If you read my last post, I mentioned I was going to do my DofE Gold Practise Expedition. I had previously done my Bronze Award, which I found hard at the time. However, looking back, I don’t know why the hell I complained. Bronze was a lovely stroll in the park in comparison to gold.
🚨 Spoiler Alert: I Survived 🚨
(Some images I insert will be a little blurry since I took it while walking and they’re screenshots of videos I took.)
As I mentioned before, I was on my period during this trip. I honestly don’t care if that’s too much information because I think it’s important to mention that I was BLEEDING while walking for more than eight hours. Also, it was the second day, so if you’re a girl, you probably know that it was f̶r̶e̶a̶k̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶N̶i̶a̶g̶ar̶a̶ ̶F̶a̶l̶l̶s heavy. 😂
We drove by coach to Brecon Beacons in Wales, which if you google, looks like an amazing and gorgeous place. And it was. But now, I hate it from association with the trip…
When we got to the campsite, we set up our tent. There was mould all over the inner bit of the tent. So basically, we slept under lovely fungus. On the plus side, if any of us had a bacterial infection, we could just make some penicillin with the fungus. 🙃
We then planned our route for the next day and mapped out how we were going to get to the next campsite. I worked out the six figure grid reference for each checkpoint and others did the distance calculations and time calculations. We ended up working out that we would only be walking for three hours, when we were supposed to walk for at least eight hours. This made us really happy because it meant we could take long breaks.
We were wrong.
Chilling at the campsite on the first day was actually fun. We played charades and this weird ball game and paranoia. We thought the trip was going to be fun and happy.
Again, we were wrong.
The next day, we set off with our approximately 15 kg bags on our backs, which didn’t hurt as much as I thought it would. Our group was made up of entirely girls and we were accompanied by this teacher, we decided to call Gertrude. Gertrude told us “we don’t need breaks.” I was just like OMG THAT WAS SO FUNNY HAHA GERTRUDE YOU’RE SO FUNNY AHAHAHSAHSKA.
I didn’t like Gertrude.
The walking was fine. There was a lot of poo and nettles and thorns, which we all precariously tried to avoid. I tried to stay at the front of the group as I found being at the back made you feel more tired since you feel like you need to speed up. And then we reached a freaking mountain.
We knew we would have to climb up something steep due to the close contour lines on our map but I don’t really know why we didn’t think about the mountains that were surrounding us. So we climbed up a freaking mountain. I was so shook at this point that I started playing Shrek in my head to calm myself down from the fact we were climbing a steep mountain that went on for ages with 15 kg bags on our backs. We had a two minute break halfway up the mountain and my friend swapped the tent she was carrying with the stove I was carrying. We carried on climbing with frequent intervals of “Oh my God”s. And then we reached the top. I don’t even remember if we had a break after that. We started walking on the mountain, going a little uphill until we reached the clouds.
We did eventually walk through the clouds and it was very cold and wet but I strangely enjoyed it. We passed forests and reservoirs and it was very pretty but went on for AGES! I walked with one of my friends at the front, which was a good choice because it meant I could have breaks when we waited for others to catch up. Also, our hands got really fat from wind burn. It looked like the hands of a chubby baby. I also noticed that I actually have a lot of endurance and am so much stronger than I thought I was, both mentally and physically.
aND TheN wE hAd a BreAk!
Gertrude, the teacher, left us “to get coffee” and we were left on our own. We sat in the same position for about twenty minutes, which would have probably made Gertrude cry and faint. We looked at our map and decided to rebel against the route Gertrude suggested because we thought we were clever. We were going to take a short cut.
We went down a steep side of the mountain in a zig-zag formation, avoiding burrows, poo, sheep, nettles, thorns, this Prometheus alien like flower and slippery rocks. We were all travelling in single file. At the front, leading the way, was the friend I walked with before and my god, she was so hardcore. Then my best friend was second, who called out what to avoid and was looking at the map. Then it was me, who managed to end up still falling into holes and walking into faeces, even after being told to avoid it and then I would tell others to avoid it and then a friend behind me would pass the message along to the rest of the group.
