Assessed expedition day 2: Ullswater

 Hello!

 This blog post will tell you about the second day of our assessed expedition in the North Lakes for our Gold Duke of Edinburgh's Award.

 We had camped by the side of Ullswater the night before (see previous post) and we got up in the morning, had breakfast, packed, took the tents down and embarked on the next part of our journey.

 Today's walk would take us to the other side of Ullswater - from which the disco last night had entertained us. We would then walk away from the lake for a bit to reach our campsite.

 The first leg of our journey was up and down a lot of slopes overlooking the lake; it was a hard trek, but pleasant, as the lake made a nice view. We stopped for a while at a nice viewpoint and watched boats on the lake.

 We then descended the hill and stopped to have our lunch right by the water's edge. It was lovely and relaxing and a nice break from the tough walk.

 We set off again, still following the lake, through fields and woodland - we encountered some nice ducks - and there was the moment when we forgot to post our check-point card on a fence and had to run back and do it before the leaders wondered where we had got to!

 We climbed some hills, and had to cross through a chicken farm which was a rather surreal and slightly creepy experience: all the chickens, on seeing us approach, came washing towards us a a huge wave.

 We were surrounded by this crowd of chickens, each one making a lot of noise, which when combined had the effect of a slightly spooky moaning sound. It is arguably the most bizarre thing I have encountered on any D of E expedition.

 Fortunately, we survived the chickens, and were nearing our destination. The rough ground became smooth campsite grass - blissful to walk on!

 We found our spot in one of the best campsites I have been in with regards to facilities - the shower room was really nice, and although we didn't have a lake to go and visit this time, it was in quite a pleasant setting.

 Ruth and I were very excited to see a rainbow! A good omen perhaps! And there was an amusing incident when some of the lads from the group from my college had their tent invaded by chickens!

 So for us, three bird-related encounters - one with ducks and two with chickens - in one day!

 This campsite also had a playground, and Andrew and Luke went off to play on the swings, leaving me and Ruth to do the washing up. However, when Richard found out, he made the lads come back and do the washing up! So Ruth and I could sit back and relax, which was really nice.

 We had a really nice night there; it is certainly a campsite I will bear in mind for if I ever go walking in that part of the Lakes again.

 So, that was Ullswater! Remember to check this blog to learn how the rest of our trip went!

 Thanks for reading!

 Liz x

Assessed expedition day 1: Kirkstone Pass

 Hello!

 In my previous posts I have told the story of our practice expedition and preparation for our assessed expedition. Now I will tell you all about the big weekend itself! (Well, a weekend of sorts that ended on a Tuesday.)

 The group met on Saturday morning at my then college, as a group from there were also doing their expedition that weekend. We enjoyed a pleasant journey up to Ambleside.

 Ambleside is not my favourite Lake District town; it is too tourist-orientated for my liking, but it looked quite pretty on this summer's day. After we had sorted out kit, maps and compasses, we walked out of Ambleside and up a path on a wooded slope.

 We walked through the woods for a while, got slightly confused about which was the right path to take out of the woods; we found it in the end and it took us along a country road that provided us with some very pretty views of the hills and farmland. We also saw a lot of sheep.

 We reached the famous Kirkstone Pass, and had a big climb to get to the famous Kirkstone Pass Inn, (the "inn with altitude," as it calls itself on its website) which we sat outside for a bit.

 However, the Lake District weather again proved its unpredictability in going from a lovely sunny day to us getting soaking wet in a completely spontaneous downpour. We quickly scrambled into waterproofs and set off again.

 Despite the weather, I could really appreciate the beauty of the area. We walked on, following the Pass, and for me it was one of the nicest parts of the trip, especially when the weather dried up again.

 We could see the sun shining in the distance in the V of the Pass, and that golden glow was a nice thing to be heading for.

 We walked on along country lanes and footpaths through the hills, played I-spy for a bit, and, as seems to be the trope on this Gold D of E, saw a lot of foxgloves. In fact, foxgloves was one of my I-spy words (Ruth guessed it).

