Leo was the first to descend, slowly pushing his feet from the rock, and Spencer was sure he could hear the boy humming.
The sun peeked through the trees, creating sparkles of light on the boulders down below for a moment, and some birds nestled in branches seemed to join in with Leo’s song.
‘I was flying,’ said Leo, landing at the bottom. His cheeks were flushed, and eyes wide with jubilation.
‘You enjoyed that then?’ asked Spencer, grinning.
Leo spun in a circle as soon as his harness was unclipped. ‘I want to do it again, and again, and again.’
‘Ah,’ said Graham, getting ready for the next child to abseil. ‘I see you have learned rock language.’
Leo giggled. ‘What did I say?’
‘It’s not the words,’ said Graham, adding a smile. ‘It’s how this makes you feel. That is the language.’
Jax was the next one down, and unlike Leo, he wasn’t keen to do a repeat performance, stating he much preferred going up to coming down. Leo tried to tell him about the rock language, but Jax felt he’d chatted enough with the precipice to last a lifetime. He’d earned his badge, and that was good enough.
Once Ryan was down, Graham had everyone sit down for a while and sip some water before they would climb again to head back to camp. He explained how much exercise their bodies were receiving and that a little rest would be beneficial.
The boys started to get restless within minutes and went off to mooch around by the trees while Spencer and Will questioned Graham on harder routes and all the places he had scaled.
It wasn’t long before Graham had Jax back on the rock face, and this time Jax figured out his pathway a lot quicker.
‘They’ll eat well this lunchtime,’ said Will, nudging Spencer’s arm. ‘I’m hungry already.’
‘We’ll cook the burgers as soon as we’re back in camp,’ said Spencer. ‘Then get ready to head home.’ He laughed. ‘Not sure how I’m going to beat this.’
‘What about horse riding? They might like to give that a go.’
Spencer nodded. He’d speak to Debra. After the morning they’d had, he felt anything was possible for the boys.
‘I saw a fella flying a kite over the park the other day,’ said Will. ‘You could look into that. How to make them and so on.’
‘I like that idea,’ said Spencer, turning to see Leo and Ryan balancing on some small boulders low to the ground, Leo posing like a superhero. ‘Get off those before one of you slips.’
Leo stepped down, apologizing. ‘I was being a statue.’
Ryan decided to jump. His foot skidded, causing him to tip to one side and land on his arm. ‘Ouch!’ he groaned, getting up.
Leo’s mouth was gaping. ‘You okay?’
Spencer darted to Ryan’s side. ‘What hurts?’
Ryan raised his elbow. ‘My arm.’
Will quickly assessed the damage. ‘Can’t see any major problems. Just bruised.’
‘All okay over there?’ asked Graham, signalling up to his team, who already had Jax in their care.
Spencer gave him the thumbs up.
One of Graham’s team raced through the trees quickly to check Ryan over. His arm was indeed bruised but okay, which was a relief for everyone.
Spencer told Will he would go with the team member the long way round to the top and meet him at the minibus, as he didn’t want Ryan to climb again now his arm was bruised.
‘Oh, but I want to climb,’ said Ryan.
‘Graham won’t let anyone with an injury climb,’ Spencer told him as they walked away.
