinterpreted as me being shy, nervous, and lacking in motivation, and so the jobcentre decided to send me on this residential personal development course. It didn't help me find a job, but I enjoyed every minute of it; rock climbing, caving, abseiling, canoeing, orienteering, archery, pistol shooting, climbing up the steep side of a reservoir using a grappling hook...and every day being challenged to beat our personal best times on an army assault course, a long and difficult one.

The highlights of the week for me were the abseiling, I couldn't get enough of it, climbing down an aluminium 'rope ladder' into a large cave, and climbing up the side of Lamaload Reservoir with ropes and grappling hooks...I did all my own stunts back then.


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