GOLD DUKE OF EDINBURGH DIARY

The 9^th of July had finally come. Ever since Ashdown and Wales I was not particularly looking forward to this date, but I kept telling myself that it was so long away I do not have to start worrying yet…but now it was here!

I woke up on the Saturday morning, not having slept too well that night due to worrying about the equipment that I have forgotten, and clambered out of my gorgeous, comfortable bed for the last time for 5 nights. I packed the last final things into my bag and set off to Reigate College. Here I met my other group members, and was relieved to hear that they were feeling just as nervous as I was. Fortunately we got the best bus, the Dunottar bus, and my mum had made a huge chocolate cake for that night, so without the thought of having to walk 80 Km in the next few days, I was feeling quite content.

When we arrived that evening at the campsite, to my surprise, spirits were still high, as I was shocked at the high standard of the place as it even had a shower. I would say that I was happy that there was a mirror there as well, but as time went on, the thought of looking in a mirror certainly did not put a good image in my mind!! That night we had an early night, and was feeling even happier as I had just eaten some chocolate cake, and I even found the tent quite cosy.

With no aches and no pains, we thought we would make good time for at least the first morning…But we were wrong. Within the first five minutes of walking we were all ready confused as to where we were, but with our positive attitudes, managed to overcome this slight problem and carried on, on our way. At about 9.00am my first dilemma had arisen. I had fallen into a bog up to my waist; in fact, some of my other group members couldn’t even see me! I was soon heaved out of this bog, but was now drenched. My underwear, walking boots, socks and trousers were dripping wet, and I new that my boots were not going to dry for the rest of the time, which definitely did not please me. At the next checkpoint, I took off my boots, emptied the water and squeezed my socks out, so at least I wasn’t walking in a boot full of water. As the day carried on, our spirits seemed to drop considerably. This was partly due to our discovery of CLUMPS!! None of us had any idea that the terrain was going to be quite like this, and we all found it impossible, especially Claire who was crying all ready.

After walking a long 20Km, we arrived at the ‘campsite’. I thought I was going to feel such relief as we had completed the first day, but the sight of a field full of midges and just a stream for water did not meet my expectations. But even so, we got our tents up and got cooking. That night we were having rice and lentils. Not having ever had lentils before, I was just looking forward to eating something hot. I know I am most definitely not a fussy eater, but this was just too much, and I found myself refusing food for the first time in many years! We talked about the day, and the overall impression was that we were all finding it a lot harder than we had ever imagined. Unfortunately Guy had hurt his knee and wasn’t going to carry on, but Miss Massey gave him some drugs and a stick and put up with it for the rest of the time.

The second day we were all dreading the most. This was because we could not see how we were going to walk 26km in one day. Being eaten alive by the midges at Teinhead, we got off to an early start at 6.30am. We were pleased that we were walking on footpaths for some of the day, so the clumps did not affect us too much. We were all struggling most with the heat; we were dripping with sweat and my white shirt had all ready gone a brown, yellow colour. We did not get lost that day, and with fewer clumps you would think that I would have found it easier than the first. But I did not. That day I had fallen in 2 prickly bushes, so had thorns all in my hands and waist; but I also think the thought of 2 more days of hell was a major part to the unhappy feeling that I was experiencing. I found this day the toughest as the distance was so long. We walked for 14 hours so finally arrived at our wild camp, which was at a reservoir, at 8.30pm that evening. Just before we arrived the terrain got worse, but this time the clumps weren’t our enemy, but the bog was. Alex and Simon both found themselves suddenly dropping down to beyond knee height in thick bog, and so just as we got to the reservoir they got drenched. We were all absolutely exhausted. With blisters smothering our feet, we wanted to go to bed as early as possible that evening. This was later than we wanted and was 10.00pm, but at least we had a good meal that night of pasta and Dolmio sauce.

The third day we also set off early to try and do some of the walking before the heat had reached maximum. Half an hour into the day, we reached clumps, clumps and more clumps, but also with a steep hill. This did not please any of us, especially Claire who was still crying. I still had the thought of dropping out in my mind, because although the end seems so close now, it seemed so far at the time. The heat was still challenging all of us, and I was least pleased by the fact that all my chocolate bars had melted so I could not even tuck into a nice piece of chocolate, but never the less we all ploughed on. We were feeling very confident with our map work at this stage, as apart from on the first day in the first 5 minutes, we had not got lost since, but this soon changed. We were meant to reach a place called stone circle, but we never found it. We believed that if we just walked north we would eventually come to a river that would take us to the correct place. So that’s what we did. We walked north and continued walking north. Our suspicions soon grew as we had now walked north for about 2 hours and still hadn’t found a river. Fortunately we then came across pink group who told us where we were…and this was depressing. We were the wrong side of the river so we had walked for 2 hours in the wrong direction. Apart from Clare, who was still crying, none of us had yet cried for the whole expedition, but I think we now were all very close. We had a 20-minute break for lunch where we were, and after collecting ourselves together again, set off in the correct direction.

At about 4.00pm we finally saw Nick, who seemed as relieved as we were. We made our way back to the campsite safely, apart from getting lost in Sheepstor itself, and were pleased to see that it was our nicest campsite so far. We set up our tents, and to our amazement we saw our examiner for the first time. During the expedition we were all rather concerned that we had not seen him, as we were most worried about who was going to sign our books! I don’t quite know what got into Alex and I that evening but we were both hysterical, laughing at even the silliest of things. I now think this was because we were so tired that I could not do anything else but laugh. Unfortunately that night, after we were congratulating Guy on getting so far with his bad knee, he turned very ill. He did not manage to get any sleep that evening, as he vomited all night, and as we were so close to finishing we all felt such sympathy for him as he felt he could not walk the last day. When Martin came to pick him up in the morning, yet again, he was persuaded to continue walking for the last 15km.

So we set off for the last morning, Guy now having even more drugs for sickness as well as his knee. After 1km Guy vomited again, and I just couldn’t see how he was going to continue…but he did! With the thought of only having 14km to go, we were counting down the km, and our spirits were rising. We walked over clumps and hills until 3.30, and then…we had made it!!! I couldn’t believe that I had actually reached the end, and even today I still can’t believe that I completed it. The pain of my feet and hips was still immense, but this was being covered by the thrill of completing the expedition. We were taken back to our first campsite, and I was so relieved to see it again. I have never been so desperate to wash my hair and have a shower as I was then. I took near an hour to un-mat my dread locked hair, but the feeling of getting the sweat off me was amazing. That evening we went out to a restaurant, and I have never tasted such a good burger and chips!!!

I can safely say that it was the hardest thing that I have ever done in my whole entire life, and I truly hope I won’t ever be faced with a challenge so hard again. But having now completed the expedition, the sense of achievement is so great and I am glad that I managed to rise to the challenge.