We woke up this morning to a beautiful view of Newcastle. The cabin we are in has an amazing view over the town. After breakfast, we all went up to the main building and spoke to Mark (the main trainer) to see what activities we could do. Kate decided to leave the outdoor activities for the ex-Greenhill volunteers and head to Belfast while Calvin, Steff and Eva decided to tackle the new activity tower. But first, we piled into the bus with the current volunteers for their weekly drive to Tesco for grocery shopping. On the way we dropped Kate off at the bus station so she could take the bus to Belfast. Calvin, Steff and Eva shopped for lunch food and dinner food. Calvin was extremely excited to see potato bread (farls) which he remembered were so good. We bought 3 packs! Kate ended up walking the short distance from the bus station to Tesco because she had just missed the bus and had to wait an hour! Once Calvin, Steff and Eva got back to Greenhill, Mark and Ronan (one of the volunteers on a university placement) took us on the activities on the tower. We did the Gladiator (a vertical obstacle course of logs, nets and tyres to get to the top). 2 people can do it at one time and can race to the top – once at the top, there are great sweeping views of Newcastle. Once at the top, we were told to high five, then high ten, then high fifteen and high twenty – high twenty was impossible! We then did the Leap of Faith – you climb a (very wobbly) totem pole up to a platform, then have to jump off to grab on to a hanging bar a distance away. The distance can be progressively increased – Calvin tried the furthest distance but missed it! The last activity was the Zip Line. 10 years ago, the volunteers ran an activity called the Aerial Runway, which was like a really fast zip line from a tree downhill – there was a moment of freefall before the rope caught you. The current Zip Line was good but certainly not as fast or scary! After a lunch of potato farls and cheese, Calvin, Stef and Eva wandered into Newcastle and past the old volunteer house. It's all boarded up now but we did wander round the back and into the house by the open back door. The house was basically gutted – some of the ceilings were pulled out, the floors were stripped and the fittings removed. It was cool and sad to see it all – we crept up the stairs to see our old rooms! A walk along the beac, up the promenade and back down to the Harbour Inn for some sweet chili cheese chips (this used to be our traditional snack/meal after a long day in the mountains) and to meet Christina. Meanwhile, after a 1 hour bus trip, Kate arrived in Belfast. The weather was pretty mild which made it much easier to wander around. Kate went from shop to shop looking for hiking boots (and taking in the sights of the city at the same time). She even caught a taxi to one of the shops, which was a fair bit out of the centre, to investigate one of the big outdoors shops. Eventually at about 5:00 (of course it was pitch black by this time), Kate found her hiking boots! Kate then wandered back to the bus station and got the 5:30 bus back to Newcastle. Once Kate got back in to Newcastle, Christina drove Calvin, Eva and Stef round to pick up Kate before stopping in the middle of town at a restaurant called Great Jones for a delicious dinner! It was a warm, cosy place with good food. Stef got a triple chocolate tart for her dinner because she already had a her sweet chili cheese chips at the Harbour Inn already! We then went to Nugelato down the street for an ice cream – perfect for a cold night! On return home, we met Rod back at the centre. Rod was a new staff member to Greenhill 10 years ago and he picked Calvin up when he first arrived at Belfast airport. It was good catching up with him again.