D OF E GOLD - DAY ONE =]

By 7:00pm on Saturday night, I decided it might be a good idea to pack for my Gold D of E! Realising I had no food apart from freeze dried stuff, me and my dad whizzed down to Morrison’s (which I will never forgive him for) and fancied a take-away from the Shamratt on the way back. All was packed and food was eaten by 9:30.
The next morning I met the rest of the crew at Alcamy at 10:00am. Arrived at Kettlewell youth hostel at 12:00 and after a quick bite to eat, sorted gear out, to much amusement to everyone when I de-cluttered Gary’s bag to half the weight. Met the assessor part way through a game of chocolate ‘Deal or no deal’, and had a final pep talk.
Got tea on the go at 6:00. Bex dropped Josh’s on the floor, which worked out well for him as he had some of each of ours and ended up with more in the end! Much fun was had over pudding when Rachy-babe and Eddy came up with the new word ‘wald’ (an alternate for the word warm, between hot and cold!) Eddy is now on a mission to find the metal that malts at ‘wald’ and become a world class professor. Moseyed on down to the pub later and me, Rachy-babe and Josh decided to go awondering. We walked out of Kettlewell, through large branched over the bridge, I saved some small animals by scaring them ... and Josh and Rachy-babe taught my about animals. Also came across an old petrol station ... the kind they use in dodge car adverts etc. Met the others at the pub and took part in the pub quiz, and didn’t do to badly I add! Raced the others back to the youth hostel and won ... much to Gary’s annoyment. Fell into bed at last and had strange dreams about ‘deal or no deal’.

DAY TWO =]

Woke up bright and early, grabbed a quick shower, packed up, and organised everyone into a production line for a cooked breakfast in the kitchen. Rach put bread in the toaster, I buttered it, Bex cooked the beans, Mike cooked sausages and bacon, Gary set the table (or should have done) and Eddy and Josh took food out. After everybody was suitable stuffed, the guys washed up and soon we were all rearing to go ... and pretty lost in Kettlewell before we had gone anywhere!
The first few km were spent contouring down a valley and round a hill. We went past Scargill house – many a happy memories for me and Mike as we went there for the church weekend away. We saw a silver group ahead of us and some badly shaven sheep, but the soil creep, limestone pavement and craggy bits were the most interesting. Met Dennis the assessor just before Conistone and had a quick blister stop and refuelling session. Got to the bridge and had lunch and an art stop before trudging up a hill, rolling down it and having a navigation stop. I, Mike and Josh did most of the navigation and we didn’t get lost at all! We found an old barn which I insisted on exploring and a good few pics were taken.

There were some issues of the exact location of the campsite, which turned out to be someone’s back garden! I and Mike had been running up and down a few roads to find it, and eventually we got there. Our ‘tidy’ skills have certainly not improved since last D of E and after showers, boil in the bag tea’s and some camera action, all was tidied up and I called a de-brief of the day and a quick chat about the route and plans for the next day. All were in bed by 10:00 and after a game of ‘Deal or no deal’ between tents, we fell asleep.

DAY THREE =]

Second day of actual D of E began awfully. I have never seen such midges! All was quickly packed up by 8:45 and I spent 20mins looking for my hot chocolate. Sang a few walking songs to get us going and had a few cow encounters on the way. Had a minor ‘BO’ stop and passed the map around so everyone had done a bit of navigation. I had taught everyone how to use a compass in Kettlewell, and it was proving useful! Lunch and an art stop were had in a nice yellow field and Eddy went mad with the suncream. Moseyed on down and met Jenny and Paul who sorted Eddy’s feet out and we were soon heading along the Pennine way to Malham.
Camped at Gordale Scar, after tea and tents, I managed to drag people down to the waterfall for a scramble – which was unsuccessful. Anyway, fun was had by all and lots of photos were taken, Gary predicted it would rain at 9:00, and it promptly began to chuck it down at 9:05. Dived into the tents and chatted for a while, was then woken up at 2:00am by Rachel screaming about potassium and pudding ...

