DofE expedition take 2

Hi guys! Last weekend I did my final expedition for my Bronze Duke of Edinburgh and it was such a good weekend! At first I wasn't really looking forward to going, with storms forecast and the prospect of having to hike for hours, it's safe to say I wasn't exactly 'buzzing' to go. We set off to our destination, piling into teacher-driven cars after a school mini-bus malfunction, arriving at our start point just as the heavens opened. So with anoraks on, armed with giant rucksacks containing everything from tents to pots and pans, and with our map and compass we started our first walk of the weekend.

Unfortunately I fell over while jumping a log and twisted my ankle (yes clumsy as ever I know). Which resulted in a swollen up ankle and my ability to walk, was well, hindered considerably, luckily I had an amazing group (pictured above in the obligatory group selfie) who helped me so much, one of the boys even carried my pack on his front as well as his own for an hour and literally wouldn't let me have it back until I felt a bit better. We got to our little campsite and pitched up our tents next to each other, then spent the evening cooking meals, playing on the tree swings on site, oh and of course forgetting the code that granted entry to the toilets! On the second day after a pretty restless night's sleep (courtesy of some noisy drunkards on our campsite), we got up and had some breakfast and made some tea and hotchocolate. Then going against the advice of our group leader (rebellious I know) I carried on to do our second route of the weekend with my ankle strapped up.

On our second day the weather was so so much brighter and we managed to escape the rain, we reached our first checkpoint ahead of schedule and stopped to have a quick natter with one of the assessors about bearings, compass points and contours. Turns out contours aren't the make-up kind but are wiggly lines on maps that show you the height incline, who knew ey? I guess it's safe to say I didn't do much of the navigation purely because I have no sense of direction whatsoever. But despite the changeable weather and the ankle mishap I still had a really good time, it was such an amazing experience and being the first team back on the second day after doing around 30km over the weekend was such an achievement. Although I was at first apprehensive about being in a team with people I wasn't particularly close with, I seriously would of not wanted to be in a team with anyone else, although the boys don't look too thrilled in the photo above!

Anyway, I have more posts drafted for this week so keep an eye out!

Love
Georgie xx

Tumblr- http://just-young-and-unlucky.tumblr.com/ 

Twitter- @geo_lawson

Instagram- @geo_leighh

E-mail- geo.leigh4@gmail.com