[munro90]

(Original post by ch0c0h01ic)
On our first day a force nine storm swept through. Our first camp-site was very low lying and the ground was very spongy, everything was fine when we first got there. Overnight it rained so much that the water table rose while our tent sank into the ground slightly with the weight of us and all of our kit in it, cue water seeping in over the top of our sewn in ground sheet.

I woke up in the morning when I rolled into a 1" deep puddle in the middle of our tent. Cold and wet sleeping bags from the first night onwards, we literally shivered ourselves to sleep ever night.

The weather was so bad that we had to actually peg our door closed and even then the wind managed to blow it open every hour or so. We lost a good few tent pegs that night. Our tent was one of the few at the camp site that wasn't flattened; those that could slept in their cars (pussies)

Needless to say now as a precaution if the weather's bad I get in my bivy bag, at the very least it's going to keep the condensation off of you if you touch the side.

unlucky!
We had a similar experience on our gold- our fist campsite was low lying by a meander in a river but an impressive storm (not sure how strong) came over the first night. It blew down one of the tents snapping the pole so we spent half the night with three big guys in a very small two man tent. Then when we woke up the next morning the rainfall had swollen the river causing it to refill a stream bed leading to us being stranded on an island! Then later that day we had to cross a river that had risen about a foot since our teacher had scouted it the previous day- i had to go back and forth 7 times to get everyone across!! Oh the joys of DofE

[ch0c0h01ic]

(Original post by munro90)
unlucky!
We had a similar experience on our gold- our fist campsite was low lying by a meander in a river but an impressive storm (not sure how strong) came over the first night. It blew down one of the tents snapping the pole so we spent half the night with three big guys in a very small two man tent. Then when we woke up the next morning the rainfall had swollen the river causing it to refill a stream bed leading to us being stranded on an island! Then later that day we had to cross a river that had risen about a foot since our teacher had scouted it the previous day- i had to go back and forth 7 times to get everyone across!! Oh the joys of DofE

The other guys in our team had a dome tent with steel poles which bent in the strong wind. The headroom in their tent went from several feet to resting on their noses

Likewise our route followed the valley bottom, little trickles/streams became effectively rivers the sizes of roads at a couple of feet deep. Everyone got wet feet that day and of course we couldn't dry our boots out. The only guy with dry feet from then onwards luckily had a pair of waterproof socks hidden away.

We experienced similar storms on our practice expedition but we were lucky enough to be on slightly higher and firmer ground, it was still bloody miserable.

Singing 'Is this the road to Amarillo' as we walked up Snowdon was one of the highlights for me

[HoVis]

(Original post by ch0c0h01ic)
The other guys in our team had a dome tent with steel poles which bent in the strong wind. The headroom in their tent went from several feet to resting on their noses

Likewise our route followed the valley bottom, little trickles/streams became effectively rivers the sizes of roads at a couple of feet deep. Everyone got wet feet that day and of course we couldn't dry our boots out. The only guy with dry feet from then onwards luckily had a pair of waterproof socks hidden away.

We experienced similar storms on our practice expedition but we were lucky enough to be on slightly higher and firmer ground, it was still bloody miserable.

Singing 'Is this the road to Amarillo' as we walked up Snowdon was one of the highlights for me

My DofE team banned me from singing. And this from a team-mate who played his harmonica the entire way around!

[ch0c0h01ic]

One of my team mates (male) brought along an MP3 player so we got regular excerpts from the Spice Girls, Bewitched, Tom Jones and all sorts of weird and wonderful stuff. He was really popular.

[Age_of_Innocence]

Compeed are good for blisters, probably been mentioned before, but are a real painsaver to have. And bring plenty of socks, wearing wet socks the next day is an unpleasant experience and can exacerbate blister formations. If you have done Silver and Bronze then Gold will be fine, I did it without doing the previous two and was grand. A few times the going was hard, but if you are in a good team then you'll all help motivate each other. All the best with it.

[saraster]

(Original post by Asclepius)


I also found that using trainers was a good idea, as they are hugely lighter than a pair of 3 season boots.

trollolololololol? :P