2012 DofE

Little April Showers (23rd April 2012) DofE Silver in Swanage.

The coach pulled into the Visitor centre car park at Corfe Castle and disgorged its contents onto the gravel. The 40 plus DofEers from Ibstock Place School in London gradually coalesced into six teams of eager beavers ready to take on all the area could throw at them in the Silver practice.

About an hour later with rucksacks repacked and adjusted, kit syphoned off etc., we set off along the ridgeway to the various campsites we had chosen for our groups that night.

Wind pruned trees on the ridgeway

Sunshine deteriorated as the brisk northerly wind drove the April showers down upon the groups just as campsite was reached. Amazingly the shower was so heavy but so isolated that the roads some 100m from our campsite were flooded but we were relatively dry with only a few spots disturbing our cooking and pitching training.

That night the rain picked up and gave our tents a battering but stopped just as the groups got up to cook breakfast, amazing.

That day saw some lovely sunshine with some heavy showers of hail being sent to harass us just in case we got too comfortable. The groups covered some real mixed ground from cliff tops to heathland to forested areas, all designed to throw different navigational challenges at them.

Paddy looking like a thinker, hmmmmm.

They coped admirably but it was a steep learning curve with Jenny, Jane, Brett and Dave demanding high standards from them.

The next day, after a late finish the previous night for some we coasted around the south coast path to finish back at Corfe Castle just as the heavens opened in yet another of April Showers, this one designed to ensure we had not had too easy a time of it.

Navigation made easy

The groups rose to the challenges taking the steep learning curve in their stride and showing the Jurassic coast they were capable.

Well done guys, a credit to your school and the DofE.

Bath Bronze in the pastoral countryside 17th April 2012

I am so used to doing Gold and Silver in really wild country that I forget sometimes what our pastoral areas are like. It also of course makes you appreciate with fresh eyes the area in which you live when you get back out into it after two months of high hills and moorlands.

It was like this when Jane, Brett and myself headed off to supervise and assess six Bronze groups from Monkton Combe school who were walking from the north of Bath to Rode ( which is just short of our offices in Frome.

The fields resonated in a patchwork quilt of colour with rapeseed yellow oscillating against the verdant green of fresh growing grass and cereal crops. The chestnut trees were wearing their newly grown coat of leaves and threatening to light their candles at any moment whilst all the soft fruit trees were waving an icing of blossom at them.

Jane goes over the routes at a checkpoint during the assessment

It was really magic to be out in the rural countryside at this time of the year.

The weather was challenging, as always, with the overnight temp dropping to minus three but the groups coped admirably with the conditions.

Lunch Break

As always with the Monkton pupils they were excellent and all groups passed with flying colours and in the process setting themselves up for silver next year. We look forward to working with you all again next year guys.

Easter DofE in the Brecons (where was the Bunny?) 16th April 2012

Easter weather ?

My pergola outside the office windows is festooned with drying tents, maps, waterproofs etc etc; all the paraphernalia of a two week stint in the Brecons, proof, if it were required, that the weather did not behave for the public holiday.

Easter is, of course, one of the peak DofE times of the year with dozens of groups out and about in the wild, and not so wild, areas of the UK, and this year was no exception to the rule.

It seemed no sooner was I back from Dartmoor with a sunburnt face, than with freshly laundered kit I was off with Jenny and Dave to meet up with our six groups from St Olaves school in London. They were qualifying and had set routes that gave them a complete traverse of the Black mountains and Brecons.

Something of a change in the weather was starting and with glowering skies the groups set off from their various start points.

The day however stayed dry and after a cold night the next morning dawned cold and frosty. The newly born lambs were attempting to find their feet and the primroses nodded in the lovely spring sunshine.

This was a lovely day for DofE and the groups enjoyed it to the full cruising their routes and enjoying a relaxed evening meal in the late afternoon sunshine.

