DofE 1

Cold nights and warm sunny days, bone dry.

The campsite has a shrine!. It even lights up when you walk up to it.

In some ways, spring is similar to last year. Bright, cloudless skies and cold nights. Both nights saw frost on the tent which would have been a problem for all groups. We can’t really expect kids to take winter bags. It’s a shame that he kids can’t camp (due to Covid rules). For many, it’s the best part of DofE. Some will not have camped before and this would be a good way to start.

I’ve made fun of the campsite here, but really, it’s an excellent site. More so when the shower block is finished. There is a railway line next along the camp which often has heavy freighters passing in the night. I noticed these in the first night but not over Saturday night. According to other staff, there were just as many. Few people sleep as well on the first night out.

Cwm Caseg, Carneddeau.

11°C, cloud above 500m, NW breeze.
Valley walk behind Carnedd Dafedd. A forgotten valley that is largely marshy with wide open vistas. Or at least when you can see them, low cloud often closed in and removed any visibility, no reference points to show the way. Only the last known position and slope direction. Good job last week’s training was good at Plas-y-Brenin. I was constantly using the compass and even counting paces (59 is 100m). Not once did I loose my location; only near the lake did any doubt creep in. My phone’s GPS actually have a wrong reading, both for height and grid reference.  I nearly turned back and then as if some godly intention, the clouds lifted enough.
The lake was over the next rise. For a few minutes, it was clear enough to reveal the back wall.
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Odd things: dead horses, at least their skeletons. One was missing it’s skull, and another had only a jawbone. The hooves made it obvious what they were. Both were very small but quite chunky.
Another odd thing was the pennywort. [See photo]. The shapes it made were quite animal, like a throat, maybe.
There was a problem near the end to solve. A couple arrived part way through my hour of trying to find a river crossing. The bridge was down and the river in spate. Plenty of rocks stood proud of the water but they were covered in very slippery black slime. I even tried fording it in bare feet, but the boulders beneath the water were also as slippery as ice.
In the end, I changed the route to avoid that river.
The guy was still with me and he had a GPS device to map read. Nice, but it threw my concentration. Following him was the only time I got my feet wet.

Unmentionables

19C, heavy rain.
Collected some furniture from Bolton. There is the drawback of buying through ebay. The drive was not too far but it meant travelling to towns entirely unfamiliar. West Lancashire looks quite okay, not exactly “desolate” as the Tories think.

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The satnav did not, however, cope well with a closed road in the town. It took me over circuitous routes, each time, back to the road closure.
The guy who sold it explained that he’d moved house recently and that his wife used it to “keep her unmentionables”.