We then crossed paths with a skeleton. There was a skull, ribs, spine, limbs, the whole shebang. And there was blood. Everywhere! I guess that’s what happens when you decide to take a different route…(it was a sheep or small horse skeleton though, don’t worry!) Close by, was what looked like a human poo. Maybe someone else saw the skeleton and got a bit too scared…?
(Image of the skeleton to the right)
At first, it was okay. And then it got steeper and we became more impatient. We went further down the mountain, where it was practically vertical. I slipped and grabbed onto a giant clump of crap for dear life. At this point, in the words of Gemma Collins, I realised that actually this is serious stuff. I just thought haha, this is not for me.
This sounds like an exaggeration but we were very close to death.
After ages of slipping and zig-zagging, we made the decision to just head straight down, instead of going across the mountain diagonally. Two people chucked on waterproof trousers and slid down the flipping mountain. I carelessly, grabbed onto thorns and nettles to you know, avoid dying. I just didn’t care anymore. I even let spiders of all colours crawl on me. (I have red spots from it all over my arms, legs and hands, now. 😂)
We trekked down this very very steep path of nettles, which was low down so the mountains were high up on the sides of us. The path slowly faded into a stream, which became more slippery as you went down it. So, without hesitation, we all, one by one, ROCK CLIMBED up, vertically, without a rope, with 15 freaking kg bags, to get on top of the mountain again. We rock climbed! I’m still shocked by it since that’s something I would never have done without a safety rope.
We ran down the rest of the mountain to a path at the bottom and finally had a break on this patch of grass that was in the shape of a sofa.
And then we went through a gate
into private property.
We didn’t know this at the time until we were about half way through the field. I’ve been told by several people that you can get arrested for trespassing, since it is illegal, and farmers could shoot you if you do. We saw two farmers with dogs at the bottom of the field so we travelled incognito, laying low (with my bright yellow raincoat and giant pink hat) to avoid dying, which seemed very likely during this trip.
We sprinted across onto another field, while this horse that probably belonged to the farmers followed us and watched us. The horse was a little snakey snitch. We dashed over a fence onto a road, where there was a sign saying “Do Not Enter (the field)! Warning of Danger!” I think it would have been a little nice if we saw that before.
We trotted along the road, happily, shooketh to the core at all we just went through, and then a white van passed us. Not that type of van though…
There were a few of our teachers in there. They stopped and one came out, who told us to wait. He went back into the van and as he did, we legged it down the road. I really don’t know why. We literally ran from the teachers and I honestly don’t know why we thought we would succeed because we were so goddamn slow. The teacher ended up following us to the campsite since we were about three hours late. Finally we got to the campsite, where everyone clapped as we got there. It took us twelve hours! So much for taking three hours with loads of long breaks… 😂
The campsite toilets were disgusting though! 😂 There were giant spiders everywhere, dead flies all over the ceiling, either mud of poop smeared on the walls, period blood dripping on one wall of the cubicle, water that smelt like sewage, and “windows” without glass. A giant flying daddy long legs entered one while my friend was on the toilet and she screamed and ran out and we were all running from side to side, screaming, as it followed us.
The next day was a little less exhilarating and a little more painful. We climbed up mountains at least three times (the 3rd time was torture) and a male sheep almost charged at us. So yeah…
How was your weekend?