Relaxed evening meal in a room with a view

Over the next two days all the groups completed their routes in really good style, and in continuing dry weather, showing up most of the other groups on the hills with their excellent preparation and confident navigation. Well done guys a superb effort and an excellent gold expedition.

No sooner had these groups finished than the rain started! Hey ho! I was staying over and being joined by Jane for our Easter Open qualifying expedition. The participants arrived the next day along with the snow. Fortunately we had a nice cozy bunkhouse with a fabby log fire to hide in, but that was no excuse not to get out and do some navigational practice the next day.

I know that DofE is not expected to take place on snowy hills, but no-one ever said anything about navigational training, so out we went stopping just short of the top of Sugar loaf as it was just too icy to go to the summit.

Why is the path full of snow ?

So, after two days of route setting, kit checking etc. etc., the groups left the comfort of the bunkhouse in lovely spring sunshine to start the four day expededition. After the first day we met the group in the campsite to smiles and comments like: “That was easy, a lovely day out”. Next day however was a different matter: low cloud, paths filled in by drifting snow, rain etc., etc., meant a ten hour day that almost wiped the smiles off the group’s faces. However it was Bryony’s eighteenth birthday and her friend Elise had carried a birthday cake for her – now that’s some friend.

Birthday smiles

So, smiles restored, the group sat down to chocolate cake and a quiet night in a field in the north of the Black Mountains. An eighteenth never to forget.

The next two days saw some challenging weather but a confident approach to it.

I remember training these girls in Dartmoor last year, Charles had been with us before and Nick was new to us and the team. The improvement in confidence and ability was incredible. That’s what I like about the DofE and this group were the epitome of this.

Brilliant! Well done to all seven teams and a successful end to your DofE, I hope you all go on to use the skills you have learnt.

What now?… Three days at home and a real bed till our next expedition. Whohooo!

The (mild) south west, 27th March 2012

Early morning high on the moor

Dartmoor to me is a sodden, boggy, overcast and generally rainy, windswept uninspiring place where people justify their walks by looking for tupperware boxes (letterboxes) that have been secreted in various unlikely places. Am I selling this to you ?

Especially given that the previous weekend I had been risking life and limb in the most dramatic of the UK’s wild places (see The wild (north) west)

However it is a great place to hold a gold DofE practice expedition. Why? Because if you can navigate on Dartmoor you can navigate anywhere, there is unlimited potential for wildcamping and if the weather is inclement then you can test the kit and the staying power of most individuals.

Visiting the Dartmoor Torr's

Simon and I arrived on the Friday at Princetown to meet up with our three groups from Monkton Combe school in Bath who were preparing for the July Lakes assessed gold expedition. The spring sunshine was warm and the forecast was for the next three days to be the same. This is not the Dartmoor I know and “love ?”

Over the next four days we walked (and sometimes squelched) our way over the moor wild camping in the most idyllic of spots as we went. The groups performed superbly, in fact Dartmoor just could not contain them and they cruised their  daily 20K plus routes in extremely good style. After the first day and a half of accompanied walking and training they just got on with the job like seasoned professionals. One of the groups had an aim of finding letterboxes (thankfully without the use of a GPS) and this proved to be great fun and embedded the navigational skills Simon, Matthew (The school chaplain) and I had hopefully given them over the first two days.

Moss Bros team happy after finding a letterbox in the remotest part of the moor

The moor was waking up from its winter slumber, the groups spotted adders, common lizards and a pair of marsh harriers were seen floating over the torrs. The wooded valleys were alive with the calls of the returning willow warblers and it was just such a beautiful place to be in the spring sunshine.

Snakes on a plain

Am I converted? No! I fell in the river Tavey, a complete head over tip job, not the fault of the moor I know but I have to blame someone.

Cant wait to see these groups in the lakes; must go and have a look at their routes and make sure they are long enough !!!