 We reached our destination, a little camp site by Lake Ullswater that seemed to be attached to a farm. It was really hot and sunny when we got there, but got cooler later in the evening.

 We met Joan's dog, Ollie, a lovely fluffy thing, and Richard came to check up on us - Richard was our assessor for this expedition.

 We cooked dinner - Ruth and I shared some vegetable chilli dip - would that be chilli sin carne? - and I made some hot chocolate.

 We then all went down to the lake as we had done that night at Coniston. There was a boat moored called Jim or something like that, which surprised us as boats usually have female names. Maybe Jim was the owner?

 There was some building or boat on the other side of the lake that was playing really loud music - we could hear it perfectly a whole lake away! - and continued to do so into the night, so we fell asleep to such classics as Livin' On A Prayer and Sweet Child of Mine.

 It was a nice evening and the time we spent by the lake and falling asleep that night to 80s music are among my favourite memories of our assessed expedition.

 Thank you for reading this blog entry; watch this space to hear about the rest of our assessed expedition!

 Liz x

In between days

 Hello!

 We completed our practice expedition on Sunday (see previous post) and the next Saturday we had our assessed expedition. In the days in between - hence the title - I had a lot to do to prepare for our final expedition.

 First I went with my Mam to a big outdoor activities shop in Bolton called Decathlon where I got a waterproof poncho (good for wearing at camp if it is raining), a fleecy cardigan (good for wearing at camp to keep warm) and finally, perhaps most importantly, a pair of walking poles. They proved indispensable during our assessed expedition.

 We also bought some Kendal Mint Cake - I love Kendal Mint Cake. 

 I remember on my Silver D of E expedition we came across a couple in the hills; the woman explained that the man was diabetic and badly in need of something sugary to eat. I offered him a Kendal Mint Cake and afterwards his wife said he was feeling better and the mint cake really helped! 

 So there you have it, Kendal Mint Cake is another indispensable piece of kit for D of E and could even save a life.

 After our shopping trip, there was route-planning session for the group - now christened REAL, standing for Ruth, Elizabeth, Andrew and Luke.

 We worked together to work out the best routes to take to get from each campsite to the next and to mark them on the maps. We also had to fill in route cards; for each leg of the journey we had to estimate how long it would take us, and say how many kilometres we would travel and when we intended to have our rests and stop for lunch.

 We had good fun and it was really nice spending time with the others in a more relaxed environment than trekking through the mountains. I felt that we were becoming stronger and stronger as a group as we got to know each other better.

 We were ready to set out on our assessed expedition! Bring on Saturday!

 Thanks for reading,

 Liz x

Practice expedition day 3: Bouth

 Hello!

Bouth's finest!

 We woke up on the third and final day of our practice expedition in that lovely Coniston campsite where we had spent a wonderful evening the night before (see previous post).

 We packed, put down tents, had breakfast (though annoyingly I spilt half my cereal on the ground - I ate a couple of mini brioche rolls to make up for it), washed dishes and were soon heading back out of Coniston village.

 We walked for a while through a wooded area along the lake, then climbed out of the wood and into the hills.

 We groaned a bit when we saw the hilliness of the next leg of our journey, but it turned out to be quite enjoyable. We saw rabbits and sheep and it was quite nice being up in the hills and able to pretend for a bit that the rest of the world wasn't there; that we were in our own little world.

 We then climbed up further, and it started to drizzle, and "We Don't Need Another Hero," by Tina Turner, came into my head for some reason and spurred me on to keep climbing though it was getting tiring and we were getting wet.

 We had a stretch of mountain where we kept meeting the same group of bikers, which was quite amusing: they would pass us, then they would stop and rest and we would pass them, then we would stop and rest and they would pass us.

 At the top of this climb was a tarn, and it was nice to sit by it for a bit and relax and have a chat, and get to know each other a bit better.

