DofE silver practise expedition: The Peak District Day 3

It was the last day of our silver DofE practise expedition. We had completed day 1 and 2 and now it was time to face day 3! I didn't sleep well that, somehow I timed myself to wake up every time a train went pass the camp site  It was also colder that night which didn't help either. Anyway me and my group was again one of the first to leave that morning. We woke up in fog again and we hoped it wouldn't rain, like the forecast had said, as we put our tents down. Luckily it didn't, it didn't even rain that day! We headed off through fields and then up the hill which was behind the camp site  We could still see fluorescent orange rucksack covers from the camp site below. We paced ourselves as we walked across the hill as we knew when had to be back a certain time but we didn't want to wear ourselves out! Me and Lucy pretty much walked together that day and our tops matched too. Our bright green Frisbee tops! Our job was to "bring up the rear" to make sure no one was lagging behind!

The hill behind the camp site!

We were nearly at our first check point. We had walked through a few fields, across the hill, down a track shaded by trees, through a bit of a village and then on a main road. We wrote on our check point cards. On day 2 we decide to write something about each member of the group, we had: Hannah's gone native; Lucy dropped a pancake in cow poo and ate it anyway; Monique... We lost her way back; Kirsty's dead; Nata's stuck in a gate somewhere; Felicity's got a dirty bottom and finally Jo's (me) ploughing through! To be honest I had a pretty gone statement considering some of the others! Anyway we left our check point card on a table and we were off again.

Lucy looks happy enough!

Shortly after stopping we reached a muddy up hill bit of the walk. I'm still surprised that no one fell face first in to the mud. However we did have a few slips and slides and they were mainly from Nata. We walked up through the ankle deep mud to the top... Well when I say top I mean the top of that section of the hill before climbing up the next big hill! We could see another group on top of another hill who shouted down at us to ask what group we were. So I shouted everyone's name and our group number and they replied with a "Harry's group" which didn't help us identify them because there were two groups with a Harry in! They carried on walking so we decided to do the same. The next hill we walked up hurt the most. You could feel it in your legs this time. It was what I call a nightmare! I marched up in front to get to the top of the hill. It seemed like ages before finally reaching the top. but in time we all made it. We had a longer break then. The fog was still over some of the hills in the distance and all you could hear was the odd car driving past us.

Me and Lucy's original tops!

Our new tops! BRINGING UP THE REAR 2012!

Fliss having a little nap!

Our group didn't really stop for lunch, we just got out our snacks whenever we felt the need. Plus it saved us time. We were now on the main hill, again a popular route that people walk. Kirsty, Hannah and Nata in front followed by Fliss, then Monique and then Me and Lucy (bringing up the rear) I would day 3 was the best day for probably because I knew I would be home that night but also because me and Lucy did have a few laughs together, which kept us going through out the day. In the distance we could a about 5 groups from our school sitting together. The problem was they were sitting at the bottom on a hill and it was rather awkward so we decided to quick march up the hill. Before we knew it Tom, Molly and Chris were walking behind us so me and Lucy decided to walk with them for a bit. We walked quite a bit with them, they went up a hill which was rocky and had a steep edge whilst we debating which way to go. In the end we followed them up. We met them at the top before two men told Tom that his group said he went the wrong way. We said our goodbye as we watched Tom, Molly and Chris walk all away back down the hill to re-join their group.

Tom on top of the hill he had to walk back down!
(He doesn't know I've taken a pic of him!)

The next bit of the walk was like a roller-coaster. We went up then down then back up again then back down. We had quite a bit to walk down, we started off all in our walking order then me and Lucy over took Monique as we went down hill. We past a couple of cows a long the way but they didn't bother us. Me and Lucy thought it was time to acted out some lines of Miranda... Such fun! We decided to act out the part were Miranda's mum did the laugh of the season which was based on the song poker face by Lady gaga. I said the words: Can't read my, can't read my poker face! and Lucy did the laugh: Hahahaa hahahaa HAAAA hahaaa! I think the laughing hurt more than our feet from walking but hey ho it kept us ploughing through the last bit of the day.

The end bit of the hill we walked down!
Monique's in the picture somewhere so
have a go at playing "Where's Monique!"

I think this is how some of the group were feeling by the last day!

