DofE Bronze Practice Exped – mud, mud and more mud!
Last weekend saw the 2007/08 DofE Bronze teams set out on their first practice expedition. The Surrey Hills and it’s stunning countryside beckoned. They’d prepared carefully for this with lots of classroom work covering camp skills, navigation and first aid, as well as a couple of familiarisation walks before Christmas. But the indoors work can never compete with the reality of getting your feet muddy… and by goodness, they got muddy!
Following a fine start on the Saturday, the weather quickly closed in to set the tone for the rest of the weekend until the final stages of Sunday. The campsite was like a quagmire and the footpaths were worse still.
Nonetheless both teams were outstanding. The weather never once dampened their spirits and morale remained really high. By the end, there was a decent amount of sore backs, tired feet and pleas of “Are we there yet?” but overall an incredible performance; most especially so given that many of the participants had limited, or in some cases, no experience of camping or hiking before.
Well done! Sue, Rich and Simon
p.s. thanks also to the lovely man, Steve, from the AA who came out to wrestle the fuel cap off the minibus when we would otherwise have been in a real pickle. While bashing away at the bus with a massive hammer and screwdriver, he did reveal that he’d been a Cub, Scout and Explorer, and his dad has been a Scout Leader in Thames Ditton for the last 40 years! Small world really. 