By: Blonde One
Last Friday was the first outing for a DofE group for 2015 and it was a new trial for me. I have tried several different methods of training: classroom and bunkhouses residential. This time, for my fab Gold group I took them on the moors for a day walk. ‘Sounds easy’, I thought to myself. Well that was until the man in charge of the weather got involved. (On the Isle of Man he was called Neil.)
I had a lovely plan A: Okehampton, High Willhayes (the group wanted to go to the highest point on Devon), Dinger Tor (one of the Young Leaders wanted to find a lost rib! (long story)), then a nice easy walk back along the army tracks.
I had to resort to plan B (Haytor area) when the icy cold temperatures threatened snow, gusts of wind from the North West threatened 60mph and a participant was recovering from an illness and needed to be closer to home.
The weather continued to be difficult so I settled on Plan C (Yarner Woods, not so high up on the moors). As the forecast worsened, plan D was introduced (Parke, on the very edge of Dartmoor). The icy road forecast turned to a Weather Warning for Devon, so plan E was devised (Stover Country Park, on the outskirts of town). By this time I had also decided to take the maps for the area local to our school just in case we should reach plan F (no minibus).
I should have known that when we awoke in the morning the bad weather had not quite materialised and we went back to plan B!
I don’t think I have ever done so much planning for a single day trip before!
From my Welsh boundary walk:
Welsh Boundary Walk – Whitesands Bay to Abercastle
Wednesday – 15th June 2011 – day 57
“It is not often that I get down to Plan D. Plan A was to to stay in the Ship Inn at Trefin. B was to bed a breakfast at Trefin and eat in the pub if the pub did not do accommodation. C was to camp on the site at Trefin.
The pub did not do accommodation, but recommended three b-and-bs all of which were no good for various reasons, and when I saw the campsite I didn’t fancy it, so Plan D evolved. There was another campsite a couple of kilometres up the road at Abercastle so I made for that…”
At least I didn’t go backwards.
My kind of planning.
Fail to prepare … prepare to fail.