DofE: Students rise to challenge

WELL done to our 28 Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award students, who all passed their qualifying expedition after a challenging two-day expedition in the Yorkshire Dales.

The students, divided into six groups, set off from Grassington and walked to Kettlewell, where they set up camp on day one. They then walked from Kettlewell to to Malham on the second day.

Each group planned slightly different routes, covering a total distance of around 25km, with 1000m of ascent.

RGS Duke of Edinburgh coordinator Ruth Smith said: “This is challenging country for Bronze, they were really working at Silver level. The participants walked really well on very hot sunny days, managing their water and loads and showing excellent teamwork.

“Their campcraft was good and orderly, and they were praised by the lead instructor on the final day 'Sincere thanks - absolutely brilliant - up by 6.30am and all departed by 8.17am.'

“The second day was definitely more challenging being higher, longer and out of communication for part of the time due to no mobile coverage. The teams looked after each other, encouraged each other and stuck together. I am very proud of them all!

The six groups all chose a different team goal to explore - animals & Birds, scenery of the Dales, a photograph using each letter of the alphabet, landscape, photo journey and flowers – and produced some amazing pictures, including a heron in flight!

Dr Smith added: “Having shown their evidence to the assessors, the 28 participants all successfully passed and these are some 'what three words' from them - and the their instructors:

Teamwork, energy, overtake

Sweaty, suncream, sun-dried tomatoes

Fantastic, eight, seventeen

Large, limestone, landscape

Wildflower, river, lambs

Cow, eating, tree

Classy, football, played

Huge, orange, moon

“Some pupil comments about the huge scale of the landscape and distance covered included: 'It was great looking back, have we come all that way?', 'I liked the scrambly gully', 'It's good when you can see the valley at the bottom' but the 'bugs' and the' cold at night' were not so good! (it got down to 4 degrees overnight). Seeing the sunrise over the hill at 6am was amazing.