 We then set off again; after a bit of debate over which way we were meant to go we ended up following an old path down the hill, and gradually found ourselves leaving the wilderness of the mountains for farmland - but we still didn't see many people, maybe because it was still raining on and off.

 We finally reached a little town and a lady offered to fill up our water bottles, which was nice of her. We were not sure of the right direction to go in to leave the village, so we did a bit of exploring which was cut short by the heavens opening and rain pouring down in absolute buckets.

 We all huddled together trying to eat our lunches without them - and us - getting soaked. In the end Joan and Wayne thankfully found us and put up a little shelter for us to eat under, and then the rain seemed to ease off a bit and, having found the right path, we continued on our journey.

 We ended up in a wood, where there was some extremely tiring climbing, but it was a really nice place to be. I like the Lake District because there are such contrasting landscapes so close to one another. We had gone from the lake to the mountains to farmland to woodland. The huge variety makes the days seem a lot longer and fuller.

 We had entered the wood after a lot of rain and came out of the wood into bright sunlight; Lake District weather! We were in a nice little meadow and could hear the traffic on the road below. We then had a huge debate over whether we were in the right place and which way to go, and we eventually chose a route.

 We walked through fields, climbed over the dodgiest stile I have ever encountered, asked a farmer if we were on the right path, and ended up walking through countryside until we reached a little village where we knew we were in the right place but had to climb a steep hill to reach the village church.

 Someone handed out winegum-type things which were well-received, and we rested for a bit outside the church. Wayne quizzed us on the purpose of a block of stone that we eventually decided was probably a mounting block for visitors to the church to get on and off their horses.

 We had one last leg to go after the church, which took us through another wooded area to the village of Bouth, where Christine McVie was born!

I wish I had her voice!

 Our journey was complete, and as we sat in the pub car park taking our walking boots off and sorting out our kit, I realised that I was really lucky to have such an amazing group of people to be doing my Gold Duke of Edinburgh's Award expedition with. And I felt a lot more confident about our assessment weekend than I had done on Friday morning.

 Bring on the assessment weekend! I felt like I could face the world that day.

 A special thank you to Joan who gave me a lot of really good tips and advice about packing rucksacks, and who was very kind and patient with me over the weekend.

 I hope you, my reader, have enjoyed reading about my D of E journey so far; remember to watch this space to hear how things went on our assessed expedition.

 Thank you for reading my blog,

 Liz x

Practice expedition day 2: Coniston

 Hello readers!

 Today I will recount the second day of our practice expedition, the evening of which was one of the most amazing, lovely times I have ever had on D of E.

 We got up and packed at Rydal Hall campsite, where we had spent the previous night, and Ruth arrived; it was great to see her. We then set off as a group down the hill from Rydal Hall and into the woods, retracing the start of yesterday's route.

 The lake looked very beautiful in the still of the morning, and I remembered how lucky we are to get the chance to do D of E and see such beautiful places as the lakes and mountains and forests of the Lake District.

 We climbed up into the mountains, where our route left the one from yesterday and we were navigating new terrain. We climbed through the mountains, and as the day went on it became more and more beautiful. There were foxgloves everywhere, and the sheer heat of the afternoon and the colour of the mountains and the sky and the greenery reminded me of Provence as I have seen it in Jean de Florette, La Gloire de Mon Père etc... I remember being amazed that you could have a little bit of the south of France in the north of England.

 The heat got a bit much for me at one point when we were up a mountain and I felt very unwell and headachey. Luckily this began to wear off as we made our descent, aided by Wayne and Joan as this was a particularly tricky bit of mountain. However, for most of today we were on our own, without the instuctors, to make sure we could navigate for ourselves.

 Although I felt ill, that magical little place in the mountains will still remain in my mind as one of the most stunning places we visited. The group even saw a deer (although I missed it)! And of course there was the amusement of, "Who's that standing on the top of that mountain? Oh, it's Wayne and Joan!" and then calling out to them and them hearing us, because that's how easily sound can travel when you're that high up. Very Gloire de Mon Père!

