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| Team 'Awesome'. Kate, Kerry, Olivia, Adam (aka Kevin), Raj |
This week I was working for
Adventure Expeditions, on an
Open Gold in the Lake District, starting and finishing in Keswick. After initial preparations, the team set off on day 1 from Keswick on Wednesday morning. Everybody left the Youth Hostel happy, but 9 hours later when the 2 groups arrived at the wild camp, people were less happy with their saturated boots - it had been wet and boggy to say the least. At this point the twins, Sarah and Erica, pulled out the genius card - newspaper - and so by the next morning their boots were dry again - they've learnt form their previous expeditions with wet boots!
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| Sarah, Erica, Martin and Dean |
The next morning turned out to be a low point of the week for many, as the hill ascent was long and slow, and even this early in the exped, people had experienced emotional highs and lows. This long day was rewarded with a real campsite at the end with the best of all features - a shower... The weather for the entire week was showery, some heavy downpours, low cloud and fog, but warm and light winds. So it was a wet week, but not 'too' awful (easy for me to say - I was assessing and not walking for the 4 days!).
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| 'We're happy on the inside!' |
By the end of day 3, when they had completed the long climb up to the second wild camp, the team were in good spirits - and even the approaching ominous black clouds didn't stop the laughter. Adam found a good solution for wet boots (below). Kerry and co. managed to find something to laugh at, at every campsite. On the last night, the object of humour was Kerry's dish - a Roasting Chicken dish!
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| Modelling his new footwear, which is very OTM, colour coordinating with his outfit |
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| Kerry showing us her chicken roasting dish - 'Why have you brought that to eat from?' - 'Cause it folds!'. |
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| Grisedale Tarn |
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| Photo for the Adventure Expeditions website. Kate, Olivia, Kerry, Dean, Martin, Raj, Sarah, Erica (sorry if it's the wrong way round), Adam (Kev) |
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| Photo for fun - look excited! |
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| 'Look upset' - wow - Kerry looks really upset - acting career ahead of you Kerry... |
I cycled down from Grisedale Tarn - but soon found myself flying through the air separated from my bike - my bike had clearly pressed the 'eject' button. I landed somewhere on the floor, and looked round at my bike in disgust (and wished I had better suspension and brakes!). One of my first thoughts was - this is going to ruin my climbing holiday next week. 36 hours later now, and my arm is a lot better, and mobility is improving - but the bike is still in the dog house! Climbing is clearly a safer sport!
The last day was 18km down from the wild camp, off the hills, and back into Keswick to the Youth Hostel. The weather did not co-operate, and it rained for the entire journey. Upon completion at the hostel there were lots of tired legs and rotten feet - but all 9 have successfully completed their gruelling Gold Qualifying Expedition. Congratualtions everybody - I've sent all these photos and more to Cat.
Working for Outward Bound Metro, I was assessing a Bronze group from Hyndland Secondary School in Glasgow. We picked all the children up on the Thursday morning and off we headed to the Dunkeld area. When the initial pre expedition checks and formalities were complete, the groups were able to start their expedition. The weather proved to be better than the day before in Glencoe thankfully, and people didn't really get very wet.
After a late arrival for some groups into camp, tents went up, and a welcome hot meal was eaten. As usual, I enjoyed the luxury of my massive Quasar, and a 3 course meal...
The night was clear overnight and so everybody enjoyed a cold night with great visibility of stars. The morning broke dry and so everybody made a good start to their walk. In the distance I could see snow on a peak - so started to think about the onset of winter (and the need to buy winter tyres!).