-Shay
How did you climb a freaking mountain with 15kg on your back?! I can’t even climb the stairs that too WITHOUT any thing on my back!! I applaud you people👏👏👏
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I really don’t know. Before we went on the trip, I kept laughing at the fact that I got tired climbing stairs to my lessons with a bag with a few books in. I think my body went into like some sort of Hulk transformation. 😂
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Really wondering when that’ll happen to me😂😂
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Put yourself in a life or death situation, maybe it’ll spring up 😂
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OMG… you need to have seen how happy I was while reading this post the first time. You had soooo much fuuunnn😂😂😂… Your experience reminds me of a time I was at this leadership training center and we went for this really annoying thing they called “Plateau Scheme”… where we had to go through very unusual places with just compasses and a map for each group… and I think I almost died too😂😂😂 I remember how a pig had charged at me while we were on this rock… I can’t just bring myself to think of how silly I’d have looked while I ran in an opposite direction from the group. Haha I’m sure you had great fun, inspite of all the injuries, poops, thorns and Gertrude 😂😂😂❤❤❤
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Hahaha 😂😂 So your experience was very much like mine!!! You got charged at by a pig?? 😂😂😂 Despite the pain, it was a lot of fun! 😄
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Yesss! My friends taught I was just imagining it but well, I’ve always been scared of pigs because I heard they eat babies and in my mind, I’m this big baby 😂😂😂… but I’m glad you had fun❤❤❤
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WOW! This sounds so painful!! I don’t know how I’d have survived!! And aww the running away from the teachers bit! 😂😂 Yayy for doing it though! xx❤️😀😂🍍
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It was very painful! I’m feeling it more now than I did on the trip though 😂😬 Thanks!! 😄
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Aww! I hope it gets better! No problem! xx❤️😀
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Oh god this sounds bloody terrifying… but I love your writing, I was giggling the entire time I read this. My grandad lives in wales, so I’ve seen those mountains – they’re no joke! xx
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It was SO terrifying! At one point, I’m sure I was ready for death. 😂 And haha, thank you! 😊 Yeah, they really are no joke; I can never look at a pretty mountain again without thinking of how hard it is to climb.
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Quick question, did you used to write on Okayy Then?
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I did, yes! Did you read my blog on there? :O
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Yeah, I loved your posts! I had a bit of a blogging break and when I came back, I thought you just quit blogging.
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Oh thanks girly! So did I lol and when i came back i was like…. yeaaa i want to restart and do it all over x_x
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Yeah same, I didn’t really like my blog after a while but I just decided to redesign the whole thing 😂 It’s good to know you’re still blogging though!
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Haha, what a great story! I mean, it sucks that you almost died 15 times, but it made for great reading. Did Getrude literally abandon all of you so she could get coffee?
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Yeah, I mean, I almost died but totally worth it if it means content 😂 Yeah she did but she was supposed to leave anyway so we could navigate on our own.
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Ohhh, I didn’t realize Gertrude was supposed to leave. I was about to say that abandoning y’all for coffee sounds like poor planning. Why not bring coffee-making supplies with her, so that you could have several coffee breaks during the trek? That’s what ‘adventure’ means to me.
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Haha yeah 😂 To be honest though, I have no idea how she chose to get coffee when she had to leave us as if there was a cafe just sitting on top of the mountain. It took us hours to get up, I can’t imagine how long it took her to get to the bottom. We got to the bottom in quick time because of our reckless “short cut” 😂
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Oh my God, that sounds terrifying/horrific/amazing/all kinds of emotions. 😂 But I’m so proud of you!! That’s truly an amazing achievement! Good on you for getting through it. 😊💪
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It really did consist of all emotions! 😂 Thank you!! I’m very shook that I was able to do it.
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You really need to write more about your travels and all, I love reading about your experiences. And you deserve more than a gold medal for surviving. Good job.
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Thank you!! You’ll be reading about the real one, I’m sure, if I make it out! 😂 I agree, I think I deserve much more than a silly medal 😂😄
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Oof! This sounds terrible but also amazing at the same time!! I can’t even climb the stairs at my school properly let alone hike a mountain!
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Hahaha I’m sorry that was so rough, but it made for a hilarious tale! Well done on getting through it- I only ever did bronze and now am both grateful and amazed that you did more! Seriously well done!!
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Yeah, I kept telling myself that during the trip – that at least I’d have a story to tell! 😂 TBH, after I did bronze, I swore I would never do silver or gold but apparently, I lied to myself 😬 Thank you!!
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Hehehe!! You’re welcome!
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