Duke Of Edinburgh Gold and Tour de Trigs

Well I'm now back from my Duke of Edinburgh Gold expedition and to be perfectly honest I'm pleased I never have to do another one! As much as I love being in the Mountains and everything, I hate being told what to carry and where to go as I find it really takes the fun out of it. This expedition took place in the Lake District and we got told that due to potential icy conditions (I know we had a lot of snow this winter but it is the end of March!) we were not allowed to walk along ridges. This meant that we had to change our route drastically at the last minute and instead walk in the lowlands. It was still a fun expedition and it made me realise quite how much I love being outside and has also inspired me to get into fell running and doing longer walks on my own. The expedition was made better by the fact that I was in a strong group and we have done all our Duke of Edinburgh expeditions together since the beginning of our Bronze award, this meant that we did our routes quickly and we all know each other limitations etc. for example on our last day we did our 20km route in just over 5 hours which meant that we could go home earlier. We also got more time every evening in the campsite compared to the other groups because we would always finish before them. This meant that we were happier and led to an enjoyable expedition for all of us.

One of my mates and I have also decided that we will do the Tour de Trigs again this year. As we are over 18 we will have to do the 50 mile race and therefore will need to train for it! For those of you that don't know, the Tour de Trigs is a 50 (or 35 for the juniors) mile race around Oxfordshire. The course has to be completed in under 24 hours and you have to map read the entire route, this means that there is a lot of night navigation involved as you start at approximately 11:00 in the morning so you are walking throughout the night. It takes place in December so we have time to train and find another team member (has to be a team of 3) and we both finish school in a couple of months which will give us a lot more free time to train and prepare.