22°C, light wind and deep blue cloudless above.

A very long drive down near Brighton. I hope it’s worth it. Heathside has always been brilliant previously, so it will be again.

Before the punters arrive, I have the field to myself. Peace and rest after a long drive. Oh, and a good book (The Secret life of Flies).

Day one: Silver expedition is three days of walking and other activities. Day one was eventful with a first aid incident that had awkward effects all day. I had two groups, one of boys, the other- all girls. To start, the boys seemed well equipped and ready to move out early.
The girls, however; were overloaded (one arrived with 18.5kg) but with too little water. One C*, had enough food for a week and many, many changes of clothes (some cotton pieces). Also, their packs did not fit well, but since they were quite tall, the problem was less than usual.

The boys marched on full of energy. They sailed past the turning and headed south. Five groups made this same mistake and I had to rush about turning them around. Bear in mind, they didn’t do Bronze.

Within a few km of starting, one of the girls fell faint in the heat. We’d stopped for a snack, but it was warm, still and very humid. She (N*) couldn’t even sit up and lost all her colour. We were a km from the nearest road at a junction of paths by a golf course. A golfer could see we had a problem and offered to get a golf buggy. I went with N* and sat her in the golf shop while we waited for the minibus.

The minibus dropped me off near Fulking village so i could get onto the hill.

The boys’ group were easy to find but the girls were far more tricky. They’d gone south passed the A27 catching feature. On the phone they were into Shoreham., A local had misdirected them away from a path which may have adders. It got to the point where I asked them to install OS-Locate and get me a grid reference. Once I got to this group, I stayed with them for the day- I’m not letting go!

13.2: both groups’ longest day started misty, brewing up for a coming storm overnight. One of the lads was withdrawn for the day with an injury and a teacher had to walk with them to make up the numbers. A misjudgement meant my tent was left at the previous camp. I was told to stay at the same camp because of staff ratios. In the end, the numbers were okay so I could move it to the nice scout camp. All the better because the showers are good. Late finishes are fine, but in a row, tiredness builds. After a shower, I turned in at 11.

13 2: rain overnight, but I slept through the thunder. Shame because I love a good thunderstorm, especially in the tent. The last day turned into a beautiful day. The kids were hot but got on with it. The girls had a far better day with navigation.