Hey Blog! Two weeks ago on Friday, I went off on another expedition, for my Silver Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, and seeing as this counts as education and is a fantastic thing to do with one’s time, what should I do but relate it all to you?
Silver DofE: three days, two nights, one very heavy rucksack. Between four and seven participants, aged fourteen to twenty-five, sleeping in tents and walking, or riding, sailing, canoeing, or indeed any other method of transport if you’ve cleared it with your instructor first, for seven hours a day. That’s the basic numbers. How far you travel depends on how fast you go, but the campsites are planned in advance based on how far you think you can manage and how far apart they are. You must complete it in the full time, because if you get in early you might be told to walk around the campsite for an hour, with bags. Which is painful and pointless. As quite fast walkers, our group was having to slow down and take long lunch breaks to not finish early. Oh, and you have to sleep in cold, usually wet tents, cook your own food, and there aren’t generally good shower facilities; if there are they certainly aren’t just across the corridor, they’ll be on the other side of a cold, damp, dark field. On paper, it doesn’t sound appealing, but actually, it’s a lot of fun!
For our expedition, there were six of us. We travelled a loop, from Edale south to Wardlow north again to Hope and finally returning to Edale. The first day was the longest – more than 18km – decreasing by a couple of km each day. Thankfully, the hardest part was also on the first day. After leaving the train station, our meeting point, and climbing uphill, we were at the ridgeline between the Hope and Edale valleys when we had to make a detour due to the strength of the wind – more wind than I’ve ever felt while out walking. It was probably a good plan, because no one liked being blown across the path and walking face first into horizontal rain, and one of the group had a recently twisted ankle; we learned later that our assessor would have asked us to change the route in the conditions. The problem arose when we re-entered the wind… and most of us fell over. I was able to keep my footing, but couldn’t move, and it took a while for all of us to get down to a safer location. We were all happy when the assessor arrived to clarify our new route and provide some tips for staying upright in the wind.
A detour into Castleton and some lunch later, and we were off up Cave Dale. Very imaginative names, because Castleton has a massive castle above it – Peveril Castle, built by the De Ferrers family, who owned all the land about here, a gift from William the Conqueror – and it overlooks the dale, which has numerous little caves in the side of it. Turning left at the top of the steep (!) path, we managed to get lost… and I was helping with the map reading. In my defence, there was limited signage and we were in a valley bottom so looking for landmarks wasn’t really possible. It was a very small detour and we were back on track in a few minutes. But everyone had tired feet and we still had half the day to go. A long walk, with several twists and turns (which I was too focused on putting one foot in front of the other to remember the name of, even if the directions are stored and I could do from memory) got to Wardlow, and we could finally rest for a night. Even if it was dark, cold, and wet from the moment the tents had gone up, before we could cook. The sky looked nice though.
In the morning, we were up and off again. Quick preparation, pack up sleeping bags and tents, breakfast, and walking. We were very fast at this point, covering 60% of the day’s walk in less than three hours, and checking out the correct pronunciation of the place called Eyam, where they had the plague in 1666, the same year as the Great Fire of London. Various disasters happen together, it seems! The village survived, after self-isolating at the behest of the local vicar, and it’s pronounced “Eem like stream” according to the lady at the bus stop, who had the look of having been asked plenty of times before! We stopped for a long lunch by a woodland stream, and then made our way up hill for the final, short bit to campsite 2. On the way, we crossed the path of my Bronze DofE expedition, so I knew the area. Which you aren’t supposed to, but that’s not of paramount importance.
Campsite two had that rare thing on public campsites – good showers! A good plan to use them, because then you don’t need to drive home with the windows open. They’ll also take the tension out of you after a long day walking. We were awake enough this time to play cards in the tent before going to bed, which was nice.
The last day had the best weather, the steepest downhill, and the best views. We went over the ridgeline, and over a moor with loads of little, fast-flowing becks that proved a challenge to navigate with a full backpack. Especially when the drop beside you is twenty feet or more. It was truly fantastic, even if very dehydrated – no water stops, and none provided by the assessor. But the landscape made up for it, and though we were all thoroughly exhausted by the time we’d got down to the station, it was such an experience. Somehow, we still managed to smile for photos when we got to the end!
Now there’s just a presentation and a bit more running for me, before I get the Silver level award. I’m looking forward to it!
