Going for Gold on the South Downs

Over the May Half term break twenty intrepid Year 12 pupils engaged in an adventure on the South Downs Way. Their aim was to complete the expedition phase of their Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award in one continuous effort.

The whole of the South Downs Way extends 100 miles between Winchester and Eastbourne, with our groups starting at the easterly end and working their way homeward. This was a new initiative for the school and a real congratulations must go to those pupils who have been the first to represent their school in such an endeavour.

This experience is best described by the pupils themselves.

“On Saturday morning we set off bright and early in the minibus on the way to our starting location; Lewes. After finding the correct path, we set off on our mammoth task of a combined 7-day practice and assessed trek for our Gold DofE. Luckily, the sun was shining and after walking for what felt like an eternity (at least it did then to our naive selves) we finally reached our first campsite. With a quick check-up from Mr Leach, we set up our tents, cooked using the trangia and jet boil, washed up and then went to sleep (a routine that would become all too familiar to us over the coming days).

Fast forward to Monday and it was the end of our practice. Even though we were staying in a campsite again, this one had the luxury of hot showers after which, we were all feeling refreshed and ready for our assessed expedition the very next morning. We set off in the rain for the first (and worst) day of our assessed expedition; with a 22km walk in the rain across a very hilly section of the South Downs it was not looking great. Luckily we were blessed with sunny weather for the rest of our DofE, and our finishing point was planned to perfection, arriving just in time for a lovely pub lunch at the Shoe Inn at Exton. We all thoroughly enjoyed this week hiking the South Downs way and all came away saying it was our best DofE yet! We would like to thank Mr Leach for all his amazing hard work that went into planning it, as well as the teachers who gave up their time assessing us.”

By Isobella, Estella, Mia and Chandu