Duke of Edinburgh expedition Tues

[slowco4ch]

Hi there, my DS is due to do his DofE expedition Tues into Wed, I’m panicking a bit about the heat, a 6 hour walk with a heavy backpack. They have reduced the load in the backpacks slightly by suggesting no changes of clothes or the cold weather just in case items. Has anyone had experience of this? It just seems a bit mad not to reschedule at this point. Any advice appreciated!

Where is he going to be?

My ds( now almost 24) still talks about the time he thought he was going to die on a DOE hike during a heatwave ! Ok so he may have been a tad dramatic ! I think they had to end it early in the end. Hopefully they will risk assess properly as I don't think my ds's one was !

Trust me. They will assess it properly. There will be lots of breaks and water

DD did her practice gold D of E expedition on Dartmoor in the last heatwave.

They let them leave the tents, sleeping bags, roll mats and cooking gear with the organisers so they had less to carry.

They also had plenty of water to top them up at check points and also changed one of the campsites to one with more shade because of the heat.

We were worried, but she was fine and they were all sensible and no sunburnt skin to be seen when we picked up.

One of ours was risk assessed and they walked less / started early morning and didn't walk in the midday heat. Another was stuck on an island (wind) for a day and just had to bunker down (they had radio contact). Again all risk assessed. They both passed. They try not to reschedule as could outside examiners who may be booked for months ahead.

Hope her has a great time!

He’ll be in the south east, just outside Oxford area. So right in the hottest part of the country for Tuesday I believe. Thank you for sharing past experiences and around the risk assessments. I’m a worrier by nature and had been hoping we’d be out the other side of the worst of it! I’m sure it will be fine, he’s one of those people who only knows he’s thirsty when he’s completely parched or when he’s cold when the icicles drop off his nose. I’ll just have to
drill into him to use the shade and keep his water topped up and drink up!

Get him a hat, some factor 30 sun lotion and tell him to drink loads. Pack him a few salty snacks.

I'm the DofE leader at my school, we are out on Bronze at the end of the week.

Things we are doing to mitigate - hats are non'negotiable and if you dont have one, we have spare!

Extra checkpoints with water (although its practice anyway, so checkpoint is never more than 3k away).

Our campsite is really shady anyway, so thats not an issue.

If we were going on Tuesday, I would probably take all the group kit in the van to seriously reduce the weight kids are carrying. Depending on location and transport arrangements (and the hour by jour forcast) start early, have a long break at midday and carry on late afternoon. If it was where I was doing silver a few weeks ago, I would reduce the distance by about 5k.

What we wouldnt do though is ignore the forecast, and we also wouldnt mind any parents checking in with us about our plans. I would be concerned if they didn't change anything.

I would have no issue with my own kids doing an expedition with a group like mine (obviously!) But i have seen many groups out which I would, so I would urge uou to check in with the leaders.

Oh, another tip - a snood or microfiber towel, in a zip lock bag. Mini icepack, bit of water to keep it damp. Put it on the back of the neck. So effective. I have 2 snood I will be alternating to keep them damp and cool!

I forgot, as someone else said, they all got up early and were off walking by 6:30 I think, to stay out of the worst of the heat. In that heat, you’re not sleeping well in a tent anyway are you!

A lot of schools are doing expeditions this week. Ours have said they’re keeping an eye on the forecast and will adapt accordingly (presumably with extra water stops and hopefully ice lollies etc). Hopefully they’ll set them off walking early.

For those who think the kids just need to have resilience and get on with it, high temperatures can be dangerous, especially when doing activities such as long walks/hikes. The human body is designed to function at 37 degrees. As soon as the air temperature rises above that, the body has to work very hard to try to cool itself. Temperatures in the high 30s (in full sun) are very different from the high 20s, which still often feels hot.

Ours is cancelled because of the heat

My DS went this weekend worried about the heat as it was meant to be a lot warmer this weekend but it’s not as hot as predicted I think at one point last week it was due to be 30. They still walked early loads of stops and changed campsite to one with more shade/showers. Also told not to pack the extra cold/waterproof stuff.

Thank you for this, really useful. The leaders have been ace and lots of school contact too so I don’t doubt any of them on that.

I'm in charge of trips at my school, I met with our DOE leader on Friday and we've cancelled our bronze expedition on Tues and Weds, in Kent due to the weather. There may well be chats going on behind the scenes that you're not aware of at the moment.

Thanks for this, do you use an external company to facilitate the expedition? My worry is that they will be keen to keep everything on track if the reports are right it seems a bit mad to go ahead. I was also reading although they can lighten the load of the bags or shorten the route it will still require 6 hours of activity per day regardless. We’ll see what tomorrow brings other than a new blooming leadership contest!

That sounds sensible but my dc are doing their gold this week and they’ve been told there will be more water checkpoints. I wish they would take their kit for them! 17kg is the starting weight which will obviously reduce but I don’t see why school can’t take their food etc for them to the next campsite.

Ours has been postponed now that we’ve moved to red alert. I’m very relieved to be honest but so grateful for all the insights and advice, thank you all!

This is why the red alerts are so important, it triggers risk assessments. Glad it's cancelled.

This didn't age well! The weather forecast changed so we have cancelled our expedition this weekend!