The Duke of Edinburgh season seems to be kicking off, and my first involvement this year has been on a Silver assessed open expedition in the White Peak through Applied Expeditions. 25-30 people in all descended on a secluded venue near Hathersage on Sunday to meet new people and start preparing for their expeditions. All three levels of the award were represented, with a bronze group, a small silver group, a gold group and a group doing their gold practice expedition. For me it was quite nice to be working with the small silver team.
Sunday afternoon was spent going through lots of theory. Both checking and filling gaps in knowledge about first aid, emergency procedures, country code, food selection, kit and clothing selection and packing a rucksack. Monday saw us get out onto the ground for a bit of navigation revision, which proved very useful and also opened everyone’s eyes to the wealth of interesting things tucked away in this beautiful area of our countryside. Returning to our base by mid afternoon gave us time to check tents, do some revision on the safe use of stoves, prepare route cards for the chosen expedition route and pack kit.
Once all the kit was double checked, the group were dropped by minibus at their start point in Rushton Spencer for their three day expedition. Slightly worryingly, they headed off in completely the wrong direction for a couple of hundred yards before realising their mistake. However, with that early blip out of the way, they made good progress for most of the day. I’d expected them to really enjoy walking along the top of The Roaches (a classic rock climbing escarpment) but, in reality, it proved hard going as they struggled to pick an efficient route through the rocks with their big bags on.
After spending their first night below The Roaches, they picked their way eastwards over Leek military training area, which proved a bit boggy in places with indistinct footpaths. However, they arrived at the top of the hill on schedule and unphased by the challenges they’d faced. This second day proved to be the longest of the three and, by the time they’d picked their way through the wet ground approaching their second camp site in Hulme End, they’d been going for 9 hours and were certainly looking tired.
Today, the third and final day, was much more straight forward. Whilst planning their route, the group had noted that Dove Dale looked like a beautiful place to walk, and weren’t disappointed. It’s full of interesting features that kept their attention off their aching feet and helped to drawer then on to their finish point and a nice hot chocolate from the cafe.
Open expeditions, like this, are always an unknown quantity. Bringing people together that have never met before and expecting them to work well together as a team can have interesting results. These guys really pulled together well, and became good friends through the experience. Definitely the way it should be.
