On the 11th and 12th of June we had our Duke of Edinburgh qualifying expedition which took place in the Chiltern Hills, Bedfordshire.  The weekend started with 6 hours of planning and we had to plan our routes and activity details for each day.  We had to walk 12km each day using only a route card which we prepared during the planning activity for guidance (no phones or GPS!).  The first day was fairly uneventful and we were successful in navigating to the campsite, even managing to put our tent up and cook our own dinner.  On the second day however, we experienced some very challenging weather with torrential rain and some winds.  We found it difficult to motivate ourselves at times and the final straw was when we met with a herd of very aggressive cows.  We had backed ourselves into a corner and were being approached by a lot of cows (they looked aggressive or hungry, or both!).  After trying to search for an alternative exit, we were forced to phone our supervisor for support.  Eventually we found an alternative route but this added an extra hour and a half onto our journey time.  

Overall the expedition was gruelling but despite the difficulties we faced, we enjoyed the time we shared as a team.  We were delighted to have passed the expedition and we think of it as a great achievement as we learned commitment, team work and perseverance.  

Sana Syeed and Ronnie Bunton, Year 10

The herd of cows