20°C, sunny
Silver Assessment: 3 days near London in the North Downs. On the face of it, this looks like typical bronze territory in rolling chalklands. The forecast is for ideal weather but the possibility of some behaviour to keep an eye on.
8.1: My group had to be rescued from near Go-ape as darkness fell. They’d done 9h 30m anyway. Let’s hope they proceed faster tomorrow. Debrief revealed that they has gone in loops in Wendover Woods. I worry about the flow of observed information within the group. They have a couple of good prime navigators. The problem could be the other 5 passively following. That’s too much responsibility for 2 out of the 7.
8.2: a flatlands route along canals and round their top-up reservoirs.
All went well until they missed the last checkpoint. I still don’t know why they didn’t phone. That meant I could not reroute them away from a hazardous road.
8:3 last day. A return route with a short section of open access scrub and then onto canals again. Again, they were just a little too late to complete without pickup by the minibus. We staff had a debriefing and elected to defer this group. Their teacher, an experienced ML agreed and elected to take them out for a day’s navigation and that should give them the Pass they were expecting.
Overall, a satisfactory result, but I still hate giving them the bad news. They will, however, pass if their nav day goes well next month.
Those dark bands are coal. Yes, it surprised me but they may date from the last war. Further up the coast are bands of rounded house bricks. Apparently, they were Ribble from the Liverpool blitz.
Micycle 