Over the weekend of 31 March to 02 Apr 2023 over 20 cadets and staff from 1401 (Alfreton & Ripley) Sqn and 2326 (Clay Cross) Sqn RAFAC assembled at Lea Green Activity Centre in the southern White Peak to undertake a weekend of Silver DofE Practices ahead of an assessed expedition at the end of April. Both weekends were generously supported by the Ulysses Trust and RAF Charitable Trust.
Prior to the weekend all of the cadets had done their route planning, some refresher training on stoves, tents and kit packing and devised a menu they hoped to refine ahead of their assessed expedition.
All of the cadets involved had undertaken Bronze the previous year (again supported by Ulysses Trust) and were looking forward to another challenge. The first day was a close supervision walk with the instructing staff doing some revision on navigation, emergency procedures and first aid scenarios at various checkpoints – the rest of the weekend was remote supervision practicing the skills needed to pass their assessment, whilst the instructing staff looked on to give feedback.
The weekend weather was generally fair but a gusting wind made it cold at times and in true DofE fashion it started raining as the cadets headed into camp on the Saturday evening mean they had to put up tents and cook in the rain!
The routes were a mix of bridleway and lesser used paths, making some of the navigation challenging as being early season for walkers these paths were not obvious in place, and those that were obvious were very muddy, but the teams persevered and are now well prepared to head on for their assessment, again in the White Peak, last weekend in April.
The groups were looking at local history and in the process the route took them past Crich memorial which was for the local men of the Sherwood Foresters lost in the World Wars, in an interesting twist it turned out one the directing staffs great grandfathers died serving with them in WW1.
“I really enjoyed the weekend and felt much stronger than last year, or maybe I just packed my bag better and didn’t bring loads of kits I didn’t use this year!“
Cdt Nicholls 1401 Sqn
“This was a definite step up from Bronze, the paths were really muddy and the route more hilly than our Bronze, but the views at times were amazing and its great we kept the same team together – hopefully we can go all the way through to Gold as a team!”
Cpl Green 2326 Sqn
The Ulysses Trust also wish to thank the generosity of the Royal Air Force Charitable Trust for supporting this expedition. www.rafct.com
