Further to our article in last week's newsletter, we are delighted to share with you two accounts from Silver DofE students who embarked on the recent practice expedition in the stunning Chiltern Hills.

ANNA B 10CS

As the date for the DofE practice expedition neared, I was apprehensive and worried as the weather forecast was bad and I was panic-packing at the last minute. Thankfully, on the first day when we arrived at the town hall we were greeted with glorious sunshine and I’m glad I had my sunglasses.

We set off walking 10km on our first day. It was a pleasant walk through scenic woods and rolling hills and with a lot of motivational singing and sweets. We all sat on a sunny field and ate sandwiches. When we got back to camp we set up tents, ate dinner and played ball games under the orange sky of the setting sun. Full of exhaustion, we all returned to our tents ready for a nice night sleep. However, none of us realised that the night would be as cold as it was!

Our team woke the next morning groggy and tired. None of us had gotten a good night's sleep, we had all woken from the cold at first, then because of the sun and birds at dawn. After having a nice warm breakfast of porridge or sausages and beans, we were ready to go again.

We left around 9:30am with the tent packed up, cooker away and everything was ready to go. It was another warm day and our route took us back through the Chiltern Hills again. Shortly through the day we joined the canal, which as long and monotonous as it was, it was mostly shaded, which we were all glad for. We had lunch watching the ducks pass us by on the water. After returning to Town Farm campsite after 19 km of walking, we were all exhausted and after dinner had an early night, wrapped in about 5 layers of jumpers! We all awoke having had a much better night's sleep than the previous night.

Glad it was the last day and with the excitement of having a warm shower and a proper bed, we set off early to get home. After a couple of hours the weather took a turn for the worse and having got soaked through, we were glad to see the bus ready to take us home. After a fun weekend of long walks and enjoying spending time with friends, I was very glad to get home.

ADRIENNE S and SOPHIE F 10H

This year, we completed our Silver Duke of Edinburgh practice expedition in the Chiltern Hills, on a rarely sunny weekend. We began the practice at Village Hall, where we re-capped on how to take bearings, read maps, use the stoves, and make sure that we had all of the essential equipment that we would need in the days to come.

Just before lunchtime, we set off on our first walk, where we got to see and pick wild garlic, which was admittedly so strong, but did taste really good! When we finally got back to camp on Saturday afternoon, we immediately set about putting up our tents, unpacking our bags, and then preparing our dinners. What was particularly fun about the expedition was our meals around the stove in the evenings and mornings, it was always fun to see what other people had brought along to eat. Many of us brought along boil-in-a-bag foods such as pasta and meatballs and chicken tikka masala. We had also bought lots of snacks to keep our energy high, such as dried fruits, protein bars and Mentos!

After we had all braved the porta-loos at the end of the field, we gathered in our tents to get warm, and played snap! We never knew that snap could be so rowdy and competitive, but we are proud to announce that Sophie is the Snap Champion of Silver DofE 2024!

Although many of us didn’t get too much sleep on our first night due to how cold it got, we woke up optimistic for our second day. We gathered around the stove for breakfast, and checked our maps for the day. Sunday was pretty hot, and particularly long, so we were all very excited to see our tents in the fields ahead of us. We got back to camp, and were immediately warned that there would be a lot of rain soon, so we had to make and eat our dinners as soon as possible. Quickly, we heated up our boil-in-the-bag food, which proved to be really good and filling despite our previous experiences. Then, we made sure to get everything inside the tent, and enjoyed another round of Snap! which, unsurprisingly, Sophie won again. We had a better idea of how to keep warm overnight, and we were all very tired, so we all slept well, for the final day of our practice.

Though we had an amazing time, we had faced a few challenges along the way, especially on Monday when we were relieved to be heading home that same day. We had accidentally not taken a left through a forest and ended up only a couple of metres away from where we had entered. With our happiness dampened by the wrong turn and the inevitable rainstorm, we had to trudge through extra distance in the rain and mud. But we kept singing, we kept walking, until we eventually reached our end point and we were all so proud to have finished our practice.

Silver was definitely a challenge and a huge jump from Bronze, but we enjoyed it even more, and are all very excited for our qualifier!