The end bit of the day seemed to go on. All I was thinking was as long as were back for half 2 then that's fine. We were on the main road for a bit until a Arthur Terry van pulled up beside us. My heart stopped as I thought they were going to pick us up. Luckily they didn't they were just checking we were on the right track (which we weren't) and if we were all ok. They sent us back up the  round then they said to talk a right. I suddenly realised we were on the route we did on day 2. (Where Lucy dropped her pancake in cow poo) I knew where we then and we only had half an hour, give or take, to go.

I liked these pumpkins so I took a picture of them!

We walked along the fields and my feet were starting to hurt. Even when we stopped they hurt more than when we walked so I was glad that we were nearly back. We were in Castleton and we finally made it to the car park. It was exactly half two! The first thing I did was chucked my rucksack on the floor and ran to the toilets. We were the last group back but we didn't make any short cuts and we were back in time. When I came out  of the toilets the teachers said there was cake on the side if I wanted some. Cake... what a perfect thing to a wait you after a long day of walking and it was carrot cake which was even better. All I need then was a nice cuppa tea from my mum and it would of been even better. We were also the first group on coach which annoyed the other groups because we were the last back but because we were group 1 we got called on the coach first!  It felt good to sit down on comfy sits. We had done it though. The dream team had conquered the silver practise expedition. What fun we had during it too. We just need to do the same for the real thing and then it will be fine. But now we've got a long rest before facing the real expedition in June, but I'm sure we'll get through it. Why? Because we are the dream team!

The dream team!

Oh and the dream team again!

DofE Silver practise expedition: The Peak District Day 2

It's a bit foggy!

So day 1 was completed... and now it was time to conquer day 2! We had to conquer 17.5km of walking that day!  I have to admit I slept well that night, considering I had a headache, all I could remember was Miss coming into our tent to give us our check point cards. I didn't even turn around to see her, I just stayed where I was and listened to Hannah, Lucy and Miss talking about day 2. When we woke it was foggy and it was slightly chilly. I hoped the sun would come out just to lift the fog so we could actually see where we were going, however the first bit of the walk we managed to do it the fog. We were off earlier than the other groups, we plodded along and met a man out on his early morning walk. He had a cocker spaniel which made me think of my dog and how he would of loved to come on DofE with me. Anyway we said a cheerful "morning" and he replied with a "morning" too but he also said there were cows in the field we were approaching and that there was a bull near the top. I looked at Hannah and thought you better come up with something to distract them if we get attacked again. We literally ran up the field away from the cows and then into another field. I was ahead at this point, I managed to get through the thick mud into the next field. It was still foggy but the sun was trying to get through. We carried on along the edge of the field and in the distance we could just make out a shape standing right in the middle of our tracks. The one shape was actually two shapes and it was more cows. Great... more cows. Somehow we had to go round them without them noticing us. Eventually we got to the other side of the field, with the sun trying to come out even more. You could see the fog moving it looked like it was raining. We stopped so we could look at the map and so everyone could sort themselves out before heading off again. We got to a gate that was pad locked so the only way was to go over it. One by one we climbed over the gate, trying not to slip (like I did) as we attempted to get over.

Lucy getting over the gate!

Time went by. We crossed a train track and then we were in more fields again. We were nearly at Castleton which was our first check point and we were doing well for time. The thing about the group we didn't stop if we wanted a drink or a snack we just walked and then asked someone to grab it for us. So there I was, getting Lucy her pancake out her rucksack as we were waiting for everyone to get through the gaps in the walls before our go. I got it for her and she took one bite out of it and then dropped it. 7 second rule I was thinking but I realised she dropped it in some cow pat! Way to go Lucy... Bless her she was really looking forward to that pancake as well. We made it to Castleton and left our route card on a stone wall. And the dream team were off again...

Hannah and Lucy on the train line! 

The landscape: The fog is slowly going!

The hills we were surrounded by for sometime!