 After we were down from that mountain Joan and Wayne left us to get back to Coniston by ourselves. This was a nice walk, but it was still nice to reach the village of Coniston and know that soon we could rest! I had been to Coniston once a long time ago, so it was nice to see a bit more of the place. We walked through the village streets, glad that we were nearly at our destination.

Finally we got to the campsite, and at first I was a bit disconcerted by how huge it was. Would I be able to find my way in the dark if I had to? However, a place that seems big at first can often seem smaller once you get to know it better, and that was the case with our campsite. I soon learnt where everything was, and we set up our tents for the night.

 We made our meals in a little shelter that had been put up specially, as it was threatening rain. I had carbonara pasta, and I had forgotton how much I loved carbonara until that moment. It was so tasty, and now eating carbonara always brings me back to that moment, sitting in a shelter in the rain on a campsite in Coniston, enjoying my dinner with Ruth, Andrew and Luke. Ruth and I also shared a chocolate pudding which was delicious.

 Ruth had made a tin of millionaire's shortbread, which was gorgeous and just what we all needed after a hard day's walking and climbing. The four of us went down to the edge of the lake- it had stopped raining by now - and gazed out at its dark glassy surface and chatted about all sorts of things. That was a lovely moment.

 When we came back from the lake, Ruth and I went to do our washing up and then we all sat in the shelters in our bare feet (with trainers on hand for when we had to get up!) or flip-flops, and we ate more shortbread and listened to Wayne and Joan's stories of D of E expeditions past and present. I think it is safe to say that there is never a dull moment when you are a D of E instructor. Maybe one day I could be one... It is certainly something I would consider.

 That night was amazing and I feel that the four of us really bonded and got to know each other as friends, not just as expedition-mates.

 Tomorrow would be the final day of our practice expedition, and I was really beginning to think that I could do this; that I could get through all three days without giving up from homesickness. I had three great friends and two brilliant instructors, and I felt that together we could get through this last day and come home smiling and ready for the assessed expedition.

 Bring on Sunday!

 Thanks for reading

 Liz x

Practice expedition day 1: Rydal

 Hello, my readers!

 Today I am going to tell you about our D of E Gold Practice Expedition. It was from the 6th - 8th July 2012 and took place in the South Lakes of the Lake District.

 I'd enjoyed previous D of E expeditions, but had often found myself getting very homesick, so I was quite nervous, wondering whether I would be homesick again this time.

 Also, it was a long time since I had last been on a D of E expedition, so I was hoping I was fit enough to get through all that walking in the mountains. I do a lot of exercise, but even if you are fit, a D of E expedition is very hard work and a shock to the system (in my experience).

 So, I was slightly nervous as my dad drove me up to Rydal, our starting point for the first day (which was a Friday, by the way). We listened to 1980s music in the car, including "We Don't Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)" by Tina Turner, which managed to get stuck in my head later in the weekend.

 We got to Rydal Hall camp site, our starting point, where we had lunch and had our rucksacks checked for weight, then we set off on a mini expedition on a round route that would get us back to Rydal Hall camp site where we would spend that first night.

 There were three of us at this point: Luke, Andrew and me. Ruth would be joining us first thing on Saturday. Our instructors Joan and Wayne walked with us that first day, assessing our map reading and navigation skills.

 First we navigated our way out of Rydal, through a foresty area, past Rydal Water and up into the hills, where we had lovely views of Grasmere Water.

 This photo is from the Internet but it is the same beautiful view that we had. 

 I wished we would be going through the village of Grasmere, as I love it, but sadly we didn't.

 We saw so many foxgloves in those hills. That was probably the biggest factual thing (alongside many emotional things) I learnt on the expedition: how many foxgloves there are in the Lake District. The answer being: a LOT.

