Gold DofE exped 5th-9th Aug '09

Article by Cadet Corporal Rebekka Long , of 1119 (shrewsbury).
Submitted 16/08/2009 at 21:58.

After arriving at the barracks around midday, a few last minute bag adjustments, collection of consent forms, and a hello to Cheese, we were off!! The buzz of excitement made the 2 hour (ish) journey quite short, with the added interlude of nearly running over poor Sgt Weston when we stopped for petrol ( you’ll be glad to know that he was more or less unharmed :D ).

We somehow managed to arrive in the Minibus at Capel Curig in one piece, where we put up our tents, met the 3 from 425 Sqn who were joining us on our walk, and then the dreaded moment came when we met our assessor...

He was actually a really happy chappy!! He talked to us about our route, talked to us generally to get to know us all a bit better, wished us luck and then left saying he’d see us the following night at the campsite, after promising he wouldn’t be hiding behind phone boxes and stuff during our route.

I can’t really be bothered to talk you though each individual day, but after loosing just one person to a sprained knee and being eaten alive by midges, we all finished with flying colours. (And we didn’t once get completely lost!!!). We even had our own little celebration at the end in Llandrillo.

I think everyone had a huge sense of personal and group achievement at the end and I’m really proud of the effort and determination we all showed throughout the 4 days.

I would definitely recommend working your way up through the bronze, silver and gold levels of DofE if you haven’t already done so as it’s an amazing experience that I would hope would last you a lifetime :-)

Article cleared by Flight Lieutenant Graham Barre RAFVR(T) on 18/08/2009 at 10:18