By: Blonde One
It didn’t take long at school for the word to get around that DofE was back on the radar. The students at this school need absolutely no encouragement to get themselves involved in the outdoors and were soon banging my door down to join me on some expeditions. I’m very pleased that 7 of these students have signed themselves up for doing their Gold DofE. This is no mean feat as I’m sure you will remember from previous blog posts. To achieve the prestigious Gold Award you must carry out your activities for 18 months and 12 months, and you must complete a very demanding expedition programme. There are a minimum of two expeditions: practice and qualifying, and various training sessions. The expeditions last for four days and three nights with the participants being completely self sufficient. If you’re new to DofE you might think that that just means they’re left alone for the duration of the trip, but no, self sufficient means that the team will carry everything that they need for the four days, as well as being independent of staff. That includes accommodation, food and clothing. The only thing they are allowed to acquire along the way is water, and that’s only if they don’t buy it.
I had the pleasure of taking these 7 youngsters out onto Dartmoor recently to put them through their paces in terms of navigation. I wanted to see for myself if they were as good as others had said they were. I was not disappointed! As well as witnessing some great skills, I was also able to teach them some new ones. They soaked up the new learning with relish and were keen and enthusiastic to learn more. The day was challenging: we had very hot weather, some incredibly long and steep climbs, and we had some testing terrain. Despite, or perhaps because, of this we returned to the minibus jubilant. So jubilant in fact, that we celebrated with an ice cream!
As with other Gold groups I explained to these 7 youngsters that they were the elite of the youth population, as understandably it is only a very small percentage of people that achieve this Award. I could see their shoulders square at this and I witnessed a slight change of expression on their faces. I think they have the courage and resilience to take this on!
First of all I am interested in the behind the doors workings of Blonde blog posting. I guess there is agreement that only one of you will post on a particular day? As far as I recall I have never seen posts from each Blonde on the same day.
On my Land’s End John ‘o Groats walk I met a party of three DOE Golders at the Heights of Kinlochewe. They showed me their route and their next camping spot high up in a cwm miles from anywhere on the back of Mullach Coire Mhic Fhearchair that would have made Alan Hinkes think twice. If you think I’m exaggerating just look at the terrain around NH 045 733 on the OS map. You are quite right – DOE Gold is a laudable achievement both from the physical and mental considerations, and the ongoing commitment required over a lengthy period. Good luck to your lot. I’m sure they are in good hands.
What goes on behind the doors of Blonde Towers is a closely guarded secret Conrad! However, rest assured, there is lots of planning and organisation to prevent slips in blog posting.
Thank you for your good wishes to my Gold group.
So much more fun than knocking a ball around a field – and such a lot of life-learning along with the fun – great stuff, B1. I’m off to try Mullach Coire Mhic Fhearchair through the speech bit of Google translate and find out what it sounds like, as I’ll never be able to climb it.
I agree about the ball and the field! Enjoy your Scottish adventure – even if you can’t pronounce it (neither can I)!
Hee – I regret to report that Google translate can write Gaelic and translate Gaelic, but so far no-one has told it how to pronounce Gaelic! It came up with “Roof Kettle Sons of Farquhar.”