Bronze Qualifier

On Friday 25 September, 30 year 10 pupils went on their qualifying bronze Duke of Edinburgh expedition to the North Downs in Surrey. Having woken up to be on the coach by 7:30am the mood was definitely mixed; the practice expedition had not gone as planned for most groups, with my group being lost for over two hours and many in much pain in the days that followed. The experience of standing on Box Hill shouting for ‘help’ to our teachers was not a memory our group treasured.

Groups were dropped off at 3 different points and then had to follow a route which had been marked in previous planning sessions, leaving checkpoint cards at various locations. With heavy backpacks filled with everything we would need for the next two days, we started off. My group, determined to be more positive than we had last time, began walking only to discover that we were lost within 20 minutes! However, the views were lovely but it was a pity we saw the same one a few too many times. After wandering around the outside of a shooting range for an hour we had to turn back to a find a place we could actually identify on the map. After this disaster we forced ourselves to pick up the pace and the rest of the day’s hike was completed uneventfully in comparison.

Arriving at the campsite from around 5 till 7, each group started to put up their tents and cook food. The very last group to arrive did so with an addition; a cute golden Labrador that had tagged along with them for the last few hours and that was, of course, the only reason they were late. However, all groups had passed the first day and many went to bed in high spirits. The night was challenging, (although the boys refused to admit it) despite being wrapped tightly in many layers and a thermal sleeping bag, it was freezing and the surface happened to be very hard and muddy to sleep on! To top it all, we were woken up by Mr Stenning at 6:45 announcing that we had a ‘lovely day of walking ahead.’ In total we walked around 25km and all 6 groups passed.

It hurt at times, but I think everyone enjoyed the experience and it brought many people closer as we went through it together. The majority of the people who do D of E have great fun, I know we did, and I would urge anyone who enjoys the outdoors to participate. I’ve heard lots of talk that everyone’s planning ahead for silver already!

A big thank you from everyone to Mr Stenning for organising a great trip!

Allie Sumners, Y10

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