It was time for the annual "weekend away" for the Quickdraws, the chosen venues this year to be Brimham on the Saturday and Ilkley on the Sunday.

Most of the club had elected to stay at Thornwaite Camping and Activity Centre which is Scout facility and it was an inspired choice of venue. It's a large, spacious venue with a catering style kitchen available at a reasonable cost with plenty outdoor activities to occupy the children in the late evenings as the parents and older associates socialised indoors. It was a bit chaotic in the kitchen at mealtimes, that's to be expected, but it must be said that if the collective purpose had been to make broth, it's certain it would have been spoiled. Unpalatable to say the least and probably lukewarm too with a floating fly to boot. Some of the Quickdraw fathers are clearly semi-domesticated, if not feral, and their wives need to a get a grip, it's as simple as that. The more times you open an oven door, the longer the sausages take to cook - that's a fact.

Saturday morning brought sunshine and more smiles as we headed to Brimham, a fairly spectacular collection of rock formations managed by the National Trust, funded by the £8 a day Dick Turpin car park charge. Steph, Ella, Rosa,Louise, Holly, Kasha, Erin, Ella Jamie, Kenzie, Finlay and Lachlan made up the company together with Matthew and Keira , the latter pair being extremely helpful with the younger ones. Buz and Andy kindly gave up their Saturday nights to attend as coaches from Eica. As is the norm, the more experienced of the group lead climbed initially which allowed top ropes to be set up for the less experienced. The climbing, bouldering and company were second to none and everyone had a fantastic time, so much so that we never got back to the accomodation until 7pm or thereabouts. 

Sunday morning was a bit hectic as the hall was due to be inspected for cleanliness and damage at 9:30am, yet it transpired we had a distinct lack of cleaning products and cloths with breakfast still to be made.  One of the parents managed to create some temporary cloths, but to be honest they were pants, so it was a relief when Iain returned from the Spar with some bleach and green scourers and by inspection time the place was gleaming like a new pin.

Unfortunately, Sunday brought rain so the decision was made to attend Harrogate Climbing Centre. This is an impressive place, it has a large, bright and very clean cafe area with some excellent high walls within the climbing area. The bouldering room is not the biggest but it's not too bad. Their regular climbers and staff, it must be said, were really friendly; the venue has an excellent atmosphere.

Thanks to Dorothy and Alan, thank's to Holly's mum Jenny who found the accomodation, and thanks to Andy and Buz who were a patient and helpful as always.