D of E - Bronze practice expedition

This weekend I have been supervising another group of 6 on behalf of Award Solutions on a Bronze practice expedition. I met the group on Saturday morning, where they were kitted out and we set off on a route in some of the foulest weather I have seen for years. The route took us through Rape Seed fields where the water soaked into every piece of clothing that the team were wearing. It was a bit difficult to teach navigation in the driving rain, but the team took to it like ducks to water. After a few hours of trudging around in the rain and identifying a few wildlife species, we arrived back at the camp site where luckily the rain had stopped long enough for us to get the tents up and get a hot meal cooked. Once everything was packed away, and a debrief for the day, I handed the group over to the teachers and headed home.

Sunday morning started at 7.00 am with the usual supervising the team eating a substantial breakfast, getting the tents down and then we retreated to the Cafe on the camp site where I did a table top exercise on Emergency Procedures. The weather was a lot better today with glorious sunshine for most of the day and the importance of keeping hydrated being stated continuously throughout the day. We headed out to practise some more navigation, including setting the map, pacing and bearings. We also did a casualty simulation, looking at basic first aid, contents of the leaders bag, and I even got the 10 person Bothy bag out to show them the temperature difference inside. Because of the heat we cut the walk short and arrived back at the camp site for debriefs and my presentation for the star student, however my prize of 2 chocolate bars had melted in the car and I certainly need to rethink that one.

In all another excellent group who have their qualifying expedition in 2 weeks and will smash it, well done guys. 2 weeks in a row with good groups, and a flyover from a Lancaster Bomber, how lucky am I.