By: Blonde One

Last weeks DofE expedition was unique in a very, very pleasing way. This was the first expedition that Blonde Two and I could say that we had enough staff! You might think that there are plenty of people that would love a little walk in the countryside, with lovely young people, to help them with their DofE expedition, but you would be wrong! Historically we have had 2 staff (Blonde One and Two). Our numbers then increased to include Search, Numbers and Brummie. This trip however included 10 staff in total. This was brilliant and lovely and made me very happy. Some staff stayed for the whole trip, some stayed for small parts of it and some were providing crucial support from the comfort of their own homes. We had novices and experts, campers and non-campers, and walkers and drivers, and the system worked perfectly. I think everyone was happy with their role and as a result we had an almost perfect trip.

Let me introduce the newbies to you:

  • Mr Flip-Flop – had camped once before with us, but is new to DofE. Key Skills – providing entertaining chat, being the male member of staff, providing good snacks.
  • Miss On-Call – stayed at home waiting by the phone for our next request. Key Skills – bringing bacon rolls in the morning, being very patient when we made requests, looking very glamorous at camp, providing additional car support.
  • Eager – one of our new Young Leaders. Key Skills – being eager to learn, providing invaluable support to Search, Numbers and Brummie, being good fun.
  • Giggles – another new Young Leader. Key Skills – giggling a lot, helping girls to find a suitable toilet bush and then standing guard, providing invaluable support to Search, Numbers and Brummie.

I have decided that every expedition from now on should include these four, plus the Two Blondes, Search, Numbers and Brummie, and Little Miss Blonde! I’m not too optimistic about my chances of getting that wish but at least once we had the ‘dream team’!