My Experiences

I completed the expedition for Silver D of E in the summer of 2005. It was in the Yorkshire Dales, and a really tough experience. But I have been able to look back on that experience and laugh about it so much because of the stuff we did. Some of it really not sensible. I then went on to complete the other sections of the award soon after that, but it took me a while to get round to having each section signed off.

About a year later I enrolled in my Gold D of E training. This was quite a lot more brief because I had moved to a different centre, where things were done differently. We spent less time on the theory - but then most people had some previous experience anyway. I completed my final expedition on the Breacon Beacons, in what was said to be the most terrible weather that the assessors had ever seen. This was the summer of 2007, in the week which Britain suffered it's worst floods in a hundred years or so. After the first day's walking my waterproof, gore-tex coat was no longer waterproof. So it was wet. Disheartening though the British summer was, we kept going to the finish, and were so happy at the end. Never before had I wanted to be indoors so much. Sleeping in a wet tent and waking up to put on wet socks and wet clothes is a horrible experience - especially when the rest of your group brags about how dry their stuff is since they were huddled around the hand drier in the toilets of the campsite.

Anyway, I completed the other sections of the Gold Award about 3 months ago, and now it has been sent off.

After completing the expedition for Gold D of E I qualified to do the course BELA. This has qualified me to take groups of people out hiking up to heights of 600m. I supervised Gold D of E groups and made various routes for them to do, as well as doing a voluntary 4 day walk with another centre's groups.

All of these experiences have helped me gain good knowledge of the outdoors, the dangers, and little things which help along the way. Hopefully I'll be able to write down my thoughts, and any prospective walkers can benefit from them.