After leaving Fort William in Scotland, my next point of call was Windermere in the Lake District, where I spent a cracking few days with outdoor education colleagues at the National Association of Heads of Outdoor Education Centres Conference (quite a mouthful, so generally known as AHEOC). It was a tricky drive to get to Brathay Hall, where the event was being held, and I arrived in low cloud and torrential rain. I had to abandon the car in a waterlogged field and hiked up to the centre carrying my bags. We saw nothing but presentations and debates all Monday, but on Tuesday morning, I had a super view from my room – happily, for once, I was not in the tent!

The days were back to back talks with MPs, CEOs and other improtant folk, keeping us up to date on all the latest sector news… There were also some smaller group workshops on specific topics as well, and it was a great networking event.

Sadly, there was no time to get outside much, so I made sure I saw some sky at the coffee break.

I was also presented with a (very heavy metal) plaque for the Gold Standard award that I had recently been a part of.

And best of all, I got to catch up with old friends from around the country and made plenty of new contacts – there was a lot of Liverpool John Moores University alumni there – all now running centres and doing amazing things with the outdoor education world. Phil and I used to live on the same street in Liverpool when we were at uni!

The bar was in full flow after the formal dinner and entertaining after-dinner speaker, but I had to sensibly retire to bed before it got too late, ready to get myself back to Wales in the morning!