Gold D of E Practice Expedition to the Black Mountains

The summer term was about to start, spring flowers were supposedly in full bloom and the Gold D of E group was heading off to the soft gentle hills of the Black Mountains in South Wales to watch the new-born lambs gambol in the sun. This was the theory anyway. In practice things were rather different. The weather was absolutely vile. The valley bottoms were seas of viscous red mud and the ridges were alternate boggy wallows and gently thawing snow drifts. To make things even lovelier it rained for most of the first, third and fourth days and the cloud base was generally well below the groups’ routes. As if this were not enough, strong winds combined with the mud and snow to make the going slow and treacherous.

Despite all this the whole team did splendidly. Some nicer points of navigation might still need a little fine tuning, but without exception everyone battled on stoically, with good humour and a wonderfully positive attitude. Lesser mortals would have quailed and thrown in the (very damp) towel, but everyone persevered and made it to the end – a considerable achievement of which they can be justifiably proud.

SAHY

Head of Outdoor Education