The student’s waterproofs were tested with some heavy downpours and gusts of wind, they seemed to prefer this weather to the scorching temperatures they had on their practice expedition. Most of the students started off strong with a few taking a while to get back into the routine of map reading and keeping to their timings. DofEBandits perfected their leap frogging skills during the expedition and were a steadfast example of team spirit and supporting one another throughout. Holdernators produced their own dance, explored a bunker and took lots of great pictures of ‘Bed time Bear’, there was even some serenading from their tents later on in the evening. BadHDMI were very invested in their diary documentary, at every checkpoint one member of their team could be found frantically scribbling down their experiences, this team supported each other throughout and could normally be heard long before they were spotted! IBPLS improved the greatest out of the teams, gradually improving their map reading and significantly improving their expedition skills.

On the Friday evening, students were very resilient despite the rain and cooked their meals on the trangia’s, there was a mixture of curries, pasta and ‘fish in a bag’! Later on, the students organised themselves into a very competitive boys vs girls’ rounders game, where I believe the girls won!

Overall the team’s DofE assessor Julie was very impressed with their expedition skills saying; ‘Some great navigation skills, including identifying where they were and working out how to get back on track. Excellent team work, looking out for and supporting each other, resilience and determination when the going got tough, and most importantly fun and a real sense of a shared experience and achievement with stories to tell!’