We awoke on the third day of our expedition to a rainy morning. We ate, packed, met with our assessor, Richard, then embarked on the day's journeying.
We meandered our way out of the campsite, passing lots of caravans, and then along the road and past a church. We then started climbing quite steeply into the hills.
It was raining and I got tired quickly but kept going. The path was narrow and we had to walk single file. I found out that I walked faster when I was first in the line so, as long as the others were happy about it, I walked at the front as much as I could.
We climbed the hill in the misty rain, then it levelled out and we were walking through a forest.
I might have heard murmurings of this forest being haunted, or maybe my imagination had manufactured them. Whichever it was, I was on the look-out for any ghosts or strange goings on. The place did have an eerie stillness to it, and you could imagine it being home to ghosts - hopefully benevolent ghosts!
We reached daylight at the other end of the forest, where we crossed a bridge over a little stream. There we met the D of E group from my college, and we kept running into each other over the course of the day, as they seemed to have a similar route to us.
We started climbing again, into the hills. They were very green, with lots of low-growing vegetation and not that many tall trees from what I can remember. We had a nice view of a lake; I think it was Ullswater.
We spent a while crossing those hills, and it was one of my favourite parts of the day's journeying. I feel that green hills in the misty rain have a unique kind of beauty, strange and still. It felt like we were up in the clouds.
We passed a man who asked us if we were going up Striding Edge, the answer, of course, being a resounding no! I'd be hesitant to cross Striding Edge in daylight, yet alone drizzle, and I doubt very much that D of E would let us do it anyway.
He also talked about the Lakes and how he often walks up in the hills with his dog - he seemed nice. After we said goodbye to him, we passed a memorial stone seat which was one of the milestones we had been looking out for.
We left those beautiful hills for some woodland, where we found Aira Force, the majestic and powerful waterfall.
I had been there before but had forgotten just how magnificent it is; the torrents of water crashing and spraying against the rocks. We stood on a bridge with the waterfall flowing below us, and took a lot of photos and video footage!
We reached a little car park where we found the D of E leaders and assessors. We topped up our water bottles, had a bit of a rest and then started off again. This time we were walking along a quieter, grassy path, which lead us to a little beck which for its size was flowing very fast and powerfully.
We ate our lunch there; I swear I remember I had banana soya to drink that day; you remember the most bizarre little details. We then walked on a little and then we were on the old coach road.
Apart from that it sounded like it belonged in an Iain Banks book, I hadn't known what to expect from the old coach road, whether it would still be a road or just a path or what.
It turned out to be a wide grassy path set in really impressive mountain scenery, and it was a pleasure to walk along, except that it decided to rain on us, rather heavily, which wasn't so good.
We kept going for a long time - the coach road made up a significant part of our journey.
When we finally left the road we had to leave a check point card for Karen on a gatepost and she had challenged us to create something inspirational on the back, so we drew a picture of us all looking tired.
Sadly, she wasn't impressed; one of the other groups had penned a poem about the "Grand Old Duke of Edinburgh," which was apparently better than our drawing. Ah, well.
We walked along various roads and footpaths through farmland and finally reached our campsite, which was on a farm. It sadly didn't have a lake, but it did have a stunning view of the mountains.
We sat and I filmed a video of us talking about D of E; I hope to make a D of E film and might include some of what I filmed that evening.
We cooked and ate dinner, and drank lots of hot chocolate. Andrew cooked salted peanuts, and they were absolutely gorgeous - it brought back memories of my Silver D of E practice expedition when he did the same.
We ate and chatted and had an amazing last night in the Lakes. Then we got tucked up in bed - without any disco music or chickens to disturb us! Not that I minded either of the aforementioned earlier in the weekend, but it was nice to have some peace and quiet.
That night was so lovely; thank you to my wonderful team REAL for so many great memories.
Bring on the final day!
Thanks for reading,
Liz x
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