Trips

June 2009 - The Eden Project

A group of staff and service users from Shekinah Torbay teamed up with staff and service users from Steady Work Torbay to make a trip to The Eden Project in Cornwall.  It was a gorgeous day and many stunning pictures were taken....watch this space!

The Shekinah Mission works in partnership with The Eden Project to grow organic fruit and vegetable produce at the site of the Occombe Farm, in Paignton.  This is a social enterprise which will provide affordable fresh organic goods, as well as training in horticulture for our service users.  (see 'Farm Project')

June 2009

Service Users, volunteers and staff recently enjoyed another day out on a deep sea fishing boat, 'The African Queen'.  The trip was on the hottest day of the year so far and in spite of using suncream, there were a few sunburned faces!  Nevertheless it was a brilliant day and people caught lots of fish including mackerel, plaice, whiting, herring and a large sea bass!

Service users that took part in the trip absolutely loved it and are starting a fishing club of their own.  Dave Sagar, one of our keyworkers, says, 'I've never ever been fishing before and I caught the biggest fish of the day, I'm now going to buy a rod!'. 

Many thanks to the crew of The African Queen...

March 2009

Over the next few weeks we have another fishing trip planned and a trip to Buckfast Butterfly Farm.  Watch this space for more information...

Devon's Eagles and Sparkwell Zoo

Thursday 26th February 2009

This trip was a great success and enjoyed by all.  13 People in all took part and it was great fun as well as being an opportunity for some close encounters with some strange creatures!

The trip was organised as a treat for those taking part in the photography course and people were given the chance on the day to also take some pictures.  Below is a taster although there will be more pictures available soon.

Special thanks to George and Elaine for making it all happen.  Check them out @ www.devonseagles.com.  

Thanks to Sparkwell Zoo for giving us a great day and to Gerald and Upton vale church for providing the transport.

Fishing

A fishing trip took place on Monday, 8 September.  We left at 7am and spent the day on a local boat, the 'African Queen'.

The fishing day was fantastic and really enjoyed by everyone that took part (this was a small group due to the nature of the trip).  The guys caught plaice, mackerel, whiting and gurnard and were able to taste it afterwards.  Some of the fish was also served up for lunch for our other service users at the project.

Report - by Billy Ryan

'Yesterday I got up early around 5.45am to get ready to go fishing.  I was excited cos  hadn't done any fishing since I was a child.  We went to Dartmouth and caught a ferry across the river to get to our boat.  Some people brought fishing bait with them which were rag worm, squid and other bait.  I was a little bit nervous about picking up the rag worm, cos they bite, but once mastered, it was easy.

I had a really good time.  I thought I would be useless but I just got stuck in.  My first fish was a red gurnard, I was over the moon.  I was happy and happy that I had a good day and would like to go on other trips.  I learnt something and very much would like to do it again. 

Thank you for a fantastic day.  I feel proud of myself.'

Beach

There was an outing to the beach during the third week of September.  We waited until the end of the summer to avoid the big crowds, and the weather was still decent enough...and a number of people took the opportunity to put their photography skills into practice.

Special thanks to Gerald Bunce for taking us there (our vehicle only seats seven people and we had a larger group for this trip).