Category Archives: DofE

Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme

DofE 15: Cannock Chase (again)

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30°C, full sun, light wind.

We were issued with detailed plans this morning and I am working as a Supervisor along with an Assessor, we have three groups to manage. We have a uniform tower and have radios for staff only. For the first time, we issue GPS beacons. These only return a position once pinged by the expedition manager. That sounds better than some centres who monitor a continuous track.

15.1: Their routes are very similar but they were spread out over time. The extraordinary heat didn’t harm the kids’ progress as much as other schools. The Chase does offer good shelter amongst the trees. The last groups required a ping a few times and they finished 2nd to last.

15.2: most of the routes are very similar today now we have come.down from the Chase onto low farmland. The slow group from yesterday we’re even slower today. They have many many breaks.

DofE 14: White Peak (2)

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Pollen VH, 18°C, brisk SE, dry, full sun.

14.1 drive the minibus to Hulme End to meet coach B. The boss had split the year group and I met the northern half to issue kit. Soon, classic bronze route planning appeared. One group had plotted a route along walls and fences to I changed the route to paths that match other group.

14.2 camp to Ilam: a tricky day because my groups’ routes diverged by 2 km, one down the Manifold, the other, Tissington.

Last minute rushing about looking for lost and late groups. Luckily, the coach was very late. Once more, just when I thought I could relax, a call came in from another lost group…

Inevitably, a late finish. The coach was booked for 5pm and arrived about 6.30pm. As I left, the coach was stuck behind the bridge in Ilam. Maybe we should use the coach company in Ilam village next time. By the time the bus was dropped off at the hire place and I was returned to my car, it was 8.45pm. half an hour to get home and then supper. That’s a long day from a 6am start.

DofE 13 South Downs

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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.

DofE 12: Chilterns (2)

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Sun-rain-sun/repeat 18°C.

12.0: arrived a day early on a busy Scout camp. Presumably, most will go tomorrow before ours arrive. I needed an early night but they did quieten down after 9.30. The owls were loud in the night.

12.1: Training two groups, one all girls, the other – mixed. Both started unskilled and with an impulsive nature. They urgently wanted to press on which led to fractured groups and navigation errors. The urge to go on cost them enough mistakes to slow the day down dramatically. Dashing off made for a long day. Mine were the last groups in. The rain showers abated and we arrived with very tired kids. The mixed group got themselves in first.

In the woods, creepy eh?

12.2: A day for each group to travel solo, first in light rain, later a nice day unfolded.
Some arguments were reported on the 2nd day because navigation decisions were made by force of personality and not on a group using observed evidence. The other group (girls) went well and became steadily better and better. They really bloomed on this trip, I hope they finished with the fuzzy feeling of satisfaction. I told them they should.

DofE 10: Cannock Chase

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14-17°C, sunny.

9.2: Practice, independent travel with staff and instructors on mostly mobile checkpoints. I headed out on foot to the most easterly point on any of the routes. If groups go wrong here they could get lost in a complex of routes in wooded valleys. Besides that, the routes are circular and we have all day; no coach deadline.

Training/Practice. D1: walking with two groups to teach journeying and navigation. Both seemed to progress though poor stamina was apparent later in the afternoon. The weather was, at least, mild and dry

Roe deer on the Chase.

9.3: rain all day, pah! Routes are north to Milford where the coaches are due later than last year. It’s just as well because two groups ran late. Both made a mess of navigation by taking numerous wrong turns. I walked in from the north towards the usual place where groups go astray and they appeared in 6 or 7 hundred metres. Once they recognised me and realised I would walk them out, the tears came. Half of the group sobbed; relief I assume. Limping on wet sore feet, we returned at 1km/hr to the minibus.

One girl found this on her sleeve. Interesting because of those mites clinging to the bee.

Here’s a tricky one, this group did this yesterday too. It’s up to the school, but if I were their supervisor, I would not recommend them for an assessed expedition yet.

DofE 9: White Peak.

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Sunshine and showers. 5-19°C.

9.0: I thought I was driving home when the phone rang on the M6. “Are you available for a Silver Qualifier” in the White Peak? I pulled into Sandbach services to check. It would work as long as the carpet fitter could change date. I took the job. Another instructor pulled out which put pressure on the AAP. Since I wasn’t very far away, I got there early. The client was familiar, a girls’ school from Oxfordshire.

A quiet side valley by Taddington Dale.

9.1: Wet and windy. Despite the weather, the gorge was rich with garlic in full bloom. Taddington Dale: Is this what paradise would look like? My group struggled with a confusion of paths and barbed wire while I waited at the second checkpoint. In the drizzle, they were getting a bit down and wanted a shortcut. I led them to a mill so they could get photos for their aim. Camp at Mandale Farm.

This was another pastoral job but the cohort included some interesting characters. N* didn’t really fit in with the others but got on well with adults, especially men. We all clicked immediately and had tremendous fun swapping stories with verbal jousting.

9.2: Mandale to Hulme End. Much better weather, rising temperatures and humidity.

This herd were just curious. I expect my groups would be nervous since they blocked the stile. The cattle responded to gentle encouragement to move aside.

9.3: Hulme End to Ilam, an easy route down the Dove, the group are motoring, each checkpoint saw them arrive early. By now, the bond was tied. We talked about family, partners and home they thanked me for “being nice to N*”. She was apparently, not universally liked by teachers. Activities like expeditions were her forte. I shalln’t forget this group.

