Only a few weeks after their practice expedition, the 21 Silver Duke of Edinburgh’s Award participants climbed back onto the minibuses and set out for Shropshire to undertake their assessed Silver expedition involving three days of remotely supervised, self-guided walking in the area and two nights of self-sufficient camping.
Day One was sunny and very hot but all the young people soldiered on, some battling hay fever and blisters but always cheerful and happy to be out enjoying the countryside. The first campsite was quite basic but, as ever, the young people made the most of it, tucking into the meals they cooked for themselves and having a game of rounders before turning in for the night. After a little overnight rain, Day Two provided perfect walking weather, slightly cool with good cloud cover and a gentle breeze. All the groups had a good day of walking with only some minor navigational hiccups and by the time they arrived at the second campsite (a really beautiful spot at the bottom of a valley), the sun was shining and they were able to have a relaxed evening fitting in football, rounders, volleyball and even wheelbarrow races before nightfall. The night was punctuated with a spectacular thunderstorm with torrential rain and lightning bathing the valley in dazzling light, it was quite something to hear the thunder rolling around the sides of the valley.
Day Three is always the hardest, after two days of walking between 14 and 17 kilometres a day in often challenging terrain and two nights of sleeping in a tent, but the young people were raring to go and determined to get the final day of walking done despite sore feet and tired backs. With it being broad daylight before 5am, the groups took the opportunity to get a really early start and the first group left site by 7am. The majority of the walking on days two and three were up in the empty, hilly and achingly beautiful moors of the Long Mynd and the young people really enjoyed the spectacular scenery as well as encounters with sheep and wild horses. All of the groups really dug deep to finish on Day Three and everyone made it to the finishing point in Church Stretton by early afternoon. After a quick raid on the local Co-Op for sweets, pop and lots of ice-cream we set off back to Warwick and even got a shout out on Radio One on the drive home.
Overall it was a fantastic weekend with every single one of the young people showing just how amazing they are. They showed grit, determination, good humour, spectacularly polite manners and fantastic team work; it was an absolute pleasure to take this group of young people into the countryside for a few days. At the end of an assessed expedition every participant receives a grade of either a pass or a deferral to repeat the expedition and I am very pleased to say that every single one of the participants passed. Well done guys!
From the DofE Team: Mrs Francis, Miss Seymour and Mr Whiting.
