My Gold DofE qualifying expedition experience
Day 1 - I started the day by double checking my bag to see if I had left anything out. After this I knew I had to face the challenge on my Gold DofE. When I was in the car, I anticipated what type of people I would have in my group. Just before we arrived, I had bought some Oreos biscuits to break the ice with my group. When upon arriving, I was welcomed with open arms from the entire group and within the first 15 minutes we ate through all the Oreos! When sitting around my group, I had recognized a person from my Silver DofE which was a great surprise. From the first day I knew it was going to be a great time.
Day 2 started with the birds chirping and the sun gradually waking me up to a great day ahead. My team and I packed our tents and bags away to get ready to go on the walk. As we ate breakfast we discussed what the best song to sing on the way to the next campsite, and we all agreed on Wannabe by the Spice Girls! So we headed off to the next campsite with high spirits to get us through the day and when walking we played such games as eye spy and guess who. When we had stopped for lunch we played top trumps with our food by seeing who had the most calories, fibre, sugar etc. When we arrived to the next campsite we were the first group there so we came up with an idea to hide so the other group arrived first but that plan backfired as they saw us scheming the idea. Then as night fell we all got into our tents and listened to all the birds chirping so we all got a rough night's sleep from that!
Day 3 was a rough start to the day with the birds all night nonstop chirping. So we packed our stuff away and had breakfast and from then we went from grumpy to happy because of the route because we got to see the most luxurious houses! Throughout the day it got progressively hotter so our group put our sunscreens on and were ready to take on the heat. At mid-day it hit a scorching 27 degrees, so walking was not favorable in these conditions. However, we all persevered and tried to keep our morale high. At lunchtime, we were at a top of a hill and sat under a tree and we were mesmerised of the view, a memory not to forget. The scene was beautiful fields and blue sky. This time at lunchtime we looked forward to some cold food. When we got to the campsite after tackling a long steep hill and we finally sat down and gazed up at the sky. By this time the weather had cooled down, so it was a good feeling. When eating after we pitched our tents, we all sat in a big circle and laughed and joked. This was by far the best day I had on my DofE.
Day 4 The final day. Whoopee! Our group decided to wake up extra early to get the day over and done with to go home. So we set off on our final walk at 7 o’clock. When we set off, we only thought about home in minds as we stepped closer to home. This was our motive, so we just walked and walked and got very tired and agreed on only having 5 minute breaks. Collectively we all then thought this was a bad idea, so we paced ourselves and had a very nice lunch sitting down and just relaxing instead of constant running around like headless chickens. Our designated map reader now told us we were only 3k from the final point. We were so happy to hear this news, our last four days of memories came into our heads. For example, the bonds that we made were very strong and the laughs and jokes we had were funnier than they were. When we got to the final road, we were filled with so much joy that we were itching to go. Finally, we crossed the road and then jumped with joy that we had completed our Gold DofE. Thinking this, we are now in that 1 percent of people that have done their Gold DofE. The saddest thing was departing from our group we had spent so many hours together and a bond that we forged with laughter and hard work. It was sad to go but it is part of me now and I will never forget how much fun I had. You can say this experience if type 2 fun (miserable while it’s happening, but fun in retrospect).
I would also like to thank the staff for their encouragement for helping me to get through this.
-Dil
