DofE ǀ My Experience , kit list + TIPS
Quick tips:
Food:
Take Boil in the Bag food - it is SO much easier. Whilst all the other teams were spending ages making their pasta, watching over it to make sure it didn't burn, and making a proper meal we just sat their for two minutes and had a full curry or roast dinner, with some chocolate cake, it was great.
If your having sandwiches for lunch use warburtons thins or pita bread in general.
Clothing:
For Bronze and Silver at least, just take two lots of cloths - one set for walking and one for night. Our school told us to take three lots, each set for a night and a day. What a waste of space.
Wear two sets of socks (thin and thick, to prevent blisters)
Stuff people forget:
Spare socks
Torch
Snacks for during the day (lots of them)
Shoes for campsite
Matches
Plasters (in case you get blisters)
Hay fever tablets (Piriton)(even if you don't end needing them someone else definitely is)
Take cards or a tennis ball (something to entertain yourself at the campsite)
// if you have most of the stuff on the official kit list you'll probably be alright.
Packing:
Pack yourself so you know where everything is.
Put the big stuff in first.
You can get a lot more in the bag than you think, I used to hold on to the top of the bag with my hands then, with my leg, push everything as far down as I could, this gained me about 25% more space.
Using a compass:
Get your compass facing north. Face north yourself. Figure out what you are next to and therefore where you are on the map. Turn the map so it looks as if you are looking at yourself from a drone Point Of View eg. also facing north, with where you are centred, then look at the map and see what direction your next destination is in. Take that bearing and using your compass walk in that direction - seemed to work for us.
My experience:
4:30am. The peacocks are hollering loudly. Poking out from over the horizon and into our tent are the first wisps of sunlight, gently meandering over here across the rivers, trees and gently loping hills. Kakoor! The other groups had warned us, and they were not wrong, that the peacocks were incredibly loud.
Getting up, I looked over to our teams other tent - pleased to see they were already up, then proceeded to kick my slightly sore legs into gear. 10 minutes later our breakfasts, boil in the bag sausage and beans, were bubbling away.
Gradually the sun was getting higher. We were setting off early as always, to avoid the mid afternoon sun. I loved it, I had since I was in primary school - going on hill walks on residential trips, finding your way along the route, just you and your friends, and getting to your destination. In a time when everyone is so looked after that freedom feels good. Even better if your group goes fast.
Usually I don't like to push the pace to hard on these walks, as it's not usually the best for group morale, but luckily for me this time there were a few more people in our group (of 6) that were keen to go fast. Meaning I could sit along and enjoy the ride. Completing the days, that were designated 7hrs of walking time, in just 3.
Unnecessary as it may seem it wasn't even like we were going crazy fast, it just happened that we covered the distance in no time. Unfortunately you actually have to be out walking for the full 7hrs - otherwise you get sent back out by your assessors. So we had a nice long lunch for a few hours, two hundred metres away from the finish, several days in a row.
Our practice expedition had been good, we had been at the same campsite as all the other people in our year, which meant once we had finished the walk all kinds of shenanigans happened at the campsite, the maths poetry book - now our official bible, was my personal highlight. On our actual expedition we were the only group from our year.
At our school half of the groups take the route one way and half go the other. On the middle days both times we met another group then stopped to have lunch with them. On our final (3rd) day of our actual expedition our route happened to significantly overlap with one of the sixth form teams from our school who were at the same campsite. That led to a rather entertaining day of our motley crew of 12 of us making our way through the hills, valleys and gorges of the peak district.
Nowadays all the memories are rolled into one. Still a few significant ones are:
having to run through a farm and over a fence to a path that just didn't exist where the map said it was; walking in the clouds on a hilltop for a while; spending several hours just walking along a canal - past locks and everything - don't get me wrong it was pretty for a while but after several hours... got a bit boring; interviewing my team on camera, for our project, mid walk- they were not too happy about that; getting through the many fields of cows, bull and sheep that we encountered.
The rest of the process was more of a chore. Cooking for my skill; Sailing for my physical - which I did already anyways and helping out at my friend's mum's forest school.
Overall it is something I would recommend to anyone and everyone. As long as you are willing to put in the work, being out in nature, away from civilisation and adults, with such a purpose, is a feeling very hard to replicate.
All I will say is before you go make sure you can read a map - or at the very least someone in you team can... One team on the practice expedition walked for four hours, only to end up back when they started. Said team arrived at our campsite on the actual expedition five hours after my group had finished setting up our tents.
