I will tell you all about the final day of our Gold Duke of Edinburgh's Award assessed expedition, in which we were heading for Keswick.
Our route took us across fields, up hills, through forest and across a lake, and which was one of the most enjoyable days of the whole expedition (practice and assessed).
We woke up at our lovely camp site and set off through the farm to which the camp site was attached. Soon we were climbing a green hill, where we encountered several sheep.
We walked through the hills, and across a meadow, then we reached the road where we stopped for a quick rest. We then waked for a while following the road before leaving it to climb a light slope through a field.
We ended up in a little village, and walked down lovely country lanes until we reached a huge hill we had to climb.
I shuddered at the prospect of such a climb, but then told myself that the sooner I got on with it, the sooner it would be over. It wasn't a treacherous climb in any way, just very strenuous. However, we kept plodding on, and finally could stop and relax at the top where we had a really nice view.
We then walked for a while through the hills, it was lovely being so high up; it felt like we were walking on top of the world. It was so peaceful and quiet up there; just us and the scenery and the odd hiker passing us.
We climbed down from the hills and our route took us though some woodland. It was a real beauty spot, with gorgeous views of the lake and surrounding hills.
I also saw shapes in the hillside which reminded me so much of a mother goat and a baby goat! Whether they were carved deliberately or not I do not know.
We then had a bit of a rush through the woods to be on time to catch our ferry across Lake Windermere. I didn't like rushing and felt a bit unhappy as we traversed the lake; however after we had eaten our lunch and chatted as a group on the other side I felt better.
I was the group's navigator for a bit, guiding us along a path through some woodland where sadly we encountered a dead rabbit. We got a bit lost but then found our path, which lead us into thicker woodland.
We walked for a while through the woods, talking about films and the Lake District among other subjects. We had a fairly clear path at this point, so we could afford to focus less on navigating and more on bonding as a group.
When we left the woods - after negotiating our way through a tricky bit of muddy ground - we found ourselves on the road to Keswick, our final destination. We passed through a pretty village, then saw some farm workers training a horse to pull a cart, which was really interesting.
The landscape was really stunning and green.
We kept on going until we reached the Cumberland Pencil Museum, which was our destination. We had done it! We had completed four days walking in the hills and three nights camping!
I was so amazed by what I personally had achieved. Considering that at the start of the practice expedition I was really homesick and didn't think I could make it through three days away from home; in the end I made it through seven. I was really proud and happy.
Of course, we had to have our picture taken outside the Cumberland Pencil Museum - we had made it to our destination! We were four tired, but very happy people.
While we were waiting for the other D of E group to arrive, Ruth and I had a little mooch around Keswick; Ruth knows the town and showed me around, which was really nice.
We were then summoned back to the pencil museum as the other group had arrived which meant we could go home. Happy as I was to be going home, I knew I would miss the Lake District and my amazing group, REAL.
We got back to college, I was reunited with my Mam, and we went home. The end of a brilliant camping trip.
I will do one more post on this blog talking about what I have learnt from this whole experience, so watch this space!
For now I will say that my Gold Duke of Edinburgh's Award expedition stretched me to the limit and made me realise how much I was capable of if I just kept going and believed in myself and in my group.
Thanks for reading,
Liz x
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