I’ve spent the last few days supervising a Gold Duke of Edinburgh qualifying expedition for a group of pupils from Oswestry School. In fact, it was a group that I trained back at the end of March, so it was great to catch up with them and see them embark on the real thing after all their hard work.

Wednesday saw them making their final preparations, checking kit and getting all packed up ready for an early start on Thursday. Starting at the impressive Pistyl Rhaeadr, the headed north to the top of Moel Sych, before turning west and making their way to Bala for the night. Day 2 was an epic day that saw the group continuing west over the top of Arenig Fawr before following the dismantled railway towards Trawsfynydd. They had hoped to make it to a campsite on the southern shore of Llyn Trawsfynydd but, as daylight was starting to fade, they opted to pitch tent earlier which I think was a very sensible decision.

Due to a change in their plans and other commitments on my part, I was only able to supervise them up to this point which was a great shame as I would have loved to have seen them through to completion. Today, I have been fortunate enough to get the occasional update on their progress by text, so I can report that they have continued to make fantastic progress – even to the point of going PAST their planned campsite for tonight at LLanelltyd.

With one day to go, I wish they all the best for the final push to Harlech. With the weather due to remain fine, they should be rewarded with some awesome scenery, and hopefully a chance to have a quite dip in the sea!