Bronze DofE: The "real" expedition - The Cotswolds! Day 2...

Day 2 of the expedition and what a beautiful day it was! I woke up at half six and went outside and the sun was just coming over the hills in the distance. It was glorious. I was the only one up from our group so I went for a walk to the toilets and the air was so refreshing. It was a perfect weather day. Sun with some cloud with a slight cool breeze. As time went on more people started to get up. It was half eight and we set off. We all had breakfast and we all re packed our rucksacks to get ready to set off. I thought about the practice expedition when I was putting the tent down and how it was tipping it down with rain and the paths were like mini rivers and people were going home! The atmosphere were strangely different this time round. We were all packed and ready to go, we had a little meeting in the teachers tent to discuss where our check points were going to be and off we went. With a good luck from others and a good luck we returned back, we were off.

Here comes the sun...

We started on the right track but the one thing about the track was that is was muddy, slippery, wet and up hill. So we all power walked up this hill. In front Natalie and Alice's group powering on through the mud. We all got to the top and we carried on with the other group in front of us. Then we got to a gate and guess what was behind the gate? More cows! These cows look friendly enough. We saw a person waving on the other side of the field and we all thought it was the farmer. This person casually walked down the field and before we knew it the cows, again, started to chase the guy down the field. We discovered that it was this boy called Ollie, who managed to jumped over the gate in time before the cows ate him! I have no idea what the cows were doing this weekend but they were definitely not acting like normal cows would! Both groups agreed that we were going to somehow avoid the man eating cows. So we took a right and carried on. We got to a point where everyone was confused about where we were on the map. We said a farewell to Natalie's group because they decided to go a different way to us. Now a good decision maker is what you need for DofE, if no one makes a decision then no one would of gotten anywhere, luckily Lucy decided to go straight on and we did that. A house stood at the end of the track and again me and Lucy went to go and ask for directions. A lovely, old, black labrador greeted us in the garden then this man came out and said we were on the right track, and all we had tot do was carry on to our first check point.

The cows don't look impressed to see us!

We made it to our first check point. Feet in pain from blisters, legs aching from walking up hill. However we were all doing so great. We were making good time, well better than Saturday. We took a slightly shorter route and followed the road a bit. We past some beautiful stone country houses, with roses and flowers that climbed up the wall. It didn't take long before we reached our second check point. But before that we stopped for a rest before heading back up another hill. Amber called me a robot because I just carry on and I can keep on going without resting, she also couldn't understand where I got all my energy from, to be honest neither can I, I'm just used to getting on with things and I'm used to keeping everyone on the go. But that's me for you! Amber decided to have a head start while everyone struggled to get up from the floor. However it wasn't long before we over took her. We made it to our second check point. I was happy that so far we hadn't gone the wrong way and that no one was agruing or stressing about anything, yet! We found the telephone box and decided to have lunch at that point. I wasn't that hungry so I just ate my sandwich and left my snacks for later. Everyone was satisfied with their lunch and they were relieved that we had a good twenty minutes sitting down. For me the more we stopped and the longer we stopped for, the ache in my feet would get worse. And I was right!

Playtime - Hannah and Lucy found a swing and decided
to become 5 again!

Lucy up in front again!

My saying has always been "keep calm and carry on!" especially for DofE this saying is very important. Everyone needs to keep calm so you don't end up stressing someone else in the group and you just have to carry on, even if your in pain or your tired you just have to think about the end feeling. The feeling of relief and success. There's no point in giving up when you're so close to grabbing it. And this is what you've got to remember! We carried on and then we got lost. It wasn't like on the Saturday where we were lost for a long period of time, but for a bit we got lost. We went through the wrong field but again me and Lucy ask this man who told us the way. We found the path again and after a while we were on the side of a field. I looked around at everyone and thought yep, they're ok, they've all got long trousers on. I looked down and I had three quater lengths on, which wasn't the best thing to wear when walking through over grown grass and sharp stinging nettles. Anyway we started to conquer the nettles. It was ok at first, a few moans from the others because they could feel the nettles but I had to hold mine in. At the beginning you could dodge the nettles but half way down it became more nettles than grass and it hurt. A lot! A track went through the field but the path on the map looked like you had to carry on around the edge. So we did. Over grown plants and shap painful stinging nettles surrounded us. At that point the pain was getting ridiculous. I suddenly stopped I said we should go back on the track, my legs were red with pain, I had stings all over them and I had cut my legs too. The others bar from me, Hannah and Lucy walked back up to the track in the middle of the field. Lucy then said I could have her waterproof trousers because she had another pair of long trousers underneather. I told her I was ok but Hannah wouldn't let me go until I had the trousers. Lucy could see I was trying to hold it in and Hannah could definitely see I was in a lot of pain. Now you're probably thinking stinging nettles can't be that bad, but with achey legs and feet, the last thing you want is the little stabs you get from them. Hannah headed back for the others and Lucy took off her top layer of trousers and gave them to me. I was so grateful I had Lucy in my group. I needed someone else to be there for me instead of just me trying to make everyone else happy and to keep them going.

The beautiful Scenery!

My amazing group again!

We were nearly back and I was determined to get back before the mini buses came out to pick us up. Everyone was doing great. And the "robot" had only 20% battery left. During the end of the walk I could feel people were tired and frustrated that it was taking what it seemed like forever. There's a saying: When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hand on. And I was hanging on. It felt like I was hanging on to a thread. My legs killed, my feet ached but I was still postive. I didn't moan, I just got on with it and pushed the others on too. Leading a group is harder than you think, and sometimes you too need someone to tell you that you're doing great and to encourage you to keep you going! Lucy did this, but when we were nearly back the man we saw on the motorbike on Saturday was in his car, he drove past us and told us we were doing great and we were ten minutes away. And that was it, I was off, me and Lucy marched off in front again. The ten minutes seemed like an hour but finally we saw the church! This meant that the car park was opposite and we were back! We were the third group back. I was so proud of my group. Another wave of relief came over me. We had done it. We had conquered DofE! In blood, sweat and tears. We walked up the car park, chucked our rucksacks and ourselves on the floor and relaxed and breathed! The "robot" now has 0% battery left. And I've learnt many things whilst doing DofE. Number one: Don't trust the weather forecast! Number 2: All though you might call me a robot, at some point a robot still needs charging! Number 3: Success is a journey and not a destination, you have to work hard to achieve something and we all certainly did! Number 4: There's always going to be that one person who takes the lead and stays positive, for those who need it to keep them going! DofE has been a great experience. It's been most certainly fun and I'm so proud of my group. But most importantly I have learnt many things from it, that I'll take away and remember and one last thing to say... bring on silver!!!

The robot had finally died!