This last week I’ve been over in the Brecon Beacons helping run a Gold DofE training for a lovely school from Ockbrook. We had 2 teams of girls making the long journey over from near Derby. They were well equipped and well prepared (and pre-trained) thanks to Simon, the teacher and school DofE coordinator bringing them over. They arrived at Glyntawe on a sunny day but the weather wasn’t to stay like that!
A bit of a baptism of fire for the team, and they soon realised Gold DofE was a big step up from Silver! The winds on the first day were strong, but visibility good, and the team did loads of ascent with their big expedition sacks and we had a lovely journey re-capping the navigation and risk assessing skills they already knew, relating them to a more mountainous environment. Only 1 hat blew away in the wind so all in all a good day!
Day 1 of our Gold DofE training
Days 2 and 3 took us East over the Brecon Beacons, staying at some lovely secluded campsites and enjoying slightly less ascent than day 1, but over lots of great hills with fantastic scenery. The teams were honing their navigation skills and getting more independence from us, good preparation for their Gold DofE expedition where they’ll be on their own and remotely supervised.
Heading up Corn Du in a blizzard on the Gold DofE training
The last day of our Gold DofE training saw us heading over the highest peaks of the range, and a very wintery Corn Du and Pen Y Fan! A bit of a shock to the system to have blizzard conditions in South Wales in April! The girls coped amazingly and it gave them good opportunities to practise walking on bearings and other nav skills. They really all came together and put in a fantastic effort to stay positive in the conditions and complete their training. Well done girls and I look forward to seeing you for the qualifying expedition!
Gold DofE summit team photo!