Articles
Over the summer this year's candidates for the gold Duke of Edinburgh award set off for the Brecon Beacons. Caroline Butten, Min-Sun Kang and Charlotte Zajicek report on the challenges they and Juliette Curtis-Hayward, Geo Edgerley-Harris and Charly Kilkenny faced: We spent our first night on hard ground and then headed off into the wild, our huge 65 litre rucksacks on our backs. Despite the almost vertical climb (and to our embarrassment, being overtaken by a group of army cadets) we reached the top of a 700m high hill. As we made our way across the exposed plateau the skies darkened and the rain started lashing down, quickly turning into piercing hailstones. On top of this, gale force winds and fog made it hard to walk and keep together. Using our knowledge of how to deal with such situations we made a group decision to come down from the peak. Our assessor agreed we had made the right decision and we spent that evening re-planning our route. Next day we navigated our way to our consecutive check points using orienteering skills. We reached the campsite in one piece and, despite being drenched and exhausted, made full use of the site's tumble-dryers to dry out our soaking tents! By the third day some of us had extreme blisters, others were finding the amount of walking difficult and, following an injury, Charly was unfortunately forced to pull out before the completion of the venture. We were sad to lose her but were determined to complete our task. That night we all slept well after delicious spaghetti carbonara cooked on the trangia stove, knowing we were returning home the following day. We started early the next morning, making good progress to reach our final point by late afternoon.
To achieve a gold award you must be committed, focused and part of a team. We were so happy to complete the expedition despite the awful conditions and remained good friends throughout. We learnt valuable lessons about motivation and enjoyed looking at the beautiful Welsh landscape from an alternative angle.