Mad March Hers, 12th March 2012

Inversion from High on the South ridge of Snowdon

Sitting at my computer early doors on Monday morning I can feel the aches and pains produced by the first full pack expedition of the year. It’s something that I feel every DofE supervisor and assessor should do regularly, actually get out with a full pack and follow the groups over the hills and through the bogs to remind themselves just how much of an effort the groups make to achieve the award.

All too often I hear the comment “I’ve done that, it’s their turn now,” from an instructor heading off for a bar lunch as the participants sit around a trangier in a miserable campsite. Then they turn up the next morning expecting their charges to be up and as cheerful  as they are.

So with rucksacks at the ready, rations trimmed to a ” let’s keep the hunger away with a lightweight high calorie intake option” and a certain amount of foreboding in our hearts Jenny, Dave and myself headed off to Snowdonia on Friday morning to meet up with our charges for the coming w/end.

Some of the girls from Moreton Hall school for Girls are getting ready for an assessed trip to Morocco and  some to Snowdonia, first however they are going to do a practice expedition in the Brecon Beacons.

Tim Nolan, the teacher there, had decided that we should give them a bit of a challenge to get them ready for the demands ahead. So we hit upon the idea of a two day training exped in Snowdonia, a wee jaunt in the hills

So in a soggy campsite (which has a hard neck charging £5 a head for an unmanaged field, ok they have toilets but then charge 50p for a shower!!) just underneath the castle in Dolwydellan we pitched our tents and awaited the arrival of our 50 plus girls.

Arrival, briefings, tent pitching, campsite and cooking disciplines embedded we settled down for a great, for me anyway, night’s sleep listening to the gentle patter of the rain on nylon – ah North Wales don’t you love it. The morning dawned, sort of, under a blanket of low cloud and mizzle (dour I would call it) but undaunted we set off, in five groups of 10 or so, in the general direction of the Moelwyns.

Looking Weary on day two

Navigating, adjusting rucksacks and clothing we made steady progress towards a wood we had to traverse to gain the hillside. Two hours in Poppy fell in the river. A good start! The track through the wood deteriorated into a bog from hell which quickly dispelled any idea the girls might have had of staying clean and presentable.

Then with the open hillside in view, Alice simply disappeared up to her waist in muck – brilliant!! This was becoming really entertaining.

You must forgive the quality of the picture, I was laughing too much to hold the camera steady. There then ensued the most ridiculous episode of trying to extract Alice from the Bog. Alice got out, but I got stuck, then someone else who helped me got stuck, etc, etc, etc.

By the end of it all we were filthy and generally had really sore sides from laughing so much.

After crossing the Molewyns and the Nant Gwynant valley all five groups converged at various times, one in darkness in and around the Gladstone rock where we were wild camping for the night. We were all tired but once tents were up and pasta eaten the sound of the water in the Afon Cwm Llan as it cascaded over the waterfall lulled us into a deep night’s sleep.

Porridge for breakfast

The next morning we were up at six into what can only be described as one of those halcyon days where it is just good to be alive. The early morning stars were still out with Venus and Jupitor twinned in a brightening sky. A soft cloud was rolling up the hill from the valley which gradually thickened as we ate our breakfast, then with tents packed and rucksacks shouldered onto bruised and complaining bodies we set off to the Bwlch at the bottom of the south ridge of Snowdon.

By the time we arrived there the cloud was lapping at our heels and as we started to climb it overtook us and plunged the group into a murky world of muffled sounds and filtered sunlight.

We pressed on up the ridge, which turned into a never ending slog of false summits in the 50m visibility of our world.

Then, the cloud thinned and out we popped into the kind of day that all walkers and mountaineers dream of: a perfect inversion. With Y. Garn and the Nantle Ridge popping out of the cloud behind us we pushed on towards the summit of Snowdon

The group escape from the cloud on the south ridge of Snowdon

Then with the summit summated, lunch munched and much high spirited conversation we headed off down the tourist path towards Llanberis and the coach awaiting the upload of many muddy, tired, but very self satisfied girls.

And so they should be, a brilliant effort for a training w/end taking in the highest mountain in north Wales and the boggiest bog in all of bog land.