DofE 7.0

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11°C, very heavy showers including hail, lightning and thunder.

180 mile drive to camp. Looks like a nice campsite, all modern and plush.

Bronze Qualifying in the East Cotswolds. I had a delightful group of year 9 girls. They were trouble free and remained in good spirits on both days. That was helped by good weather, even the bright sun wasn’t too warm. They did finish day 2 about 40′ late, a minor problem not helped by a tendency to chat at checkpoints. I share some of the blame for this so will have to watch this on future trips.

The only fly in the ointment was conflict with another school’s expedition sharing the same camp. It wasn’t their kids but one of their staff. He wasn’t even a teacher but the husband of one. It was ironic really, their kids spent the night in one of the pavilion rooms, probably because they were heated on this cold night. More worrying for their school, the voices heard indoors were both boys and girls. Oh dear.

DofE 6: Ousedale.

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Heavy showers and bright sun. 11°C.

Heading down a day early on a longish drive ready for Bronze Practice.

The camp is good but lacks showers, not a problem for Bronze though.

DofE 6.1; The groups were dropped off a few miles away and we had 2 each. Each instructor mapped a route to camp along footpaths. Since camp was so close, I took mine SW before looping round towards the finish. Group 2 really couldn’t understand why. They were impatient to get to the finish first and wanted to follow the boys’ groups. Missing the point, they thought it was some kind of race. The same group had a habit of following other groups without knowing where they were going and rushing past signs that were needed.

We all stopped for sandwiches by a remote bridge. One of the girls took out a bottle of Tabasco sauce to drip over hers. What a strikingly good idea! I couldn’t resist asking for some and it gave my mushroom pate/cheese roll a real lift. Excellent, I’m going to pack a bottle Nas soon as I get back

Setting up camp was straightforward even though rain had started, the tents were in good nick and all complete.

DofE 6.2 predictably, group 2 went wrong early on. Having remotely supervised them, I was not party to their decisions in the field. Either they were following another group or had trouble with direction finding. They happened upon another leader’s checkpoint who redirected them NW. I had asked that they were sent back along their planned route but the group messed that up again.

Group 7 arrived late at the busy road crossing. There are no qualms about their conduct; they overshot their turn but found another instead (as briefed). A good outcome in the end.

DofE 5; Storm Hannah on the Berwyn range.

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5°C, gales and heavy rain all-day.

Thirteen girls on Silver practice. I picked them up this morning and eventually started them off in Corwen, North Wales.

DofE 5.1; I’m taking 3 silver Practice groups to Corwen. Thus turned into a very late finish after compounded problems. The worst was Storm Hannah. We got off with a day of light rain, most of the storm blew out during the morning drive. However, it still sapped the morale of my groups who them went in circles in the woods after dropping down from the Moors. Group 2 was not heard of since the moor top, their radio had failed (I’m told it got wet), and there was no phone signal. By 8pm I was stressed looking for them in the bus while shepherding the other 2 groups into camp.

I should not have had 3 groups to manage but a member of staff dropped out and wasn’t replaced.

They needed some help at camp, one tent lacked pegs for example. At about 21.30, I got away for the 45′ drive back to the staff camp at Pistll Rheadr. See note later#.

5.2: Cadair Bronwyn; head up to the summit via Cadair Berwyn to man a checkpoint.. The storm has cleared with light winds and a cloud base about 1,000m above the tops. Even so, problems arose for group 1 early. One girl returned to the start feeling ill escorted by her team. Thus, team 1 ( who combined with G2) started again to arrive 4 hours late at the summit.

The prospect of another late finish loomed large. I redirected their route away from the 2 summits and refreshed their water supplies. The photo shows the spring I filtered from. An excellent spring I thought. Tasty water too.

To come off the hill, I escorted a walking casualty off the hill, their prime navigator as it happens. Good that they had other good navigators in the now merged team. They can’t travel as a 3 so I merged all three teams into one group of 8.

A colleague offered to drive over and see my group in, he could see how tired I was after that very late finish. I was worried about driving feeling like I did but was despirate to see them. Reluctantly, I agreed.

Apparently they didn’t arrive to camp until 8pm. We got in about 7pm along with another unwell group. That put me on the opposite side of the mountain from my own teams. Deeply unhappy about this, one of the ML guys knew about my 01.30 finish and could see how tired I was. He offered to go over to catch them, along with CH. Two MLs had to go in case a night search was necessary.

5.3: 9km to the finish on relatively low terrain, only 540m top.

#1: I’m going to camp nearby next time. This valley has no signal for any network and there is no landline or VHF reception. This troubles me profoundly. What if there was a first aid emergency in the night? We got away with this, but not again.

DofE 4: Cannock Chase

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4.1: intro and tuition, walking with the group all day and setting up camp with them. They were fit and able, my group of all lads.

The route was on familiar ground, both from previous DofE trips, visits from my old house. I even camped at the Scout camp when I was a little lad in the 70s. There were some recurrent problems with the group who had a tendency to split through differing pace. At camp, there were many problems with kit to solve. All of that meant I didn’t get my own cooking started until 20.30.

4.2: Day Two, all groups would walk by themselves with instructors doing remote supervision. My group sorted themselves out and started working as a unified whole. They met checkpoints at expected times and completed the day. After debrief, I was convinced that they’d sorted themselves out.