How much do you trust your friend?

We found that when you cannot see you use your other senses so much more.

Making dampers in the damp!

We all made dampers this afternoon on the fire and just look who tried one:

 !!!!!!

DELICIOUS (well some people thought so, anyway!)

We're the Fire Starters!

When you have lit a fire you have to have 'fire marks' from the charcoal put on your face.

Top Firestarter marks go to these two for their patience in this very damp weather - they would NOT give up!

Hello again from Ringsfield Hall!

Well, we all went to sleep (some earlier than others!) and we all got up (some earlier than others!).  We have to do quite a lot for ourselves here, and after getting our own breakfast

some of us had to go with Abi:

to feed the animals (Abi lives with Joe and their four children in a yurt at the end of the drive).

When our jobs were finished it was on with the morning's activities.  Do you know, at Ringsfield they have a special liquid that you dab on your nose to improve your sense of smell?  We could smell all sorts of things after that:

This morning half the group turned into Gulliver!  We looked down special tubes to see the 'Little People' and then found gifts to leave in their tiny gardens.

Today it was the other camp's turn to follow the soil, air and water trails.

There was a bit of time for finishing our shelters before lunch

while some children had their chance to light fires (yes, real fires with flames and everything, and in the rain, too!!)

Just when we thought it was time to return to the Hall for lunch, the most exciting thing happened.  Two or three at a time we were asked some questions to check that we had acquired enough EarthWatch knowledge to pass the 'Knowledge' test.  We were each given a key for getting the answers right and the keys unlocked a very special box.

Inside there was a key ring for each of us and our first clue as to who this mysterious 'Em' is who wrote us the letter.  Em is guiding us through our visit because he wants us to help him take care of the Earth.  Our clue was written on a stone and it said 'Energy and Material'.

Whatever could it mean?