We walked through a bit of Castleton and turned off up this footpath. Well it was again like a mini stream: It was rocky and water was running down it. This part of the walked took a while. We were surrounded by hills and we couldn't see what was in front of us because we were in the middle of them. I gathered that this part of the walk was popular with other walkers and locals because we saw quite a lot of people. On my DofE bronze expedition post , you might remember Hannah who made friends a cat friend, well we stopped and Felicity made a sheep friend that she named Baaarbara. She wasn't the only one to make a friend. When we headed off again a dog called Sky seemed to like my company. It was like a grey and white sheep dog with one eye blue and one eye brown. To be fair it was a nice dog. We made it to the top and a man came up to me, Lucy and Hannah. He was wondering what school we were from and what we were doing. So we told him, Arthur Terry and DofE. In the end the conversation was about some guy called Shane, who later we discovered was actually Mr Walsh (one of our maths teachers) and the man and him were friends. After a conversation with him, we started walking and then stopped again to talk to the owners of the dog who liked me. Then finally after talking to the couple we were off again.

Me and my little friend!

The group resting! (I don't know what Hannah, far left, is doing
but she looks comfy enough!)

The motor bike and me!

After a while it was just the group. We were walking up a track of mainly puddles. Me and Hannah were slightly behind the group as we decided to entertain ourselves by walking through the puddles not around them. Such fun it was! When the others saw the teachers walking we were still behind walking through the puddles. We caught up with the group said a quick hello and goodbye to the teachers and carried on. It was between 1 and half 1 so we decided to stop for what I call Lunch! Everyone got out their lunch and happily sat there eating. Everyone sat on the grass and I sat on the edge of the track. We could see a road from where we were but I could hear, what sounded like, a motorbike. And it was! It was a mountain motorbike thingy which came whizzing past me. I mean I wasn't slap bang in the middle of the track, I was on the edge but the guy on the bike decided to drive as close as me as possible. So there I was thinking "Excuse me, Mr mountain motor biker you're what I call nightmare!" And then about 6 other bikers came past me. I thought one of them was going to run me over! After that scary situation with the bikes me and Nata did some yoga. It was a perfect place to do yoga and it was nice to stretch out too.

The dream team at lunch time!

Nata, Kirsty and Fliss having a little nap! 

We had lunch and started walking again. We went through more fields, we saw more sheep and we saw llamas... Yes llamas in the peak district! I'm not a big fan on llamas but they didn't do any harm. We were a bit lost after lunch, I think we might of took a wrong turn somewhere but a lady at this house helped us out. We carried on until we got to another house where this other lady filled up everyone's drinks. So we carried on up a country lane and then over a road. We found the another groups route card and it was the gold groups so then we knew we were in the right place. The rest of the walk was down hill and all we had to do was to follow the path which we did. We got to the end/bottom of the hill and we were close to our second camp-site. Everyone sat down on a bench bar from me and Lucy who walked up this drive to see if we could see the camp-site. We shouted everyone to come up and we where there. We saw a girl by the toilets (toilets meaning two little shed like things with no sink!) she said to carry on, across the bridge, take a left and you're there. We did that and we were there. A few of the other groups were there but there were no teachers.

This cow looked friendly and cute so I took a
pic of it!

The camp-site was somewhere down  the hill in the valley!

Some of the teachers arrived and told us to start getting set up. The thing about this "camp-site" was it was literally a hill/field, it was by a train line with loud fast trains going by, it was by a river which made us need the loo but the "toilets" were what seemed like a mile away and it was cold that night because we were on a hill. We set up our tent and had our food and got settled. Me and Lucy made one trip to the toilet and took our washing up to this little tap at the bottom of the hill. It was getting dark and some groups weren't back yet. Two boy groups typical. We saw the mini bus finally pull up with the groups in them. I felt sorry for the groups that had to pitch up their tent and have tea in the dark. It was certainly colder that night. Nata and Lucy were shivering as we waited by the mini bus to do our check point cards for the last day. It was time for me to give out my hugs! To be honest my hugs are pretty amazing. Lucy slept in the middle that night because her sleeping bag was the thinnest so it was only fair to put her in the middle. I slept without my roll mat that night because the weather had said it was going to rain the next day and I thought I don't want to be messing around deflating my roll mat in the rain. Me, Lucy and Hannah were settled in our tent, all relaxed and chilled. We heard Kirsty giggling/shouting our names from her and Felicity's tent. All she wanted us to do was to listen to Felicity's turkey/chicken noise she made which was actually really good. I had to contain my laughter after a while which didn't work because Lucy and Hannah joined in with other animal noises. It was a highlight of the day for me, all I was thinking was this time tomorrow I would be in a nice warm bed with a hot cup of tea and I only had one day left to complete!

The dream team! 

