By: Blonde Two
DofE teams do occasionally leave camp early having risen promptly, done organised things with breakfast and worked as a team to strike camp and pack up. We promise you they do, we have seen it. Having said that, getting all of the organisation factors together all at once can be tricky and teams can fairly often be seen leaving camp late and playing catch up for the rest of the day (quite an effort when you are carrying your home on your back, when did you last see a snail rush?)
Which is why, on a particular Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Silver expedition, on a rather large field, we invented a rather tai chi like method of encouraging prompt camp departure. Based on our memories of the aircraft carrier from Top Gun, we had fun with our camp tai chi all day, using it to indicate minibus location and toilet direction. I am not sure how much our efforts were appreciated but I remain convinced that a bit of madness can help a day go well.
Our Gold team last June were up at 4-00am and away by 4-30 each morning (no prompting needed) because of the heat. In Northumberland.
Always a good plan… hope they enjoyed and succeeded!
Love it! Perhaps semaphore or even naval style signal flags (England expects that every team member should do his/her loo duty immediately”) should be D.of E. lesson one?
Excellent idea!