By: Blonde Two

So today is the day, today we Blondes gather up our youngsters, check their kit with eagle eyes (whilst trying to avoid spotting underwear), lend them loads of more suitable kit and then ship the lot of us off up to Okehampton Camp for a Ten Tors day of Army briefings (briefs would be more fun), route planning (latest recorded finish time 22:30) and more kit checking (nail biting stuff).

I keep telling everyone at work that Blonde One and I would not have got this far this year without the help, support and sheer hard work of our three Young Leaders.  I am not sure that my words are really taking root, I genuinely mean it; Ten Tors for us may well have folded this year without them.  As well as training hard for their own 55 Mile challenge and fund raising for their Gold DofE expedition this summer, they have taken control of our stores, issued and collected in kit, given the newbies the benefit of their experiences and acted as rescue parties.

Perhaps though, the thing that I will remember them most for will be their ability to cheer us up when things have been tough (and they have been very tough at times).  What adult would know, for example, that the very thing a Blonde needed after being told that she had been made redundant was an impromptu game of hockey?  Which grown-up could tell that a secret take-away in the minibus could be such fun?  How many of us oldies could make the whole world laugh by giving a rugby ball a name?

There are no two ways about it, these guys, young though they are, have been there when we have needed them this year and I suspect that we will never forget them because of it.  Maybe one day we will be able to tell them about Two Blondes and they can read this tribute.  I certainly hope so.