DofE silver practise expedition: The peak distinct Day 1

So I managed to conquer the bronze award and then it was time to conquer the silver "practise" award. I had a brilliant group with a few original members and a few members. The original members: Lucy and Hannah and the new members: Nata, Kirsty, and felicity and one other Monique who was part of out bronze practise group but not the real thing group! Anyway we were, as some of the teachers called us, "the dream team" and we were ready to set off. We got to our drop off point, we got our heavy rucksacks on and we were gone. 5 seconds after leaving the coach we were already marching up a hill and then we knew that this wasn't going to be the last one.

The View on the top of the hill!

The peak distinct is full of stunning views. Anywhere you stand there's hills that surround you or forests of tall "twilight" trees as I like to call them. The weather too was great, perfect for DofE. It was cloudy with a cool breeze especially on top the hills with the sun occasionally coming out to say hi. It was boggy in places so our boots turned brown as we slipped, slid and sunk in the mud. It wasn't that boggy in the morning but as the day went by our boots added a layer of thick mud. In the afternoon we were walking uphill, ankle deep in mud with the sound of squelching and a few squeals here and there with Miss following my footprints so she didn't sink into the mud! I have to say it was an amusing part of the afternoon!

Another view!

On the first day it was weird getting use to the new group but the "dream team" was great and quick! We were making good time and we didn't stop much only to check the map and for lunch.The first part of the walk we saw one group which was Tom's group who were, by the looks of it, debating on what way to go. So we carried down these rocks and me, Nata, Kirsty and Felicity decided it was time for a sing-song. The four of us started singing old primary school songs which took us by surprise that we actually remembered the words whilst Monique was in front and Lucy, Hannah and Miss at the back taking photos of insects. (Insects was our groups "focus") We were walking through, what I call twilight trees and me and Nata changed the song to Bella's Lullaby hoping someone would turn into a Vampire and whisk us away up the trees. No one came along to do that. It was a bit disappointing! Only a couple of mountain bikers pasted us. One of them nearly fell off his bike. Me and Nata exchanged a hold-in-the-laugh look until he was out of sight. We got to the road where two other teachers were waiting and said our group were by far the happiest they have seen. Well you have to stay happy during these things or you'll get no where. We said a quick hi and goodbye to the teachers and carried on down a hill then over a river. 

The river we went over!

We were all doing well, all cheerful and happy which was good because by the third day I knew that we would all be tired and we would be all achy. We walked mostly a gradual uphill until lunch. We walked through what seemed to be a stream. It was rocky and we were going up so we could feel it in our legs. We were still surrounded by twilight trees so when we saw light from the top of the hill it was like the heavens had opened and we could actually see. We stopped for lunch and saw about 4 other groups. Lucy needed the loo so I ran down the hill with her and tried to climb a barbed wire fence into the forest again, which Lucy managed to get over all right but when it came to me it was just a total disaster as I was trying not to touch the barbed wire and at the same time trying to reach a bucket, which was on the other side, for me to to step on. It seemed darker and it seemed like the trees had tripled in size. It was a bit creepy and it was oddly silent considering that there was 4 groups making a noise on the top of the hill. I managed to get back over the fence, I have to admit I was quite elegant getting back over the fence, any who we ran back up the hill and headed off again...

Hannah and Lucy. My wonderful original group members! Nice face
there Lucy!

Time went by and I was beginning to get a headache. One of those headaches that makes it difficult to look at any bright light. I didn't moan or complain I just carried on thinking I can eat and sleep when I get to the camp-site. After a bit we ended up in fields and we had to try and fit through the gaps in the walls. This was pretty funny watching everyone try and fit through with their rucksacks on and then getting wedged in between the gap. After getting everyone through the gaps we walked on and before we knew it we met a friendly face. Hello cows... Yes if you read DofE bronze expedition the real thing, you will remember the man eating cows that chased everyone and then Hannah, yes Hannah, running down the hill like a headless chicken leaving me on the top of the hill whilst dragging her bag to safety. Well luckily Miss has a cow obsession so we were safe with her and these cows didn't seem to bother with us which was a shame because I would of liked to see Hannah run towards the cows like some crazy man!

Felicity getting stuck in the gap. It's Lucy nice facial
expression again!

Hello cows!

