How tired were you after a 3 day hike, or a Gold DofE expedition?

.snowflake.

and also nothing can beat the just showered/bathed feeling after a DofE hike :smile:

Good luck!

Even having only just done Bronze dofe i'll agree with you. That and the OMGZ. Bed I LOVE YOU feeling you have that night. I did spend from like half 11 at night through to 2.30 the following morning awake because the girl I was sharing a tent with was shivvering so much and wiggling about in her sleeping bag to try and get warm.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 21

infernalcradle

15

I was a bit tired, but it was mainly the shoulders the ached like hell....

even gold isn't hard if you know what you're doing/packing

Reply 22

infernalcradle

15

Original post by .snowflake.

Even having only just done Bronze dofe i'll agree with you. That and the OMGZ. Bed I LOVE YOU feeling you have that night.

haha, this....

after a week of gold, (so no showers etc.) and then going home and sinking into a hot bath....DAMN ITS GOOD!!!

Reply 23

clairemckenziex

Original post by Cee_eye_owen_aye

CCF... but we didn't do DofE with cadets, though both are at school. Admittedly, the actual outdoorsy stuff we do with CCF is mostly confined to climbing Snowdon once a year and maybe walking round a lake on camp, though I like to think that the days of section attacks and night ambushes and hours of stag duty and reccy patrols and whatnot make up for it...
Yeah, I do value my fisherman's tales :smile:

aww kl, what branch? haha yeah, we end up walking for miles when we're doing fieldcraft and all the crawling about you have to do totally makes up for not doing a lot! :L im training for nijmegen just now so i have plenty of outdoor walking practice! :L

Reply 24

Cee_eye_owen_aye

1

Original post by Citrus_lime

that sounds horrendous! So would you be fit for any physical activity, say a day or two afterwards?

Haha, it genuinely wasn't that bad, and I did harvest some amazing experiences and all that (though, the practice was pretty appalling- four people got hypothermia because the weather was basically rain and snow, non stop). As I said above, I do like to talk about it in overly dramatic terms as well.

I'm not sure about being fit for *any* physical activity- maybe it's just that my boots didn't fit, but I had blisters the size of fifty pence pieces afterwards, so I couldn't wear my school shoes for a few days, only flip flops (and that was naturally very attractive). However, I don't remember actually feeling too exhausted to manage the school day or anything. If you're fit, and possibly just overall better at mapreading than our group, you should probably be able to cope with things, maybe out of sheer relief at having done it all... you might be the best judge, though. What exactly is your residential, and are you going on it literally the next day?

Reply 25

meg162

I didn't really feel to bad or aching, tbh after the gold d of e expedition i felt like i could hike at least another day!

Reply 26

Citrus_lime

OP

7

Original post by Cee_eye_owen_aye

Haha, it genuinely wasn't that bad, and I did harvest some amazing experiences and all that (though, the practice was pretty appalling- four people got hypothermia because the weather was basically rain and snow, non stop). As I said above, I do like to talk about it in overly dramatic terms as well.

I'm not sure about being fit for *any* physical activity- maybe it's just that my boots didn't fit, but I had blisters the size of fifty pence pieces afterwards, so I couldn't wear my school shoes for a few days, only flip flops (and that was naturally very attractive). However, I don't remember actually feeling too exhausted to manage the school day or anything. If you're fit, and possibly just overall better at mapreading than our group, you should probably be able to cope with things, maybe out of sheer relief at having done it all... you might be the best judge, though. What exactly is your residential, and are you going on it literally the next day?

We are going on a plane to spain the next day and doing water sports for a week - sailing, water skiing and surfing.

Our instructor advised against it, but it is the only week we can fit it in. I don't have to do water sports as my residential though, I could do something 'more boring' another time. What do you think I should do? Would it be worth aching and then not enjoying water sports?

Reply 27

Citrus_lime

OP

7

Original post by meg162

I didn't really feel to bad or aching, tbh after the gold d of e expedition i felt like i could hike at least another day!

how experienced were you with hiking and stuff though?

