The first Gold Assessed expedition, under the Coronavirus modified DofE expedition conditions was successfully completed last week in the Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire countryside.
The expedition was blessed with good weather throughout. Warm sunny days and a light wind, almost perfect walking conditions if a little too hot on Day 3 and 4. Each day the team walked between 20 and 25 km over mixed arable terrain and gentle undulating landscape. Sometimes footpaths were indistinct because farmers were harvesting crops in the fields.
As part of the Covid secure protocols the team were provided with a map and compass per person and so their navigation was perfect, almost always arriving at checkpoints when expected. They took no wrong turnings and always knew where they were, even if they needed to re-navigate a section because of ploughed fields.
At the end of each day the team cooked meals individually on camping stoves before departing home to sleep in tents pitched in their own gardens. Most had campstyle breakfasts at home each morning before returning to the start point for the next day.
The team supported one another consistently throughout.
The challenge of walking a long distance each day was still part of the expedition even though it was completed in
non wild country terrain. The expedition presentation at the end of the 4 days was designed to look back at their childhood and early youth and work out their common interests and when they first knew each other.