DUKE OF EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL AWARD

At first the Duke of Edinburgh expedition sounded unsettling because all I had heard about it was that you had to sleep in tents made for ants and hike millions of kilometres in the blistering heat of Dubai. However, having now completed this expedition I can say with complete certainty that I was worrying for no reason, and I thoroughly enjoyed the journey!

The treks did come with many difficulties, one example being how we had to stop for what seemed like every five seconds, to re-tape one of our teammate’s shoes. However, every journey is bound to come with obstacles, and I don’t think we overcame ours very well, we argued a fair amount but overall, the people I went with were what made the experience unforgettable. There wasn’t an hour that didn’t contain laughter and I don’t think I would have survived the rays of fire radiating out of the sun without their jokes as distractions.

On our practice journey, I oversaw the navigation and managed to get us completely lost and we ended up following another group and very skilfully hopping over some barbed wire and crossing a bridge that we were never even supposed to be near. In the end though we got to the camp and immediately welcomed with the offer of some lovely warm water. As soon as we got to the camp, we set up our surprisingly large sized tents and got ready to make some food . I’ve got to say that we weren’t very smart when it came to food, we hardly ate anything nutritious but still enjoyed our luxurious meals that consisted of yummy pot noodles and sticky pasta. That is one thing that I will change for my silver expedition, the idea of dining on pot noodles for three meals in a day for two days may sound like heaven but we were always hungry and there never seemed to be enough to go around.

On the qualifying journey we were much more prepared when it came to navigation, yet I still ended up climbing a mini mountain that consisted of rocks that would shift if a feather fell on them, so I skidded multiple times and my heart was beating like a drum by the time I got to the top. When I did get to the top, I saw that we were only a 10-minute walk from the camp, and we only had to walk around the mountain to get there. I nearly broken my ankle just to find that the camp was right around the corner the whole time!

Altogether, the Duke of Edinburgh award taught me many things and I already cannot wait for the silver expedition.

Zara Dedynski 10RVE