By: Blonde One
I had the pleasure last week of introducing some Gold DofE students from Trinity School to night navigation. We went just across the River Teign from school to practise skills. I love night walking on Dartmoor and I wondered how much I would enjoy this in comparison. It’s a familiar area for our Bronze groups but takes on a whole new magic at night.
There was something very beautiful about being stood at the highest point on the walk feeling as if we were in the middle of nowhere, but looking down on the lights of the Shaldon Bridge and Teignmouth. The weather was perfect as there was a little cloud to keep us warm, no rain and a tiny new moon to make sure our night was dark. Not only did I enjoy looking at and photographing the lights of Teignmouth but I very much enjoyed the pleasure that the view gave to the team of 5 17 year olds.
The night was a huge success and left me feeling (again) very lucky to have such fab youngsters to work with. Their enthusiasm was almost overwhelming, their willingness to learn after a hard week at school was humbling (especially when one of them had a university interview for dentistry 2 days earlier), and their ability to work as a team was astounding.
I’ve never done night navigation in my local area but I can thoroughly recommend it as a starting point for learning night nav skills. Get in touch if you’d like to join us on one of our night navigation workshops.
The Gold team enjoyed it so much they want me to take them up to Dartmoor for some more night walking. The calendar suggests that the month of May might have one or two nights free!
