At the end of the summer term a team of four students, Harry and Jack Adams, Alex Crowley and Charlie Hobbs, travelled to the Scottish island of Arran to undertake the expedition section of their DofE gold award. They had planned a route visiting archaeological sites around the island which involved backpacking along remote shorelines and crossing high mountain ridges and wide expanses of boggy moorland. The weather was mixed with heavy rain and thick mist as well as the sunshine seen in the photographs. And there were midges! Also, because of the wet weather in June, even the easier parts of the route included some difficult walking terrain. Kevin, who was our assessor, is also operations manager for the DofE in the west of Scotland so he has had extensive experience of expedition groups. He was hugely impressed by the teamwork shown by the group, their thorough preparation and their resourcefulness and good humour in adverse conditions. He praised them in his report as “without doubt the best expedition” he had assessed this year.
It should now be possible for these students to achieve their gold award before leaving college.
Thanks to Glyn Bagley for driving and to Emma Coules for providing additional support.
Written by Tim Delaney, L6FC DofE coordinator