DAY FOUR =]

Time was spent on the limestone pavement above Malham cove and certain people were shouted at when they started taking pictures of their feet ... over the edge. Went through allot of shake holes around Gorbeck, and walked through a bog ending up in a mini forest, by which point it was getting pretty damp and people were pretty wet. We hung wet stuff on branches and got some hot chocolate going, while Gary-lad made a miniature forest out of some well chosen sticks. I wasn’t allowed to build a shelter to I settled for bisects. Met Jenny and Paul just out of the forest and after I pointing out the Yorkshire fells, we were allowed water.
Got into the campsite at Stainforth in good time. Eddy was upset as there was a considerable amount of cheese in the shop which he couldn’t have. The evening was spent doing art by the river, playing gladiator on the kids play area, racing up and down the campsite and eating excess food. Playing cards in the guy’s tent went on till gone 11:00 and hence we were pretty shattered the next morning.

DAY FIVE =]

It was a wet start to the last day and some navigation expertise in leap frogging was almost required at points. The morning was hard as people were starting to get fed up of the naff weather and constant bogs. I ended up singing ‘Hairspray’ up half the road, and I and Josh sang the traditional SClub & ‘Don’t Stop Moving’.
Met Jenny and Paul to collect some rubber gloves for over Rachy’s gloves. Soon stopped for lunch on Knowe Fell then powered round Malham Tarn to the finish where there was apple pie and cheese waiting for us (Eddy). Stopped off for chips on the return journey before picking up Dennis for a de-brief. All was successful and we all passed.

In conclusion, D of E was an amazing experience to test friendship and my navigation in fog =] we all learnt something and it was one big holiday ... just with allot of rain ... it just made it funny really!

for more photoes see - http://picasaweb.google.com/Emmmmmmmmmmmma

MORE EXAMS, WORK, HAILITE, DANIELLES PARTY AND ASDA

The last few weeks I’ve hardly seen the light of day ... been revising to the point of chemistry coming out of my ears. Started my job at Clarks, and was surprised at how easy it was to sell shoes, providing your good at convincing strangers they need things they don’t really need ... like ‘shoe trees’ ... I can be very persuasive. I also got to wear a sexy head set like in the movies and spent the first five minuets pretending to be Kylie!
Danielle’s party last night was certainly eventful. Me, Alice, Danielle, Shawnee, Sarah, Pauline, Beaky and Mike had our last geology exam in the morning, and chose to celebrate by visiting the famous Mr. Evens for the keys to the geology room ... and stealing a rather large amount of Halite (a very salty rock). Anyway, we made it to the entrance hall, and after having a geography revision session with Mr. Porter, Mr. Clowes (geology teacher) finally hunted us down and demanded his beloved rock back from Alice ... that reused point Blanc. Soon we were on the bus to Skem and saw allot of nice fields which I want to run around in one day =].
The party got started and I made friends with Danielle’s Nan (who is amazing!) we danced the night away, and danced in front of the TV when the male portion on the guests decided to watch the football ... but ended up watching us! At about 10:30, me and Danielle walked Shawnee and Michael to the bus station ... only to find there were no trains till 7:00 am, and a scary man watching us. So I calmly phoned Arriva ... the bus did turn up in the end and everything was ok.
A while later, me Alice, Lisa and Pauline were standing outside Asda weighting for Alice’s dad ... who the whole time was weighting for us across the car park but had his phone off. The result was that we spent about 45 minuets, standing around Asda with a few trips inside to get Galaxy ... mmmm and to have a look at the bedding section, just incase we had to spend the night. I got home at some ridiculas hour in the morning and went straight to bed after polishing off the galaxy as I had work in the morning.
Had my last chemistry exams on the Thursday which went awful and I’ve been thinking of a back-up plan if I don’t get into Edinburgh ... =] Anyhow, I met Pauline, Becky and Mike at the station later that night for our geology party organised by Mr Evens and Mr clowes. We moseyed on down to Lloyds bar for a drink or two and then for a geological tour down Lord Street (I had no idea there were so many brachiopods in the walls of Waterstones!) got to the Restaurant and reminisces over the past two years and especially the trip to Arran in Scotland! By the end of the meal, some of us ... Toby ... were a little worse for wear due to the now absence of a bottle of wine or two. We then found an Irish dancing pub ... somehow... and yet again I got the party started by getting everyone to dance!

A good time was had by all and I know for sure I certainly will never look at a rock or formation without questioning it again after these two amazing years!