Can’t wait for the practice now.

Meanwhile….

Whilst we were trudging through bogs in the north of wales Jane and Brett were enjoying the warm spring sunshine in the East Brecons with two teams from St Mary Redcliffes school in Bristol.

Again this was a two day training event preparing the groups for the up and coming practice expedition in July.

The two teams assembled in Park Farm campsite in Crickhowell on Saturday morning in glorious sunshine ( some things are not fair, if it aint rainin it aint trainin ). Campcraft and tent disciplines established the groups headed out for an afternoon of navigational training. The warm spring sunshine had the groups spirits as high as the new born lambs that were running around in the fields and after an afternoon of pacings, bearings, tick features and handrails the groups confidently found their way back to the campsite for stove training and to cook themselves a great three course meal.

The next day with full packs and a confident approach to navigation they made their way up and over Sugarloaf, the highest hill in the area.

The sun continued to shine and the groups spirits were an equal match.

Solid performance and a credit to their school.

The first DofE of 2012, 15th Feb 2012

Braving the elements

The DofE season is March to October (for obvious reasons: daylight hours, risk of really bad weather etc etc) so it was with a degree of trepidation that I approached Windsor and the Welsh panel to ask if we could run a practice expedition in the Brecons at the start of February.

Chris Cunningham at King Edwards in Bath had asked me if it was possible to do this due to “academic pressure” at the school and I was both relieved and concerned when permission to do this was given.

I was in Scotland the week before the expedition, I was enjoying the cold temperatures but this was tinged with concern as the high pressure over the south kept temperatures hovering around the -10 mark in south Wales. Then on the Friday, the day before we were due to start there was a dump of snow on the area. It did not look as if fate was going to be kind to us.

Chris, Jenny and I had a Friday morning confab, a discussion with Rob Clapham at the welsh panel and decided to go for it. It was not however without a real nervousness in the pit of my stomach that we headed over to Halfway at the northerly end of the western Black Mountains on the Sat morning to meet the coach that disgorged the hatted and gloved expedition participants for the next four days.

There were four groups of seven who had set routes from Halfway to the Story Arms via camps at Blaneau, Dderi and Penllwyn-Einon, some 65 K over some fairly largish hills.

After a late start on the Saturday we were left navigating down into the campsite by headtorch as the first days route had taken slightly longer than anticipated. Putting tents up and cooking in the dark is a baptism of fire, especially in freezing temperatures. it does however put a focus on things and the groups were tucked up in bags and tents within a couple of hours. That night the temperature went up above freezing (at last) but it did not make the conditions for the next day any easier. We were due to climb up over Fan Brycheinog via various routes, the groups that went via the Brecons way made it onto the tops but the two that had routes that took them via Llyn y Fan Fach were to be denied the ascent due to the steep ascent path on the north side being covered in thick ice. With the cloud on the ground and some really challenging conditions the groups micro navigated their way around or over the ridge to Dderi farm and a welcome hot meal and sleeping bag.

The yellow group on the summit

Next day things got really tough, with low cloud, sleety rain and a windchill well below freezing, it did not however keep the groups low and they completed their “fair weather” routes over Fan Nedd in some pretty awful conditions to arrive at a less than comfortable campsite where the continuing windchill and sporadic rain had them tented and bagged in record time.

Tuesday morning ( Valentine’s Day) with the end in sight the groups cruised over Fan Fawr and Fan Dringath in improving conditions to arrive safe and sound at the Story Arms where a visit to the burger van was enjoyed to the full.

What can I say that does justice to the tenacity and forbearance of these groups. Not only did they complete a tough expedition in cold and challenging weather but they learned and grew from an individual and team perspective keeping generally cheerful throughout.

So now it’s on to Snowdonia for them in June, I am sure that whatever north Wales throws at them they will be prepared and able to take it in their stride.

Joe, looking cheerful and underdressed given the background of frozen water