DofE Weekend in the Brecon Beacons

Teresa, Ian, Howard, James, Steve and Kelly having lunch of Saturday (Chris and Sam were still out on the moor)

Just back from a great weekend in the Brecons with twenty eight young Gold DofE trainees and eight leaders.

1600 on Friday afternoon at the end of a busy week. I switch off the computer, get changed into warm outdoor gear and walk down the road to our village school to pick up their 17 seater minibus, which they had kindly leant us for the weekend. I'm off on our annual autumn trip to the Brecon Beacons to hone and polish the navigation skills of DofE participants, in advance of their Gold expeditions next year. This is the third year that I have taken part as a leader, and the weekend has established a key place in the training calendar for our Gold groups. Experience over the years has allowed Teresa to develop and polish an tight routine for this busy weekend: micro navigation training on Saturday, including a night walk, followed by the teams planning a route which they walk the following day.

Into Winchester, picking up James on the way and then loading up with thirteen teenagers before joining a convoy of three minibuses for the drive to Wales. A quick stop at a motorway service station for a bite to eat (and for James and I to squirrel away some chips - more of that later!), and we are soon crossing the Severn Bridge in time to arrive at the Hampshire Mountain Centre at Libanus in the heart of the Brecon Beacons at about 2200.

Off to bed after sorting out bedrooms and bunks, preparing the next day's supper and chatting far too late!

Saturday

Up early on Saturday morning for endless cups of tea while we prepared breakfast for 28 bleary-eyed teenagers. Then packed and away and out onto the hills.  We parked the buses at the edge of a wood and split into groups, each with seven youngsters and two or three instructors.

The morning routine (if routine is a good word!) started with some pacing on the road to remind the group what their pace count was for 100m, and then off over the open moorland, giving the trainees the chance to practice and polish their navigation skills, and the leaders the chance to chat with them and try to transfer as many of the tricks and tips  as we could during a couple of days.

It was a beautiful day. Clear blue skies and sunshine. Not as cold as forecast, as the wind had dropped, but still chilly enough to test warm clothes and gloves.

Our morning route took us on long legs and short legs, up and down hills. They contoured, handrailed, planned, estimated, walked on bearings, paced and timed themselves. The limestone terrain is dotted with sinkholes, some small, some huge, and one or two large circular features made of thousands of small boulders, whose origins I can't fathom.

Stone ring - 25m across (from Google Earth)

After regrouping for lunch we set off again in a new area for more of the same. My team very successfully leapfrogged across a long stretch of featureless moorland, and hit their target (a pond) bang in the middle. I was proud of them, but more importantly they were very proud of themselves!

As evening started to fall the teams converged on a huge sinkhole, where they were challenged to cook a small meal in the dark. Amongst the instructors, a certain lunatic bravado had taken hold and James and I were determined to cook something impressive.

Our menu for the evening was:

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Fillet Steak with Pepper Sauce and Chips

Christmas Pudding, fried in Brandy Butter and flambéed in Whisky

Tea

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... all served on a table, with tablecloth and candelabra. 

A great success! The service station chips fried up chips and hot, and flambéing is particularly impressive on top of a mountain on a dark moonless night!

Once James and I had devoured our steak and chips, and shared some alcoholic christmas pudding with the other leaders, it was time to get back to the minibuses, a mile away across a dark moor, covered in sink holes, ponds, tussocky grass and bracken. No problem for our trainees, and they set off, merrily leapfrogging until they could see the peak of the hill they were aiming for, clearly silhouetted against the sky. At that point they sensibly decided they could get there without the complexity of lines of people waving head-torches!  Just to add to the fun we all switched off our head-torches and walked by starlight (ok ... and by the rather less romantic glow of Merthyr Tydfil's distant street lights!)  We followed a fairly direct route, over a hill (which provided a suitable and easy to identify waypoint) and down the other side to the buses (with the team correctly deciding to aim off to the right until they hit the road, and then turn left. They HAD been listening!)

Back at the centre we all had supper and then gave the teams their challenge for the next day - a set of grid references that they had to plot and then plan a route to walk the next morning. Late and tired to bed for another early start.

Sunday

Up at 0600 on Sunday for a quick shower and down to the kitchen to join the breakfast team. By 0900 everyone had eaten, packed bags, loaded the buses and cleaned the centre, and we were off. This time we headed towards the eastern end of the beacons. We parked the buses and set the teams off at intervals, some clockwise, some anti clockwise, with pairs of leaders either setting off ahead of them or following them at a distance. Another cold day. Cloudier than the day before, but dry and clear - perfect walking weather.

James and I set off as chasers after all the teams were on their way, but quickly caught up with two of them. A gentle day for the leaders, with remote supervision of the teams and no direct instruction, just chatting with them as we came across them, occasionally pointing out their navigation errors, and sending them back to visit checkpoints they had missed! (And towards the end of the day, suggesting to a team that while it was lovely to be out and enjoying the hills, they had better not take another long break, or nobody would be home until midnight!) 

This relaxed routine left plenty of time for stopping at suitable vantage pints to pull out a brewkit and sip tea while admiring the view and soaking up the glorious atmosphere of the Brecon Beacons, looking across at the Black Mountains and Llangorse Lake, and over to Sugar Loaf to the east..We were out for some four hours and didn't see any other walkers apart from our own teams and leaders. 

We followed the last team off the hill and down through the woods to the buses at about 1500, and were soon loaded up and on the road for the 4 hour trip back to Hampshire. But not everything went according to plan ...

Fifteen minutes into the journey I was in the lead bus, the one that I had borrowed from my local school, when the bus behind us started flashing its lights at us. We pulled over to be told that they could see that one of the inner tyres on the back axle was flapping around - we had a puncture. We drove to a garage in the next village and found a nail in the tyre, so reluctantly called out a tyre repair service. It was three hours before we were on the road again, making for a long trip back to Hampshire.

After unloading the youngsters and handing them back to patient parents, I dropped James off, came home and managed the tricky wiggly reversing of the minibus into its parking place at the school at about 2200.

A great weekend, with great weather, a (generally!) great bunch of kids and, as ever, a great bunch of leaders. 

Thanks guys. Same time next year?

(The pictures in this blog are my own or Steve's. Steve's are the good ones!  Thanks Steve.)