It has been another absolutely awesome day at Braeside! Much to the adults’ surprise, nearly everyone was up and ready to go, eager for a delicious breakfast. Breakfast today was a Full English (needless to say, the adults were thrilled). Following this, the children prepared themselves for the most daunting part of the trip: the room inspection. The rooms varied in their tidiness, however, every teddy was well looked after and had games and books to keep them busy for the day. Unfortunately, much to the disgust of the room inspectors, there were many an odd, smelly sock lying around! Yuck!
Today, we set out on a walk to the nearby Oliver’s Castle, the local highpoint with stunning views of the Wiltshire Countryside. Before setting off, we learnt to use an OS map and a compass, which we used to make our way through the streets of Devizes and out into open country. Thankfully, the inspectors were there to help us use these tools otherwise, it is possible that we would still be somewhere in the nearby countryside… Our route was somewhat hampered today by the weather and we had to tackle many a deep puddle and some seriously sludgy conditions – quite a few shoes, wellies and walking boots got stuck in the mud and many a rescue mission had to be carried out to return feet to footwear as we climbed the hill.
At the top, we stopped for a delicious lunch, looking down on our beautiful surroundings (in the distance, we could even see the woods where we did the nightline yesterday). From here, we set off to the site of the old fort where we learned about the Civil War battle and the reasons why the bottom of the hill is known as the “Bloody Ditch”.
Retracing our steps back down the hill, with a few more rescue missions for stuck boots, we finally returned back to Braeside where we enjoyed a bit of free time before dinner. Mrs Ford departed and Mr Everitt arrived, and in one room, a hairdressers was set up! Mr Pavey also joined some girls for a quick Taylor Swift singalong. 
Dinner this evening was delicious. Fish and chips followed by ice cream!
This evening, we headed into Braeside’s beautiful gardens for a campfire. We sung some campfire classics and shared some great jokes. We are confident that everyone back in Aldbourne and the surrounding areas will have heard us tonight.
As the day drew to a close, we once again settled down in the lounge with some hot chocolates and shared some highlights and all of the reasons to be proud of each other after another awesome day. It has been so much fun today and we cannot wait to see what adventures lie in wait tomorrow!
