I’ve been working towards this for around a year. My physical section was going to the gym, my skill was my singing, and for my volunteering, I help out with the cubs. But my expedition wasn’t until one Wednesday – Friday in July.
It was a heatwave. We left school on the Monday morning and returned about 8 o’clock on the Friday evening. We walked around 70km, and 8 huge hills in the Brecon Beacons, in 30 degree heat in 4 days. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t tough. The walking was fine, and the bag weight was fine. But the hills were so steep that at some times you’d be pulling yourself up by a fence, because you physically couldn’t walk otherwise. And other hills were so steep downhill that if you fell, you’d fall off a narrow path down to a rocky river. I was terrified. The heat also made it extremely difficult. We had to watch for signs of heat exhaustion and heat stroke amongst our team members, and drink a heck of a lot of water. One day, I drank around 5 litres!!! But, it was a truly beautiful setting, and at least it wasn’t like our practice expedition, where it was around -2, and so cold that I was still freezing through six layers of clothing. That’s probably why I dislike Dartmoor so much!
The sense of achievement when you reached the top of a hill was awesome, and at the end of each day, looking at how far we’d come made me feel great. The highlight was on the last day, reaching the top of what had been christened “Nipple Hill” (who said year 11 were mature..?!) and looking down to the town of Abergavenny, where we were meeting our coach home. The views across were breathtaking.
Below are a few photos taken by my group on our hike.
step by step 