Transcription:

Tuesday morning Gannet were woken by Robert Jeffreys. Breakfast was gipsy toast and jam. During the week everybody was going to do three expeditions, with somebody doing each expedition each day. After flagbreak and inspection the patrols made sandwiches and prepared. Seagull went mining then sailing, Cormorant and Redshank did a Tintern expedition, and Mallard and Kingfisher did the Symonds Yat expedition.

Seagull climbed into Bosun's van ready to go to Llandegfedd reservoir to drop off the boats, then went to the Big Pit mine. The Big Pit was a coal mine no longer commercially viable, though still open to the public. Before entering the mine, everyone was fitted with a miner's helmet, lamp and emergency oxygen supply. We were taken down the shaft in a lift and shown underground stables and coal faces. At one stage the guide had everyone turn their lights off and put their hands in front of their faces; it was so dark we could not see anything.

After about an hour underground we came back to the surface. We got lost on the way back to the reservoir and only had half an hour left for sailing. Everybody felt so ill after the van journey that only one person went sailing. We then went back and had spaghetti bolognaise, sponge pudding and custard.

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