STRIDERS BIG ADVENTURE DIARY

Striders Diary - 31 October 2006

Striders Big Adventure

Strider completes his Big Adventure in Redcar and Cleveland, before celebrating Halloween by visiting the Abbey that inspired Dracula.

Hello everyone!
I have come to the end of my journey, and decided to finish in Cleveland.

Grangetown Primary School, Grangetown

I started the day watching two brilliant plays written and performed by the pupils of Grangetown primary school as part of their assembly on walking to school safely.

The plays had a serious message, but they were also very funny in places. The acting was very good too. I then got up in front of the audience and told them all about my journey. I showed them some of the photos of the places I had visited, and some of the adventures I had had.

They were very pleased that I had chosen their school as one of the last schools I visited, and had invited along the local paper to tell them all about it. While i was having my picture taken, one of the children told me that the pupils are all very keen walkers - with more than 8 in 10 pupils walking to school!

Skelton Primary School, Saltburn by the Sea

After lunch I went to Skelton Primary School. When I first saw the sign on the gate I thought it said "Skeleton" primary school - which seemed very appropriate for Halloween!

Skelton is an enormous school, with over 500 pupils. It is so big that they can't hold an assembly for the whole school, so I had to visit two assemblies, one after the other.

I started by meeting the 5 and 6 year olds. The school had held a colouring competition to celebrate Walk to School month, so I was asked to present the prizes. The winner got a Walk to School T shirt.

I then went to an assembly for 7,8 and 9 year olds. They had held a competition to see who could walk to school the most, and they had taken it very seriously. Lots of people who didn't normally walk to school had taken part. I hope they will carry it on! The winner also recieved a Walk to School T shirt, and they looked very smart wearing it.

Whitby Abbey

With it being Halloween, I felt I should finish my journey somewhere really spooky. The spookiest place I could think of was the ruined abbey in Whitby, which inspired the author of the book Dracula.

In the book, Dracula is travelling on a boat, called Demeter, bound for Whitby. The boat is wrecked on the coast, and Dracula escapes, running up the 199 steps to the abbey on top of the hill disguised as a black dog. He then lives in the graveyard, returning to the town each night to suck the blood of the residents.

I didn't see Dracula (thank goodness), but I could well understand why Bram Stoker, who wrote the original story of Dracula, based it in Whitby. The abbey is very spooky, and towers over the whole town. It made me shiver every time I looked up at it!

See where I have been

You can now follow my journey on a map. Check it out!

Let me know how you got on!

I have now finished my Big Adventure for October. Thanks to everyone who took part. I would still like to know what you got up to during Walk to School month, so why not get your teacher to fill in my survey - it should only take 10 minutes.

Keep walking!