The sun was turning a nice orange colour as we walked. Me and Nata decided it was time for another sing-song, this time we were going duo. We were singing the sound of music and I was considering on running up the hill like Maria does in the film but I contained my urge to do that and saved my energy for when it was needed most. The peak distinct is a great place to sing, I do love a good sing-song it just keeps you going a bit.You can't beat it! It gives you that extra bit of POW to get through the day.We finally made it back to the camp site. Relieved that we could rest, sleep and eat. We did pretty well on the first day. We had a good pace and good time and we did have a few good laughs along the way.  But we still had two more days to get through by ourselves and we could do it. We were the "dream team!" 

The sun setting! Red night... shepherds delight! 

 







 

The City of York!

York historic tower

York. A old historic city with a unique character. This is a perfect place for those who love their history. The building, streets and the famous city wall which date back a long time ago have a story behind them. The cobbled streets and the stone building really gives York the charming character. York is a perfect place to go for a mini city break. Theres so much to do, the time will fly by! My first day in York: The sun was beaming with no cloud in the sky. I was plugged into my Ipod for the drive up to York with summery music playing. It was great. So far so good! I was going up there with my family, bar from two of my sisters who one was on camp for the week and the other had work, so this meant it was my turn to play the "big sister" role. Lucky me. When got there we decided to go into the city of York for the afternoon to have a look around and to see where everything was. We had a open top bus tour of York which went around the city telling us the history of it. I pretended to listen to the guide person but I had no clue what so ever on what he was on about. So I put on my "I'm interested" face and which made me look like I knew alot about history (which I don't) but it seemed to work. Anyway the tour was good, we knew where we were so that was the main thing. The aftrenoon went quick and the night took over the sun and day 1 of our mini city break was done.




Goathland station! Recognise it yet?!

Day 2 of our mini city break was different. The sun was shining and it was hot. We didn't go into York that day because the streets are quite crowded and we would all just get too hot and bothered. So we decided to go on a train ride to a place called Whitby which is a town by the seaside. I loved the train ride because it wasn't a normal modern train, it was a steam train, it was nice to do something different. This day reminded me of my holiday in Scotland 4 years ago, it was the Beijing Olympics and one of our days out was a ride on THE Harry Potter train, which had the carriage where Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson sat for the Harry Potter films. We even went over the viaduct that they did in the fims! What an amazing holiday that was. Anyway looking at the where the train was stopping one stop was called Goathland and speaking of Harry Potter this was THE Hogsmeade station they used in the first film. It also appeared in the television series Heartbeat. So that made my day. We pasted rolling hills, the beautiful countryside and lots of sheep. We made it to Whitby and it was busy. Our first stop was the fish and chip shop. You can't beat fish and chips at a traditional British seaside. The seaside was very British indeed. A pier, little fair ground rides for little children and donkey rides. (The donkeys did not look impressed that day!) It wasn't my cup of tea at all. When someone says beach or seaside, I usually think bright yellow sands, blue clear sea with waves that are worth going in the sea for. However this beach was slightly different. The sand was grey/brown, the sea matched the greyness of the sand and the waves were hardly waves even though the lifeguards were out still. It was a typical British seaside. The donkey rides were by the pier end of the beach with everyone sitting that side of the beach, but for me I wanted to walk all the way down the beach (it was a big long beach) where there were no people at all. We didn't didn't stay on the beach we walked up it then we walked back down. I decided that no where can beat Cornwall if you're talking about beaches! Now theres two sides of Whitby the town side which was made for tourists, with the bucket-and-spade kind of shops and then across a bridge the older town side with cobbled streets with teashops. Teashops meaning cake! Yes cake you can't beat a piece of cake and a cuppa in the afternoon. It was delightful! Apiece of cake was what we needed before the journey back. We got back on the train, we past the rolling hills, the stunning countryside and the sheep again and we were back at the first station we started off at. It was a lovely day, the train ride was by far the best (and the cake) and that was day 2 over.



Goathland Station! The view from the bridge!

The steam train!

















Two days gone and two days left of our mini trip to York. We went into the city of York on the 3rd day. It was cloudy and cooler so it was all good. My dad and younger sister decided to go and look around a viking museum which meant me and mum were left to look around. Me and my mum headed off to look around York by foot. We went to Shambles which is a small pretty street with over hanging buildings, some date back to the 14th century. After that we managed to find another teashop for a cup of tea. We had to resist the cake this time beacuse we were going to try this hog-roast sandwich shop thing. They did pork sandwiches with stuffing and apple saurce and some crackling. It was heaven, we went to a park and had them and they were so good words can't explain how nice they were! We walked all of the city wall to burn of lunch which was good, you could see the city of York in the middle, it was a lovely last day in York. So the last day flew by like the rest of the days and tomorrow we were heading back home. However we had a stop on the way which made everyones holiday, especially my mums!










