The Globetrotter

This weekend was the bronze D of E assessed expedition in the quantocks - for those as clueless as me, the quantocks are in Somerset around Hinkley Power Station. I must say that I am disappointed or perhaps for want of a better word - gutted!! How come on all the expeditions I have ever done as a participant it has always rained for atleast 4 hours on one of the days and these Bronze kids do there expedition in the middle of October and its actually kinda sunny!

Now having been exposed to the realities of D of E staffing for a weekend I have come to a conclusion about D of E - Everyone involved in D of E seems to be very "special" (that means both participants and leaders).

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The final day, in true d of e spirit was gorgeous. We had a "nice" walk along a river and then we walked up to High Pike and the back down into the valley to the finish. Of course it would have been nicer if there weren't so many midgey insects swarming around just waiting to attack me and we hadn't bumped into the assessor in all her purple glory just as we had been singing a song about her.

To amuse ourselves on day 4, we took great delight in writing a song(on my arm in permanent marker) which completely slagged off Yorkshire. When we got tired of that we started singing a song "Hey Big Purple!" about the assessor who sported a rather fetching purple coat.

As we approached the finish, we could see where exactly we were supposed to finish, but had no idea how to cross the river between us and the finish. It was suggested that we just walk right through the river, but i then pointed out that i had finally dried off after being soaked through to the bone for 3 days and would like to remain so until we got home. We eventually found the bridge that we were supposed to cross although it really didn't seem like it could be where the path crossed the river, seeing as it had a sign on it reading "absolutely no public right of way WHATSOEVER". - We risked it.

Despite having left at 8.15am, we still didn't finish until about 5 and we were knackered, but that didn't stop us all from having a party on the bus on the way home.

I was relieved to get away from the Braida Garth Farm. By this time on the expedition my thoughts of Yorkshire were very negative, what with the rain, the endless and boring hills, the orange water at camp and everything being wet. Thankfully, after only 3 hours of walking and a small amount of rain, a gap formed in the clouds and we saw the sun and blue sky. The sun really lifted our spirits as we continued to ascend Whernside, the tallest hill in Yorkshire.

Finally, we reached the top of Whernside in time for lunch and for once we could "enjoy" the view, although i can't say the views in Yorkshire are particuarly "breathtaking".

The rest of the day was spent walking downhill, much to the dislike of Caroline and i. Our "brain" feet were really struggling, but none the less we made it to camp 3, in the village of Dent.

It was a really nice sunny evening and despite the assesor hanging around we had a good time, especially when the dog at the campsite kept chasing Ross and wouldn't let him go up to the toilets. Its a shame we couldn't get it on camera because it was dark, but it was hilarious to watch.