My D Of E Adventure
Nearly six years ago I was told about the Duke Of Edinburgh Award, and how it would help me to meet new people, as well as looking good on my CV for potential employers.
So, in September of 2004 I went along to the Newport Info Shop and met Sharron and Mike.
They told me about the wonders of doing the D Of E and how it would help me to develop new skills and meet lots of new people wanting to do the same as me.
So, this is my story.
There weren’t many people in my group, so I decided to rope in two of my friends from school, Aaron and Alun. We soon became a formidable force to be reckoned with whilst completing our bronze and silver awards. We were always at the front of our walking groups, and our navigation was almost perfect.
There were a few occasions when someone else decided to navigate, and we ended up either lost or on a circle path (no names mentioned *cough Stephan cough*), but otherwise we fashioned ourselves as the A-Team of the open award.
After we completed our silver, and with a few new faces joining the ranks, we soon found ourselves going for gold. Now, as part of the gold award we had to complete something called a residential project, which involved us staying away from home for five days with people we didn’t know, and completing a shared activity.
The three of us ended up joining a group from Ringland, and a few others, and staying in a bunkhouse in the Brecon Beacons (which by now we had practically walked all over), and we were to complete a peer mentoring course.
The first day involved a day at the Llangorse Rope Centre where we ‘bonded’ as a group. To begin with, we thought, “oh god, what have we let ourselves into”, but they weren’t as bad as we first thought.
Over the next few days we walked yet more of the Beacons and walked to the top of Pen-y-Fan and Cefen Coed. The next night we were told to pack a torch, compass and something warm to wear as we were going to do a spot of night walking in a field with only a compass to guide us. We were split into small groups of four and sent out at staggered times.
Then, on the final morning, the small group that me, Aaron and Alun had shared a room with, which included Will and Russell, decided to have one last wander on the Beacons, but one that involved watching the sun rise. So at the crack of dawn whilst the rest of the house was still tucked up in their warm cosy beds, we jumped into the bus and headed for Storey Arms. It was cold and slightly misty but the result was well worth it.
Once we had come back and had one of John's famous breakfasts we packed our bags, exchanged MSN and phone numbers with one another and we went our separate ways. We organised a practice expedition in the October of 2008, but after a day of being continuously rained on and looking at the snow-peaked hill tops we decided that it wasn’t going to happen.
It was around this time we had some new blood join us at the gold level in the form of Peter, Rob, Jodi, Aaron (not the same one), his mate and our new fearless leader, Iggi.
We soon decided that we wanted to trial an expedition, so we all set out to the Beacons yet again, and as before the rain was pestering us on the first day. We got to our first campsite and there was a break in the weather, so we were able to put the tents up in the relative dry. We had a nice evening swapping stories with Iggi and planning our next day of walking.
Again the rain stopped play, but this time it didn’t let off. The group decided to carry on walking, braving the elements. After fighting our way uphill we encountered a tree blocking our path which was quickly climbed over and round, only for us to come face to face with a rather swollen mountain stream. We managed to cross this with only a few of the team getting very wet feet. Needless to say, by the time we neared our second campsite an executive decision to pull the expedition had been made.
After being back on dry soil for a week or so I came up with an idea for our final expedition. We were tired of walking and it seemed to be rained off every time we attempted it, so why not beat nature to it and do an expedition on water? Everyone seemed happy with this, as it meant no large bags on our backs and we would be able to carry more luxury items.
So, in the April of 2009 we went to seek help with training for our water-based adventure. We turned to the Croesyceiliog Canoe Club who meet every Thursday at 19:30 (that’s 7:30 pm to those who don’t use 24-hour format) over in the International Sports Village. And so began what would become the best expeditions we had ever taken part in.
In April those of us who were left and dedicated to seeing this canoeing through to the end went up to Monmouth and jumped in some canoes and kayaks and gained our two star assessment. This meant that we were able to go out in boats on our own without the need of an instructor.
This then lead to a hectic few weeks of trying to plan a route and which rivers to use. We decided to stick to ones that we knew and were close to home and decided that for our practice we would use the Wye and the finally the mighty Severn. It took hour upon hour to perfect the route cards and find the right maps, but finally we had dates and a route.
So on the 20th July 2010 we set off down the Wye and yet again the heavens opened, up but we were undeterred. The first day turned out to be quite unforgiving. We had to literally get out of the boats and drag them into deeper water. The girls capsized twice and even the boys fell out of their boat. We finally crawled into camp at 22:30, ten and a half hours after leaving. But we weren’t going to let the river and rain defeat us. This was one practice that wasn’t going to be rained off.
The next day we decided to shorten the route and start further down, cutting out Hereford. The next campsite was easy to find and we were soon out of the water pitching up and deciding what to have for tea. We also bought a bag of firewood and had a small fire to sit by through the night and swap more stories and jokes. The final day brought sunshine and not a cloud in sight, so we quickly got on the water eager to finish and go home.
After a week of rest on the 1st August we set out up to Welshpool ready to tackle the Severn the next day. We stayed in the garden of a rather nice pub and even had the privilege of sleeping inside. We had a full breakfast and by 10:00 we were on the water ready to start. With boats fully laden we set off into the unknown.
After lots of twists and turns we encountered a tree in the way, but were able to push the boats over and limbo ourselves under it. This was nothing compared to what we met several more corners round. There was a tree blocking the route ahead and no way of getting over under or round it. It was down to us to move it, so we jumped in and were instantly up to our waists in cold fast moving water. It took us half an hour to dislodge the tree, and after we passed it decided to follow and block us from behind ready for the next group to tackle.
The second day didn’t start well for me. Once again I ended up in the cold water guiding the boats, keeping the bow end up to ensure that the boats didn’t fill with water straight away. Unfortunately I forgot I had my bag on my back and it was ruined. Then at Shrewsbury we had to unload the boats, drag them out of the water and carry everything around 150 yards to the put-in point the other side.
Day three started with heavy rain in the small hours of the morning, but this didn’t deter us. Even when we got to Ironbridge and the grade 2/3 rapids at Jackfield we were still highly confident. I went down first and after hitting a large white wall of water I was soon turned sideways and eventually backwards to the rest of the rapids, and continued down until I became lodged on some rocks that no paddling could shift. Using my legs I finally dislodged and we headed to camp number three.
Day four started with me in the water again (minus my bag) and we were off by 09:55. It was sunny all day and we were in high spirits looking forward to finishing and having that all important McDonalds. We stopped briefly in Bridge North to take team photos with us all wearing our team hats, and then powered through the last 16 or so kilometres to the finish point and loaded the boats back onto the trailer and all our stuff back onto the bus.
We were finally on the way home after completing our gold. We felt so good, all we could think about was those golden arches so after a bit of persuasion we convinced our driver to pull over and we all ran inside - the looks we got were great, with people thinking, 'what on earth are they wearing?' - but we didn’t care.
So if this hasn’t inspired you to take up the Duke Of Edinburgh then I don’t know what will, and if you actually read all of this then I am impressed.
Thanks for taking time out to read this, and I hope you will make your own adventures with the D Of E
Martyn J Smith (Smiffy)
Find out more about the Duke Of Edinburgh Award
1 Comment – Postiwch sylw
emb789
Rhoddwyd sylw 20 mis yn ôl - 10th September 2010 - 07:54am
Well done on doing so well with DofE! I've done bronze but I doubt I'll take it any further. I did my volunteering with the lovely people over at theSprout, which was good fun, and if they'll still have me, I'll probably carry on with that even though I don't need it for DofE any more!