 I mean, I have foxgloves in my garden. I had thought they were garden flowers; I hadn't thought they were hardy enough to grow all over mountains, but clearly they are. Foxgloves have gone up in my estimation.

 We then walked through another foresty area, past a tarn, and into another lot of hills. These hills are my defining memory of this first day; it felt so mysterious and lonely up there; just hills, hills and more hills. It felt like we were on the edge of the Earth.

 There was some debate about what qualified as a footbridge and what didn't, and Wayne tested us with teasers such as, "How many lakes are there in the Lake District?" You will find the answer at the bottom of this post.

 Eventually we got back to Rydal, where we each cooked our evening meal on our trangia. Mine was pasta in tomato sauce; I'd had it before on D of E expeditions and it brought back memories, most prominently of my night at the epic Gibraltar Farm campsite on my Silver expedition.

 I loved that campsite, but Rydal Hall could give it a run for its money! It's a really nice, comfortable campsite, and it had this air of quietness and tranquillity when we were there.

 I phoned home, and texted my friend Kylie. I did my teeth etcetera and then went to bed in my little tent.

 I had to get up in the night to go to the toilet, and the night sky was so beautiful; the moon was so bright, highlighting the edges of the silver clouds, and the sky a deep blue, and it was altogether gorgeous and very dramatic and I'm glad I got the chance to see that sky.

 That was the end of Day 1 of our practice expedition. It went well; I was homesick at times but I survived. Wayne and Joan were brilliant, as were Luke and Andrew, and I couldn't have had a better group of people to do this expedition with. Tomorrow Ruth would be coming, and I was really looking forward to that - she seemed lovely at the training day, and it would be nice to have our team complete.

 Hopefully the second day of our practice expedition would be as enjoyable as the first.

 Thanks for reading,

 Liz x

 PS. There is only one lake in the Lake District: Bassenthwaite Lake. All the other bodies of water are Meres, Waters or tarns.

Training, planning and preparation

 Hello!

 Once I had decided to undertake my Gold Duke of Edinburgh's Award expedition in summer 2012, there was a lot of planning and preparation to do. I started doing a lot more walking on a day-to-day basis; for example I would get off my bus a stop early.

 I also worked on my general fitness by playing badminton, exercising and attending zumba classes. I feel that all of these things helped to build up my stamina and fitness.

 We had our first expedition meeting, where I met the team for the first time. There would be five of us - Ruth, Andrew, Luke, Ethan and me. However, Ethan had to drop out because he was ill, which of course is a huge shame for him, and also for us because he's really nice and would have been a great member of our team.

 So, we ended up being a group of four. I really liked the first impressions I had of the others, and was glad I was part of such a nice group.

 The next thing that happened was our training day, which we had with Dave and Wayne, two of our D of E instructors. We learnt so much in one day: map skills, navigating and compass technique, first aid, campcraft, what food to bring, how to pack a rucksack, and much more.

 A lot of it I had learnt for my Silver D of E, but there was some new info as well which I found really useful, and it was good to refresh the older stuff in my memory.

 We also picked up our rucksacks and equipment like tents, waterproof clothing and trangias (the small gas stoves we use for cooking our food at camp).

 For homework we had to learn about the Countryside Code, which I did, and I found it very interesting and learnt a few things about it I hadn't known.

 I really enjoyed the training day; Dave and Wayne made it fun as well as informative. I felt much more ready for my Gold expedition once I'd had that training day.

 After the training day we had a week until our practice expedition. I went out with my mum to buy some last-minute bits and pieces, such as spare walking socks and Kendal mint cake. I decided what clothes, food and snacks to bring, and then I packed my rucksack according to what we'd learnt on the training day.

 I felt physically ready for the expedition; it was emotionally where I was worried - I was scared I would get homesick as I had in the past on D of E expeditions. But only time would tell; for now I just had to hope for the best.

 Bring on the practice expedition!

 Thanks for reading,

 Liz x