A restful morning in Hawes

I went to check on the girls early and, to my surprise, they had got up and left super early. Pleased with this, I headed back to Hawes for a spot of grub and a coffee before heading back to Mossdale Head to collect their route card and to check that they were on track.

As this was a rather easy last day, I was keen to leave them alone and trust them a bit more. I felt it was important for them to experience a little freedom and sense of achievement by being on their own a little more. Nevertheless, I couldn't help but be a little concerned so I parked up and waited for them to appear on the minor road near Thorney Mire House.

Despite their eagerness of earlier, they had once again slowed to a plod and were now behind schedule. With some final words of encouragement, I sent them on their way at a slightly quicker pace. Knowing this was their final leg, I headed back to Hawes to buy them all a can of coke and a cream egg - well, it was easter after all!

Eventually, the shattered group of girls arrived in the main coach car park where they were very relieved to be parted with their bags for a while. After the debrief, I didn't hang around for long and hit the road for the drive North back to Edinburgh. They had been a challenging group, but I was pleased with how they had coped and come through the challenge very much as a group. I wish them all the very best with the remainder of their Silver Award.

A slow plod over Great Shunner Fell and a few tears

I was away early and checked on the girls just after 7:30am. I wanted to make sure they were up sharp and ready to go, as I knew they had their biggest day ahead of them and were bound to find it tough. From the look of the sky, I could tell it was going to be a scorcher - not a cloud in the sky.

After helping the group get sorted a bit, I left them to pack up camp and headed back Hawes to grab some breakfast. After a bacon roll and a couple of coffees, I managed to blag a lift up to Butter Tubs. Because I knew that the girls were going to find it a tough day, my plan was to walk with them as much as possible today so hitching a lift meant that I could leave the car in Hawes. Before heading up the initially steep slopes and out onto Thwaite Common, I paused to peer into the massive sinkhole - an amazing sight.

Peering into the Butter Tubs sinkhole, Yorkshire Dales

It was a stunning day and I had great views in every direction. I was soon on the summit and chilled for a while, as I waited for the girls to appear. To my delight, I had plenty of company; a few other assessors and their respective groups were passing over the same top at various points that lunchtime. Looking Northeast through my binoculars back down the Pennine Way, I spotted group after group approaching. Unfortunately none met the description of my girls.

Looking Northeast from the summit of Great Shunner Fell, Yorkshire Dales

Eventually, looking rather knackered, the girls arrived at the summit and slumped down to eat their lunch. They said they had found the path out of Thwaite quite steep and very hard going. I tried to cheer them up by telling them that the climbing was over for the day, but it this statement didn't seem to bring them any obvious comfort.

The group walking across the summit of Great Shunner Fell, Yorkshire Dales

The next leg of their route was following the flat plateau to the Northwest and along to the boundary line running along Hugh Seat and Little Fell. This leg wasn't on a path so it was perfect to practice the art of walking on a bearing. Unfortunately visibility could not have been much better, so I had to get the girls to imagine that they were walking in the mist and try to look at their compass as much as possible. At this point however, I could sense very quickly that they were far too tired to care about my ramblings and a lesson in navigation. Progress was painfully slow; so in the interest of hoping to reach camp before dark, I quickly took up the lead. As if things weren't already slow, the next hinderance was the horrible peat hag that we had to negotiate for the next 4km! It was some of the most complex terrain I had come across and we had numerous short steep sections of ascent and descent - but not quite enough to warrant a contour on the 1:50k map. This unpleasantness proved a little too much for a couple of the group and they sat down at one point sobbing to each other. A brief respite and some words of encouragement from the others soon saw them back on their feet again.

The girls were totally wiped by the time we reached the path that lead the way to their campsite at Moorcock. They were also running low on water so I told them to get the purification tablets out and fill up from the stream. It was the home stretch now but it was a real struggle to motivate them and push them on towards camp - it was almost 7pm when we began pitching tents.

Jamie arrived shortly in the minibus and we headed back to Hawes for some grub. An excellent day on The Fells - the girls had done well and will hopefully sleep well knowing that they've got an easy final day tomorrow.

Grinton, Feetham, Gunnerside, Muker and a slow group

The girls had a relatively straightforward route from Grinton to Muker today. There were some light showers in the morning but it turned into a cracking afternoon when the sun came out. As I expected, they struggled with their heavy bags on their first expedition and walked at around 2kmph. This resulted in a rather lazy day for myself and a lot of waiting around. Because this was their first exped, I didn't want to leave them alone or out of sight for too long - just in case they went too far wrong. To my surprise, they still managed to take the wrong track a couple of times and I spied them sitting aimlessly at the side of the road looking rather sorry for themselves.

Looking across the River Swale from Ramps Holme towards Muker, Yorkshire Dales

Keeping a close eye on them, I managed to get them to walk a little faster and eventually they arrived at their first camp in Muker. The look on their faces, as the rain started while they were putting up tents, was priceless to say the least!

Looking across the River Swale from Ramps Holme towards Muker, Yorkshire Dales

After taking through tomorrow's route, making sure they didn't set fire to anything, and seeing them all eat something hot, I headed over the hill to Hawes for the night. Hopefully the girls will be faster tomorrow.

The Dales, Hawes, Grinton and D of E

This evening I drove down to The Dales to assess a group of fifth year girls from George Watson's College on their D of E silver practice expedition. James and I drove down the M6 in convoy and were in Hawes for a spot of afternoon tea by mid afternoon. It was a gloriously hot sunny day and we had made good time driving down from Edinburgh.

Eventually the coach arrived in Hawes and half of the groups got settled into Hawes Hostel. After helping to unload all the gear, I headed over the hills to Grinton Lodge to get the others settled in. On the way there I had a fantastic view over the fells and, looking at the forecast, it was looking like it was going to hold for the next few days.

After sorting out rooms, kit, tents etc, it was time for the traditional English hostel three course meal - magic. I then sat down with the girls and talked them through the next few days. They all seemed a bit unsure about everything. As it turns out, none of them had done bronze before and this was to be their first expedition. It's certainly going to be an interesting few days...