On September 24/25 2005, I went on my Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Actual at Carver Barracks, Saffron Walden, Essex. On the first day my group of 5 people walked 13 km, over fields, grass footpaths and roads. During the first day we got directionally challenged, until a lady appeared out of nowhere in the field that we were standing in, with a pair of scissors in one hand and a dog in the other! She pointed us in the right direction and after that we were okay! The next problem occurred when we were crossing a ditch with our packs on. The ditch was roughly 3ft wide and 1.5ft deep. I crossed first and had my pack thrown to me. Next to cross was Cdt Costen. He fell into the ditch and looked like a stranded tortoise. The same for Cpl Tolson. However, the Cpl was fine after using me as a crash barrier!
We got back to the campsite, made camp, (2x Vango Force 10 Tents) cooked our dinner and after a night ex organised by wing staff, went to bed, looking forward to the next easy day!
Day two was slightly easier than the day before. We only had to walk 6.5km.The terrain was exactly the same as day one. Not a great deal happened on the 25th, just a lot of walking and complaining and asking, “How far we got left?”
Overall I believe that my group did well and completed the routes on both days in high spirits. Morale was high throughout the weekend.
F/Sgt. G.J.R Bagshaw
1582 (Stanford-le-Hope) SQN