Shambles!

The famous street, Shamles!






















Day 4: By far the best day. We headed off into the countryside. Yorkshire. We discovered the beauty of Yorkshire when we stayed last time years ago. We all prefered the country to the city. The sun was shining with a cool breeze blowing. We followed a river pretty much until lunch where we found a cafe. So we stopped to have a homemade sandwich with homemade cake too with a hot cup of tea. Yes more tea, we are a tea-loving family. We even brought a cake to have on the way home. We headed back to the car and at the very end we had to walk through a field full of cows, which made me laugh because I could just picture Hannah on DofE running down the field trying to get the cows attention. (I still can't get over that) It was a shame that we didn't have our dog with us, he would of loved it there. Before our journey home we stopped to have another cup of tea, and off we went back home. We said a goodbye to the busy city to York and then we said goodbye to beautiful, quiet countryside that we loved and we were back home again.









The river in open space!

The view of the river, take
 from within the trees!




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!

Bronze DofE: The "real" expedition - The Cotswolds! Day 1...

Here it is. The real DofE expedition! Motivation, determination and encouragement. These words are what you need for DofE, especailly in the real thing. You don't have your supervisor with you on any of the days, so it's up to you to take charge. This weekend was definitely different compared to the practice, from the weather to emotions. However it was so much fun doing it. I've learnt many things over the weekend and one of them was never trust the weather. The forecast for saturday: lightning and rain. Great... Everyone was thinking the same thing, we were all very unlucky about the weather again for our DofE expedition. Everyone was making sure they had their waterproofs out, spare pairs of socks and layers packed. Did we get lightning and rain? No we didn't, saturday was cloudy with a few showers here and there but there was certainly no lightning or heavy rain. We were an hour and a bit on the coach to our starting point. Long Compton. Off we went: me, Lucy, Hannah, Georgia, Frankie, Amber and Emma, our newest member who joined us and took the Moniques place. So we were off, it was half ten and we had been walking for about two minutes before a lady and then a man helped us find the path we needed. I remembered then, in our practice expedition Mr Simmons, our supervisor, said 'You always go the wrong way to start off with!' However we were doing alright, we were just debating on what way to go. So the man and the lady kindly pointed us in the right direction.

Georgia and Lucy are looking happy!

A short stop before we reached the first check point. Hannah
and Lucy look comfy!

Our groups 'focus' was gates. (Thanks Hannah for that creative idea) so at nearly every gate it was photo time. So during this weekend we had everyone posing by the gate to show that we actually had walked through it. Everyone was so far happy. After the first snap shot we had to walk up a hill and that was a sign that it was going to be tough, I knew from the beginning it was going to be a steep climb... Literally, physically and mentally! Just because there's a obstacle in your way, giving up isn't the way to go about it. Obstacles don't have to stop you, if you run into a wall (which would be pretty hilarious if you didn't realise there was a brick wall infront of you) don't turn around and give up, figure out how to climb it, go through it or walk around it. And none of us gave up, which was good because we had a lot more to conquer, not just hills but emotions and the pain from our boots and rucksacks! We somehow we ended up on a muddy, wet and very slippery track, which was shaded by trees which created a tunnel. We slid down the track, filling the silent woods with laughter and the occassional scream from Georgia. No one had fallen over, yet. The only thing that had happened was that I slipped and my foot got suck in a puddle which was pulling me down but then Frankie came and helped me out. Time passed and we had reached our first check point and it was good timing because it was lunch time. (Always the best part) Hannah found a new friend on the way too. It must of been forty five minutes or more before we found the right path, I still don't even know if that was the right way but hey ho we risked it for a biscuit. (There was no biscuit involved, that was slightly disappointing.)

Come on Amber, there's no time to rest and waste!

Hannah's new best friend! A cat!

