The exact details of most of my early walks are lost to the mists of time, but a couple survive firstly because they were undertaken as part of a Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award Scheme and secondly (remarkably) I still have my original maps with routes marked on them. In April 1991 (exact dates unsure) I passed a qualifying expedition of the (then) obligatory 50miles over 4 days with 3 nights camping and full kit in a group of six. My abiding memory of this trip is that on the second day we'd planned to cover 18miles, on the reasonable grounds that this would mean the latter 2 days would be easier than the first two. That day coincided with a heavy mist and constant rain and we spent what seemed like hours trapsing in formation compasses in hands over interminable soggy moor. To add insult to injury at lunchtime, dispite 20 minutes patience, our trangia stove seemed utterly unwilling to boil water and it was decided that starting moving again would make a better contribution to well being than waiting longer. On a brighter note that was ther very worst day of the trip and our assessor also told us this was the day we passed, having reached every checkpoint on time with exemplary navigation, dispite the long day and appalling weather. I've included this trip a a QMD, because my feeling is that this was the trip that really consolidated the navigation theory that I'd been learning since joining the DOE group in 1988 and also, though I realise in hindsight we were probably quite well supervised, at the time it really felt like we were out there on and for ourselves, with all the responsibility that entailed. AS well as Hound Tor & Bellever Tor (mentioned above) my map indicates we took a North to South route across Dartmoor taking in Cosdon Hill(550), Watern Tor(526), Hartland Tor(410),Stalldown Barrow(415) and a plethora of stone circles and other such archeological relics.
The exact details of most of my early walks are lost to the mists of time, but a couple survive firstly because they were undertaken as part of a Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award Scheme and secondly (remarkably) I still have my original maps with routes marked on them. In April 1991 (exact dates unsure) I passed a qualifying expedition of the (then) obligatory 50miles over 4 days with 3 nights camping and full kit in a group of six. My abiding memory of this trip is that on the second day we'd planned to cover 18miles, on the reasonable grounds that this would mean the latter 2 days would be easier than the first two. That day coincided with a heavy mist and constant rain and we spent what seemed like hours trapsing in formation compasses in hands over interminable soggy moor. To add insult to injury at lunchtime, dispite 20 minutes patience, our trangia stove seemed utterly unwilling to boil water and it was decided that starting moving again would make a better contribution to well being than waiting longer. On a brighter note that was ther very worst day of the trip and our assessor also told us this was the day we passed, having reached every checkpoint on time with exemplary navigation, dispite the long day and appalling weather. I've included this trip a a QMD, because my feeling is that this was the trip that really consolidated the navigation theory that I'd been learning since joining the DOE group in 1988 and also, though I realise in hindsight we were probably quite well supervised, at the time it really felt like we were out there on and for ourselves, with all the responsibility that entailed. AS well as Hound Tor & Bellever Tor (mentioned above) my map indicates we took a North to South route across Dartmoor taking in Cosdon Hill(550), Watern Tor(526), Hartland Tor(410),Stalldown Barrow(415) and a plethora of stone circles and other such archeological relics.
