Elan Valley, South Wales - April 2007 - Trip Report

My Gold Duke of Edinburgh practice expedition, and something that never led to a final/qualifying expedition!

My school had recently started offering the Bronze Duke of Edinburgh award but I wanted something more challenging and so set-up the gold award myself. Most of the elements of this award didn’t require much input from me; the participants could manage the process themselves. However, for the expedition element a leader was needed.

I had almost zero experience in the outdoors at this stage, and absolutely no idea what I was doing. I was however motivated, bossy and willing to take risks. The perfect combination for a cluster-fuck.

Fortunately nothing too bad happened. I trained the team in lunch breaks and after school, using materials which I still have but find laughable now.

We got ourselves prepped, found an assessor and were kindly assisted by one of our teachers who took a holiday to the area and met us each night as a supervisor.

But overall it worked. We didn’t get lost, we didn’t lose a tent and everyone managed to get the stoves to light. An eerily successful Duke of Edinburgh expedition!

Our good fortunate ended on the way home. Callum, one of the participants and our driver, got caught speeding over the Severn Bridge whilst listening to ‘Bat Out of Hell’ – unfortunate for him but probably a fitting end to our escape from the Beacons!