The pea field which we managed to walk through was rather eventful. Again we filled the silence of the countryside with laughter, well I did. With Lucy and Amber in front and the rest behind, all you could hear was a continuous sentence being repeated. Frankie would say 'tractor track' or 'muddy bit' then Hannah would repeat, then Georgia would repeat. That would carry on all the way down the field, which seemed like forever before we got the end. That was it, after the pea field we were lost, we didn't know what way to go or where we were on the map. We walked trough fields, around fields, we had to turn back on ourselves. It was like we were going in circles, it felt like we weren't getting anywhere and everywhere looked the same! I could feel a slight sense of panic and frustration amongst everyone, however we all had to keep calm and carry on! We would eventually get back on track.

The beautiful Cotswolds!

We ended up in this house back garden! Not bad being lost here!

We walked further on, through more fields and there was a gate with some 'friendly' looking cows in. This moment of DofE will always stay with me. It was a highlight of the weekend! You're probably thinking why on earth would a field full of cows make my weekend?! Well I've never seen anyone run down a field so fast before. So there I was I said I would walk up the field to see if there was a gate and Hannah followed me up so she could called the others if there was a gate. I marched up to the top of the field, the cows still grazing lazily, and there was a gate. I turned around to call to Hannah and the cows were running towards the others as they were all trying to get back through the gate to safety! Then before I knew it Hannah had dumped her rucksack on the floor and sprinted back down the field, waving her arm like some mad thing, she definitely was one then. I was thinking what the hell was she doing? Suddenly this one cow started to run towards Hannah and that was it, I thought the cow was going to eat her and everyone else and I was going to be left by myself with Hannah's flourescent orange rucksack with the man eating cows! I have to admit Hannah running down that hill was pretty hilarious. Well it is now but it wasn't then. After that eventful situatuion with the cows we ended up in someones back garden/field. Then the words came out, the words that I didn't want to particularly hear "We need to phoned Sir. Call schoool" There was no way I was going to call school to say we were lost. Yes were lost, we were lost for ages however there was no need to panic. There was a house which had a drive so there for there must be a road cross to get to the house in the first place. So taking the lead I said we weren't going to call Sir, they can't do anything and the whole point of DofE is to learn to cope with getting lost and to try to find your way back and most importantly NOT to give up, that's not the answer to situations like this.

Luckily this cow was not a man eating one!

We walked down the long drive and me and Lucy went to knock on this houses door. This lady opened the door and the first thing she said was "You're lost aren't you?" So she obviously knew we were doing some kind of expedition. (I think our rucksacks gave it away.) She called her husband down to help give directions and he was telling about his day playing tennis. He finally gave us directions to our second checkpoint and we were back on track. I was trying to make sure everyone was ok and happy. We finally got to the check point and a man in a bright yellow jacket on a white motorbike came up to us. I suddenly thought it was the police so I was trying to think of what we had done wrong! As I was running through the day in my head, thinking we had done something wrong, I realised he had the same map as us and that he was a teacher.Thank goodness for that! He said we were not far from the campsite. So we trudged on, willing to get back before the rain came and finally we made it back.

Hannah and Lucy doing the plank after we saw the teacher on his motorbike!

Relief washed over me and I was proud that we got back and that we had completed the first day. Mr Simmons gave us all high fives and at that moment I thought how on earth did you manage to keep everyone going on the practice expediction, it was hard today, I felt like I was doing his job. I didn't mind though, someone has to keep everyone going and to lead them even if it was the wrong direction. Sir helped us put our tent up because it had started to rain. And that was that. The rain had stopped and we all had hot food and cake because it was Lucy's birthday and it was a good way to end the day.Time, I thought, had gone slow that evening. I gave the best hugs to Natalie and Alice for doing well that day because I wasn't in there group. It was getting on for half ten and we all went into our tents. I got in my tent and a hand randomly appeared through the door of our tent which scared the life out of me but it was only Simmons doing the tent up for me. We were all laughing at Hannah until a stern, serious voice that belonged to Simmons called us out of our tent. That also scared the life out of me because again I was thinking what have we done now. We all scrambled out of our warm sleeping bags into the cold and all the girls had to meet by the toilets because they were a mess and we had to tidy them up. Natalie and some of the others weren't impressed that the teachers had woken them up but it only took ten minutes and then we all dragged ourselves back to bed. And off to sleep everyone went, worn out and happy that we had successfully completed our first day of walikng. We had now only one more day to conquer...

My amazing group!!!