Bronze DofE Expedition
100 Year 9 adventurers embarked on their first Duke of Edinburgh practice expedition during a chilly weekend in the Chilterns.
Armed with snack-filled backpacks, the girls navigated their way around the Hertfordshire countryside, honing their problem-solving, map-reading and teamworking skills. One group (Debi, Arya, Marnie, Lizzie, Leila, Bernice and Sara) spent their first day navigating across a golf course and through forests and flower fields, before arriving at the campsite.
Once we had arrived – first! – we had to decide where to pitch our tent. This was a complicated business, as our site was on a hill; the tent was pitched with the two doors facing either side of the hill, because our heads had to be at the top, to avoid clumping as a result of slipping. Although it was only 4pm, we started to make dinner. It took a long time for the pasta to cook, as the weather was rather cold and the gas canister was holding on by a thread, but eventually we enjoyed a hot meal just as the rest of our year arrived, wet and hungry. Going to bed was quite cold, but the fatigue of the day proved a positive as we were all asleep just as our heads hit the rather uncomfortable pillows. During our expedition we went through several mishaps – we got lost in a cow field and were ready to give up and eat lunch – but we worked as a team and persevered.
Another group (Isabel, Cobie, Iris, Jemima, Claudia, Dasha, and Lottie) report back on their highlights:
Throughout the day, Adam our instructor taught us many useful skills, such as using a compass and reading a map – however, we still managed to take quite a few wrong turns. Everything was going quite successfully until we encountered our first major obstacle: a herd of cows blocking the gate to exit the field. Adam was ready to sacrifice himself for us, but we refused as we couldn’t do the rest of the hike without him. Luckily, we all made it out alive, including Adam. The rest of the walk went smoothly but our group severely lacked in energy. Fortunately, we brought lots of snacks, but we still managed to be the penultimate group back to camp, despite leaving first. Whilst Peppa Pig pasta and pot noodles, cooked on trangias, may not have been the most nutritious choice, it filled us up. With aching bodies, we fell asleep early and woke at 5am, made ourselves some hot chocolate and crepes and got ready to set off.
On day 2, Adam finally trusted us to go out on our own… we were walking faster than ever as we had more motivation to get home. That was until we encountered our second obstacle: the unavoidable mud. Our ankles quickly became submerged, and our boots were completely filled. We even lost Claudia’s shoe as it sunk completely. We thought we’d lost it for good as she walked out of the mud in just her socks, but Isabel and Jemima bravely managed to rescue it. Luckily, we found a river where we cleaned our feet, socks, and shoes. We then reconvened with Adam, telling him all about our eventful experience, and quickly discovered we had to walk through yet another river, continuing our journey with wet feet and a need for our beds. Finally, after our second day of walking 17km with heavy backpacks in just 7 hours, we made it all the way back to Chorleywood and got to rest our feet on the long tube ride back to Finchley Road…
The Duke of Edinburgh awards scheme is well-established and perennially popular at South Hampstead; the vast majority of Year 9 pupils embark on the Bronze Award and many more continue with their Silver and Gold Awards. Six Sixth Formers, past and present, attended the recent Gold Award celebration event in Buckingham Palace gardens, where they heard from Hafwen, a DofE Cymru Ambassador who is deaf, the astronaut Tim Peake, and HRH The Duke of Edinburgh.