24 – 18°C, warm, humid sun building mist to rain.
Thursday, another big day with DofE; this time, bronze Practice, and a year younger. Twice as many kids, less experience but first run, no fails.
I spent the whole day on foot by myself. I can be more useful that way. Mostly in radio contact so I had no difficulty intercepting groups. I used the day to catch 5 groups at checkpoints, although I am normally allocated to 3.
We issue checkpoints to all groups along with grid references. The girls plot their own routes freely as long as they make the checkpoints. I took a side route to the first. 3 groups pass Panner’s Pool and I relocate to meet them at the next one North. The big issue now is water. Many are only carrying 1 litre bottles, (despite instruction).
Then a call comes in, a following group reports a broken leg!

Emergency group: I go down on foot and Chris driver to the head of the valley. As I descend, I am able to ask questions about the condition of the group and their position. They obviously missed the turn and didn’t even see a large herd of black cattle. I had to ask about the direction of the sun, it’s obvious that they don’t have a sense of direction, nor can they use a compass.
Their voices sounded calm. Chris was descending, but I really wanted to get their first.
On arrival, the group were sitting at a derelict building and one girl had teary eyes. She had some tendon strain in her knees causing pain. No broken bones then.
The wellbeing of the whole group is now my concern. They are all dehydrated. So, once more, I gave them my water (I carry 3 litres).
Chris took the casualty’s rucksack and we headed up.
Easy and actually, fun.

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