27TH-28TH SEPTEMBER 1997
Many years ago (well, two, anyway) in a land far, far away (Ashdown Forest), we began our first Duke of Edinburgh qualifying expedition. Doing the expedition now we would no doubt find it laughably easy - just 15 miles over two days, slow walking speeds, almost totally flat terrain, nice September weather, no blisters, a late start, fresh food, planned rest stops on every leg, a toilet and shower block - how could we have found it a challenge at all?
Of course we were much less experienced then, and our map-reading skills were to say the least, rather rudimentary. On the practice expedition, we'd had a less than pleasurable encounter with the Vanguard Way, and finished up miles off our route, near Pooh Sticks Bridge. Our 'day walk' had seen Darrel's legendary cement soup. Of course, we still had Richard in our group at this time, making the journey all the more tiring, especially with the constant updates from the Ryder Cup that he insisted in giving up.
In the end, though, we muddled through, and some months later, we happily received our Bronze awards. We could not foresee though what the future would hold ...
11TH-13TH SEPTEMBER 1998
We all have rose-tinted memories of our Silver expedition in Ashdown Forest. We were dropped off at the oddly named Rufus Stone, then there was a relaxing day's walking via Longcross Pond and Gorley Bushes to the well-equipped campsite. Ponies roaming free in the forest, marvellous weather, ice-cream vans parked in convenient places ... what more could you want on an expedition?
For the first time we'd mastered keeping to the route, and the wide, well-marked paths helped us on our way. In fact, we got so far ahead of schedule in some places, we ended up playing Wisbee (Frisbee) in between stages. The only thing that marred the expedition was the freeze-dried food we brought for one of our main meals, the most generous (printable) verdict being it tasted like rabbit food.
Despite this, everyone agreed this was our most enjoyable expedition yet. Things could only get worse - and at Gold, we would find out they would, with a vengeance.
Our previous experiences of route planning had always been very very long and very very dull. This time was to be no exception. We decided to do the route- planning in one marathon stint, so it was off to Darrel's house, compass, maps and piece of string in hand. After tearing ourselves away from playing FIFA '99 om Darrel's PC, we got down to business. This time, we were determined not to make the mistakes we had made in the Brecon Beacons. Firstly, we slowed down our predicted pace of walking considerably, from an unachievable 4km/h to 3.1km/h, plus 1.5 minutes per 10m ascent. (This was pretty easy, we just added on more time.) Secondly, we tried to avoid climbing up very steep hills (not so easy, since the Yorkshire Moors seem full of hills and valleys).
Soon our maps were criss-crossed by pieces of string, pencil marks, miniature flags (about the only fun part of route-planning) and assorted bits of Blu-Tack. Adam had the fun job of copying all the information I was gathering on to the route cards. Darrel meanwhile was hard at work, winning 2-1 against Andrew in the World Cup Final ...
Several hours later and we were still at work. "Then to path junction at 239 467" "Don't you mean 467 239?" "Probably - oops sorry, 468 239" "Brilliant. Got any Tippex?" "167 degrees" "Have you added on the four degrees?" "Mag to grid add or something" "2.3 k" "Shouldn't we break this leg in half somewhere?" "No. Hang on, this Blu-Tack's stuck" "Where are we camping again?" "Along path to road junction, then across stream" "I didn't get a description for the last one" "This is the last one" "What about an escape?" "There isn't one. How about Howldale Rigg Cottage" "How d'you spell it?"
That was just one of the fifty or so legs we had to complete, aside from the measuring, calculating and eventual typing up, formatting, checking and printing. After this, the expedition would be a breeze. Little did we know ...