Reply 28

twelve

13

Original post by Citrus_lime

We are going on a plane to spain the next day and doing water sports for a week - sailing, water skiing and surfing.

Our instructor advised against it, but it is the only week we can fit it in. I don't have to do water sports as my residential though, I could do something 'more boring' another time. What do you think I should do? Would it be worth aching and then not enjoying water sports?

Next day you should be fine.

As long as you've been on the practise walks you'll be fine. Honestly, I felt pretty awful until I'd got home, had a hot shower and a good meal (fresh food, the luxury!) and slept in a comfy bed.

Tiny bit achy, but as long as you have decent equipment, don't let yourself sunburn, and good walking socks and blister plasters, there's no problem really. You're walking for eight hours a day, and you have HOURS to recover when you get back to campsite.

Reply 29

hookguy

10

When I did D of E silver, in both the practice and actual hikes I had horrendous blistering on my feet, both times my fault. First, in the practice, I had the wrong shoes. In the actual, I hadn't broken in my proper hiking boots properly so they were just as bad. Fitness wise, its easy, and I'm quite sure Gold won't be too hard.

Also instead of complaining how unfit you are, go to the gym and do some cardio for a few months

Reply 30

FireDeuce

14

Knackered.
More likely it was due to hardly any sleep, being cold and wet for the majority of the time, and living off sugary food causing energy dips than the walking.

Then I was dragged to Berlin for 3 days which wasn't particularly enjoyable.

Reply 31

Kidneyjean

7

My DofE Gold practice was absolute death. We did it in November, so it was freezing and rainy every day without fail... and it got dark by about 4pm all the time, which meant we were navigating in the dark a lot :P

But I wasn't actually that achey apart from the first day :smile:

I think after that, we just got used to it.

Reply 32

SAK.A

14

I've only ever been hiking once. But it all depends on your level of fitness. And what you eat.

Reply 33

ily_em

17

Original post by Citrus_lime

We are going on a plane to spain the next day and doing water sports for a week - sailing, water skiing and surfing.

Our instructor advised against it, but it is the only week we can fit it in. I don't have to do water sports as my residential though, I could do something 'more boring' another time. What do you think I should do? Would it be worth aching and then not enjoying water sports?

You do realise that the residential has to be with people you don't know, right?

To achieve your Gold Award, you need to complete an extra section – the Residential. This involves spending 5 days and 4 nights away from home on a shared activity with people you’ve never met before.

http://www.dofe.org/en/content/cms/Doing_your_DofE/Your_DofE_programme/Sections/Residential/Residential.aspx

Reply 34

r_u_t_h

8

Very. And I would say my fitness level was fairly good. Although we did walk across Scotland... However, don't listen to any of the horror stories. Do it. It will be the most fun ever, I really miss D of E now that I've finished it. :frown:

Reply 35

Samg123

45 miles in a day and a half (Ten Tors) buggered me up for a couple of days- feet feel crushed doing the actual walking but afterwards its the legs and shoulders that ache- putting your bag back on in the morning isn't fun...
55 will bugger me up for a whole week I expect.

Reply 36

gravityisamyth

I was exhausted for about two weeks afterwards, but I was unfit then compared to now. So I guess it depends on your fitness level at the moment and how used you are to hiking and things. D of E was really the only hiking/mountaineering experience I'd had at the time.

Reply 37

Holly Hiskey

11

I was fine- our Summer Ball was the same day as we finished so I got off the coach, into the shower and then went to the ball in high heels and was fine. As long as you're fit you'll be ok!

Reply 38

meg162

Original post by Citrus_lime

how experienced were you with hiking and stuff though?

I had completed my bronze expedition (2008) and silver expeditions (2009) and my practise gold expedition (2010) before I did the assessed Gold expedition. Apart from these expeditions I didn't do much hiking.

I did find the first 2 days hiking a bit tiring but after that the next 2 days seemed a lot easier, probably because I had built up stamina and when I finished I didn't feel tired at all, if anything I felt more refreshed, as I said before I could have done another day hiking.