22°C, full sun, light W.

Arrived at a campsite the night before. Even for a Sunday, the motorways were relatively quiet. I didn’t rush down and got 71mpg. This is a 1 day practice with no overnight camping, COVID conditions apply.

Day 1: a long route for bronze training is the conclusion. 18km meant that we had less time for training skills. Good for endurance but not mapreading techniques. It got worse later as rain set in. Actually, the boys group sped up then while feeling the pressure to get back to base on-time.

Day 2: this the, a group of girls who were a delight to work with. They were keen to learn and had good stamina for the somewhat shortened route. It t was about 15% shorter which helped tremendously. The weather held out after a grey but dry morning.

Day 3: another group of lads. These were less boisterous and more serious. They had a wide range of previous experience from none to extensive international trekking. They’ll have no trouble with their qualifying expedition in September.

End: the only disappointment was cloudy nights stopped me seeing Comet Neowise