dofe

[lilholeis1234]

My 15 year old son is taking his D of E bronze award and in a couple of weeks he's doing a trek in Derbyshire. Anyone got any suggestions on food and thing he needs to pack i dont have a cule he can take? Must be light to carry, easy to cook and nothing that'll give him delhi belly if not cooked properly (That's a mumsy thing!!) Thought of the usual things like heinz sausage n beans, pasta etc but this boy eats for England normally, so with all this exercise he'll need plenty of filling food.(Which he has to carry) for food but i dont know what bi have to pack all together thanks

"By the time he's doing gold i hope he can pack himself."

Gold?! I can understand needing help with packing for Bronze practice, if the teen has never been away before or camped before, but by Bronze assessment they should be doing it alone. What is the point otherwise?! Why bother doing DofE, if not to (among other things) become a bit more independent? If they forget something, well, they won't forget next time! And really, it's for one night - what is so vital that they won't cope without it for one night? Anything absolutely essential - tent, food, stove etc should all be distibuted between the group anyway so no chance of forgetting it.

I'm assuming muddyangels is sort of joking when she's talking about letting him pack for himself when doing gold

I hope so! Apologies if you are muddyangels and I have jumped down your throat needlessly.

DD1 went on her Gold practice leaving one of the tent poles behind . Her group made her unpack everything before they set off for the proper assessment .

No i'm going to be strong and let him pack/sort out all his own stuff for D of E.
I will put his meds. in as he never remembers them for school let alone cadets/DofE.
I know Cadets support them through D of E.
My son did 2 nights sleeping out (fieldcraft) at camp over easter. So this should be easy.

Yeah, sorry i was joking.
He needs to pack himself. He's just lazy.TBH

Well done muddyangels . My dd is insisting she wont be packing a waterproof 'because it won't rain and nobody my age wears them'

I am somewhat sadistically hoping for a rainstorm on expedition practice weekend as that is only way she is going to learn

chishandfips, don't worry, i can take it.
I think you have a point. If you don't let them be independent now, there's no hope when they become adults.That's the whole point of things like D of E.

Grungeblobprimpants,

hi guy thank you very much for your comments like most of them and has been great.
my son has pack his bag all by his self and broght the bag and everything him self. i just wanted to ask becasue he said that he need to take pot thing or evrything that he can just add water to and i wanted to check that before he goes away he is a very independent boy and has done this all by him self

he has packed his bag him self as well and also he said i dont need to check it he dont even know i have been on here ....

may i also ask you lovely people if the 1.5L back packs are anygood befcasue his bag is like 40 stone thats a joke but its hard to lift bless him but he has got one of them and take a spare bottle of water so i wanted to know is there anygood but beat there better taking them then taking a bottle ion his hand thaks once again please get back to me about the above i have ask many thanks

He'll have lots of fun I expect. My two have done quite a few DoE expeditions now and started out taking a lot more stuff, but have gradually pared it down to the bare minimum. With bronze you can get away with extra stuff as it's only one night, so the extras all fit, but they soon learn that it's easier with a lighter pack and as the trips get longer the amount of space for spare clothes and bits and pieces etc gets smaller.

Not sure what you mean by 1.5L backpack? Fairly sure the rucksack mine use is 80L and they'd struggle with anything much smaller than that. Yes it's heavy, even with extras down to a minimum. If it's a water bladder you are talking about, then in my opinion water weighs the same whether it's in a bottle in a rucksack pocket or in a bladder. They need about 1L minimum of water, but don't really need more as they can refill at campsites.

Ds always takes pitta bread rather than rolls for lunches by the way - he says they take being squashed better.

I run a DofE gold group at my school. In terms of food he's better buddying up with a friend to cook and plan but otherwise a lot of mine bring wayfarers or RAT packs. Also popular are supernoodles, instant smash (much livened up by my bangladeshi students with spices and veggies), porridge, sausages. Most don't bring bread. Decant anything like beans into tupperware which is much lighter than cans or get the individual snackpots.

For practice then help in pack, it's his first one and he will learn plenty without ending up without socks or undies! Our bronzes were out the other week and when I turned up at camp there were walking boots outside tents and tents not zipped up and it was bucketing down with rain!

Don't let him take tins! They weigh a ton and there are plenty of alternatives. I lived on things like pasta'n'sauce, sesame snaps and double choc muffins with instant (just add water) custard, for my silver and gold, and after for assessing. Precooked sausages or a pack of frankfurters would travel ok for bronze as well (not for the longer trips, but to be eaten that night they'd be fine. Do sausage and beans come in the little yoghurt pots like plain beans now? I'd still be a bit worried about spillage, but should be ok if stick it all in a plastic bag! Non-squishy fruit always went down well. A mars bar or similar is fine for emergency rations - and will enjoy it on the way home more than trail mix.

Mum "helped" pack for my bronze - the woman has never come close to sleeping under canvas. I had everthing including the kitchen sink and could barely lift my backpack. Interestingly she decided that a 1l water bottle was unnecessarily heavy and took that out!!! (cue trip to spar shop almost as soon as we set off)

She wasn't allowed to have anything to do with my packing after that!

Part of D of E is learning the independence to do the expedition itself. Get him to tell you what he needs/wants to take; you do a list too, and then cross things out!

He won't need spare shoes either, or contact lens solutions in litre bottles (both things I saw when assessing) but spare socks and compeed-type blister plasters are a must-have! I'd recommend just toothbrush/paste, baby wipes +/- hairbrush for washbag bits too - unlikely to be any decent showers at the campsite so just get the hot water on for when he gets back!