3 minute read
Gold DofE Expedition
It was 6:45am. I woke up on the morning of my 18th birthday, finding myself wrapped up in a sleeping bag inside a small green tent, shivering in the cold. It was the second day of our Gold Duke of Edinburgh expedition.
I reluctantly climbed out of my cozy sleeping bag and searched for my head torch in darkness. Frustratingly, I could not find it so I had to wake up my tent-mates Jasmine and Charlotte. Then we packed up our stuff, ate our breakfast, filled up our water bottles and packed up the tent. It was 8am: time to go hiking. What a great start to my birthday!
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I wondered “How have I found myself here?”The expedition is perhaps the most daunting part of the Duke of Edinburgh award. To complete it, you need to trek four days and camp three nights in the wilderness of Brecon Beacons National Park in Wales. The location made it even more challenging because of the undulating hills and unpredictable weather. That did not even take into consideration that we had to carry a 20KG backpack with our tent and food with us for every kilometre that we walked. It was undoubtably a challenge for our mental and physical strength, as well as team work and navigation skills.
It was a mild day with scattered clouds and gentle breeze. We powered through our hike in the morning due to our desire to get to the next campsite sooner and rest our tired bodies. It was not a particularly challenging route, easy to follow and not too hilly. We found ourselves over half-way before midday. We set up the stove and got ready for lunch. I had freeze-dried burrito rice, which tasted questionable but I was too hungry to care about taste! After lunch, we came across our team leader who greeted us with a big grin. Contrasting to her positive attitude, she then had to tell us the devastating news that our route had been extended since we we ’d been going too fast -what a great birthday present! In the afternoon, the air turned clammy and we walked through boggy grounds, which was not fun at all. I almost lost my boot in a bog and almost fell into a stream.
Lisa Shi
We marched like defeated soldiers, still resentful about the fact that our route had been extended
“If we hadn ’t met our team leader, if we ’d spent longer eating lunch, we would’t have needed to walk this unpleasant 5km, ” I grumbled. My teammate replied…
“Well, it’s meant to be hard, isn’t it?”
We finally reached our campsite beside a farm and a rubbish dump. There was only one toilet which was beside the chicken farm and had no light. I missed our lovely campsite from the first night so much but had to face harsh reality. “Well, we ’ re only here for one night and we will be home in 48 hours. It isn ’t too bad” , I told myself. In the evening, we chatted while having dinner and went to bed at 8pm. I got a rocky road for my birthday cake. What a special birthday!
The next morning we repeated our ritual. It was a gorgeous morning but we had to contend with a brutal climb of about 400 meters high.
Once we got up, the scenery was stunning and we stared at the majestic Pen Y Fan the highest peak of Brecon Beacons. If weather situation allowed it, we ’d be going up there the next day. I was hoping to go but was also apprehensive about the gruelling 800m of ascending.
Fortunately for my body but unfortunately for my soul, our hike up Pen Y Fan was cancelled due to high wind.
Instead, we hiked on shaded forest paths back to the mini-bus. To avoid our previous ‘ mistake ’ , we purposefully took long breaks so we were not ‘too fast’ . We promptly arrived at the side of the mini bus at 11:55 am. We were told we can only return after 12 am otherwise we would have to do a 5km detour. We impatiently waited. Victory was so close.
