Wet and Windy Wales

Mid September saw me in Snowdonia, North Wales helping with a Duke of Edinburgh training week for several schools in the Canterbury/Ashford area.

The week began with a training day. This  mainly concentrated on navigation but also covered some first aid scenarios, camp craft, essential and non essential kit, rucsac packing etc. Then the groups did a practice 4 day expedition.

One of the groups I worked with was the group planning to do their qualifying expedition in the Pyrenees. The weather was not kind all week and bad enough for several of the groups to have to switch to their lower level wet weather alternative routes. 

Here is a photo of the group during a rare improvement in the weather. They were in good spirits not just because it was brighter and had stopped raining, but also because the day had gone well. They told me they were beginning to feel like a real  team. There was also no more height to gain that day. They had ascended to the col Bwlch Cwm Llan and it was now all down hill to the campsite.

The week was based at The Kent Mountain Centre. There is more information about the centre here.

Must we always teach our children with books? Let them look at the mountains and the stars up above. Let them look at the beauty of the waters and the trees and flowers on earth. They will then begin to think, and to think is the beginning of a real education.
- David Polis