On Saturday 19th June 25 excited girls shopped for their provisions, packed their rucksacks and squeezed into the two minibuses. An hour later they met their assessors and set off from Studland Point to walk to Corfe Castle. The sun shone from a cloudless blue sky, but temperatures were kept low by a strong northerly wind. Supervisors and assessors were strategically placed along the route to check the girls were on track, in terms of position and timing. A couple of groups got lost around Scotland and one group spent longer wandering around Corfe Castle than they had planned!
Tired but happy, the groups were soon erecting their tents and cooking pasta and noodles on their Trangias. Unlike some groups at the campsite, they quickly settled down for the night but noise, life under canvass and the farmer moving his mooing cows at 4.00am meant that sleep was scarce.
Day 2 dawned bright and sunny, and soon the smell of bacon wafted over the campsite. Tents were packed, breakfast consumed and all were on their way by 8.00am. The majority chose to walk on the ridge in a westerly direction before dropping into Kimmeridge from the viewpoint. Being a shorter walking day, it gave the teams plenty of time to study the aims of their expeditions which ranged from studying Corfe Castle to asking people why they walk in this area. After a thorough debrief from the assessors, the teams were delighted to hear they had been successful in completing their expedition.
Team work is the key skill that the teams develop during the planning and execution of their expeditions. Two teams were tested to the limit on Sunday. When the batteries went flat, the only alternative was to push the Boma bike and Lali to the finish (up and down hill) – this the team did for 2 kms, whilst still carrying their own rucksacks – well done Happy Campers! Another team also coped exceptionally well with an asthma attack – well done to ‘Are we there yet?’
On Thursday 24th June the teams gathered in the Campion Hall. They were first entertained by the excellent presentations delivered by the two Lower V1 teams who successfully completed their Gold expeditions in April. Afterwards the Lower V excelled themselves in the presentations of their aims. Well researched and entertaining, we were enthralled by the stories that these teams told.
Our thanks go to the two supervisors Steve Mills and John White who chose to join us! We also thank Norden Farm campsite which generously charged up the batteries on Lali’s Boma free of charge!
