Bronze DofE Expedition 2007
Just returned from our expedition to Grindon and it’s surrounding area of the Manifold Valley. A fantastic trip… here is a brief outline of our itinerary…
Day 1
Well arrived in Grindon by 10.00 a.m with Liam, Abigail, Greg, Rob, Laura, Lee, Jen, Hannah and Rachel. The students waved us good bye and ventured out into the unkown landscape of the Peak District National Park. A few brief showers later, the sun came out… Mr North and I caught up with the students munching away happily on Supernoodles and icecreams! We were impressed… a cooked lunch! After a lengthy day of hiking up hill and down dale… the students ended up at camp a little worse of wear, muddy but with high spirits!
They set up camp, Laura played Kite with the tent and then they began a mammoth session of Ready Steady Cook… all manor of delights were on the menu including raw sausage and cold mash… 3 flavoured supernoodles and the ole favourite Pot Noodelle Extreme. The campers were happy.
Day 2
After a cracking night’s sleep. The students awoke to the sounds of Mr North shaking their tents. How kind. They slowly got up and lavishly fed themselves with bacon sarnies! Excellent. On we continued… both groups worked hard. In particular one group who went SE instead of SW. An easy mistake to make (apparently!!!)… This nearly got them to the finish 6 hours premature! Crafty… We caught (rescued) them and set them off in the right direction again. A few damp and windy hours later all students returned to the van for a sleepy return journey to STM. Well done campers…
Don’t forget… DofE-ers…you will be writing up your ‘Journals-with-a-Purpose’ on Monday.
One group mentioned doing tourism in national parks. Check out this webpage… http://www.visitpeakdistrict.com/
Silver DofE Expedition 2007
Having just returned from a fab weekend expedition to Snowdonia. I thought I would post a brief outline of itinerary and experience…
Day 1 We left school and arrived in Abergwyngregyn, North Wales, at 11.00 a.m. here we met Our Award Assessor for a safety briefing and map orientation. We followed Cassie, Lauren, Rebecca and Dannielle for about 2 kilometres and helped them navigate between locational features. Eventually, we left the students to it along the North Wales Path and off they went…
We caught up with them a few hours/kilometres later for a top up of much needed water supply! All was well. Off they went again, in a seemingly downhill direction towards the camp site at Dinas farm…
Day 2
Dinas Farm was a good site… a beautiful stream ran by the camping field. We all had quite a good night of sleep, bar Becky who had brought her bro’s sleeping bag by accident! Oops… After a sluggish start, the students set off (in the right direction) towards Bethesda. We caught up with them in the afternoon at Llyn Ogwen. Mr North and I, scrambled up the mountainside onto an overlooking ridge (approx 100m) above the girls path. 1 chilly and windy hour later…(after watching through binoculars, the girls approach from 2 km away!) they stopped for a break strategically directly below our observation perch… We shouted them, and waved before scrambling back to ground level and treating them all to a crafty ice lolly. Off they went again, around the difficult terrain near the lake… down to the second camp site.
Day 3
What a windy night!!! I don’t think we got 10 hours between us in the exposed valley of Gwern Gof Isaf. Anyway… the girls were up early and ready to go by 7.30 a.m. They set off, and we joined them a bit later in Capel Curig. Here we taught them how to navigate using the GPS PDA. They found the equipment useful and so continued alone towards Bews-y-Coed. The finish came relatively early at 2.00p.m. After a total of 45km… they deserved the treat of a cone of chips! Well done to all 4 girls. it is amazing what you can achieve when you set your mind to it!
Looking forward to the GOLD expedition… fancy the Pyrenees???
In the mean time… the students need to complete their write-up.
The project is based upon the Weather! Below is a number of links which you may find useful to help you complete the task:
Click here for a link to the Met Office…
Click here for a link to the BBC Weather page…
For further information about the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme click here! http://www.theaward.org/
helo0o0o miss, we did dead well this weekend!! with all them sheep and sir with his one liners was really funny!! Vaseline!! I will never forget it! lol Anyways be a bit better if them pics could be clicked on and blown up, see how rough we looked all the time eh! anyways luffs xx
Well done on a superb trek. You have inspired me to climb the 3 Peaks this summer…!
The blog doesn’t allow high quality images to be displayed unfortunately. if you want copies bring your mem stick into school…
miss
omg miss i no how to say Aberystwyth lol but even tho im 1/4 welsh not Abergwyngregyn how u say it?
Mat
Aber-gwin-greg-in… now you try it!!
Hiya miss!!
lol! see you in tommorows lesson period 2,
I woudnt mind doing this when I’m in Year 11!!! Get away from my brother and sister for a bit!
Soph 7T x x x
hiya!! i was just wondering because i’m taking Geography as an option will we get to go on trips like this it sounds really fun!! Cant wait till September!!
The Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme is open to anyone who is interested and commited in completing the award. The award comprises of 4 section – physical recreation, skills, service and the expedition section. See http://www.theaward.org/ for more info…
What awful photos please take them off or just the ones with me on!!
i wasn’t there when you told us about the project.. well i was just wondering what will i have to put for the introduction? please help
thank you
No worries. It is just a small report. The reason is your expedition must have a ‘purpose’. Whatever topic you chose to look at whether it was tourism, national parks, agriculture or whatever… your report should include…
1. Introduction – brief intro about you, your award, where you went adn the topic chosen for research.
2. Diary of your expedition. Write up each day – the highs and the lows.
3. Evaluation – what did you enjoy the most, what did you find difficult to do, what would you do differently next time.
4. Research topic – information you have discovered. Link it to your expedition area as much as you can.
The whole report is no more than 4 sides typed. Photos should be included where possible.
Rach – just bring it in in September, then I can sign you off the brooze award ready for the silver…
Have a great summer.
hey me again, i want to double check on day 2 were we dropped of in butterston and we finished in grindon?
Dropped in Butterton, finished near Grindon (you got lost!!)… but you made up the miles by walking in the wrong direction…!!