Category Archives: Hiking

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 8: North Downs.

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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.

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.

Parlick start.

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22°C, milky sun and light wind

Parked after a fairly short drive from home and climbed Parlock in the Forest of Bowland. I got to the summit of Fair Snape Fell for supper in the shelter.


As the sun set, it approached its own reflection in the sea off the coast of Blackpool. Soon after, I headed off to find somewhere to set camp.

My little Banshee fitted out of sight in the dried up bogland. To avoid being seen, I found a shallow dip where my headtorch would not be seen.

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.

DofE 2; Cotswolds.

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10°C, after a chilly start.

2.1; met my group in the afternoon and took them out for an hour’s walk before dark. They’re quick and have retained a good set of skills. Bronze doesn’t require much from compass skills so this may be a focus. They seem very fit and confident.

2.2: a longish day of 11 miles. The route is fairly simple, punctuated by some fiddly navigation through villages. My group were superb. Their pace was good and navigation errors were few and small. All that despite one nursing injured knees.

2.2: Another slightly long day. R was still struggling with sore knees. She agreed to try a few things that may help. Their school was inclined to pull her out, erring on the side of caution. I decided to try a few tricks. I lent her walking poles and also gave her the job of navigating the tricky forest section. Pain control is more than popping a pill.


From a distance, her gait was natural and in closer, she looked okay. People in serious pain speak with a knot in their voice; she didn’t. Her expression was also neutral so I decided to encourage R to continue. She finished the day.

The whole group finished the day comfortably and in good spirit. Debrief was nice, a chance to heap praise on them all for their efforts. They were so confident and optimistic, a real pleasure to work with.