Duke of Edinburgh handholding thread

[ArcheryAnnie]

....is anyone else's teenager doing this?

DS has a mound of equipment in the living room which looks ridiculously huge for one bloody night (it's a practice run) and he keeps on remembering other stuff he hasn't yet told me about that he needs. It's like getting blood out of a stone.

Also I am having visions of My Baby, Lost On The Moors, which I know is pish.

If you are going shopping then you should all try it on for comfort :) Some of them have a good bit of adjustment. One of ours has a sort of sizing system where you can set it for S, M or L before you even start with the strap adjustments. It was handy when the boys were still growing.

Try the rucksacks on.
And make sure most of the weight is supported by the waist strap rather than pulling on the shoulders.

May sound daft but getting a pack with a decent waist strap was a revelation to me and saved more sore shoulders.

This thread is fab timing. Getting lots of useful advise.
My ds is doing his expeditions at the end of May for bronze, and just received his kit list from the school.
The school can provide some things (like tent, stove, fuel etc).

Going this weekend for hiking boots so he has time to break them in.
Is 65L rucksack the best size to get?

What clothes do the boys wear? My friend said t-shirt, fleece, joggers and waterproof jacket (pack waterproof trousers) - does that sound right?

Oh and does anyone have tips on sleeping mats - inflatable? Foam?

Lightweight inflatable mats are more expensive. I love mine but I got it once I knew I loved outdoor stuff
The cheaper ones are bulky and heavy.

A foam one will do for D of E and can be bungeed under the top of the bag

Sparky I'd avoid joggers and standard t shirts personally as the cotton holds water, gets heavy and makes them cold either if it's raining or just with sweat. You are better with something that wicks sweat away or doesn't hold water. It doesn't need to be expensive, but things like football tops or things with similar material. As for the bottom half then tracksuit type bottoms or actual walking trousers are better, the legs dont tend to feel cold really, shorts are fine if the weather is good but depends on what terrain they are walking in as they can get scratched. In bronze they will likely be following forest tracks so tends to not be an issue.

Though I say this as the parent of boys that wear shorts all year round, even in the snow...

My ds14 got back from his silver yesterday, great time! Took less clothes compared to bronze but still too many as he just wore same clothes for the 3 days - v lucky with weather though as no rain. On reflection he needed more food as walking up to 20k a day, high energy snacks and bigger main meals.

DD has finished bronze and done the practice for silver.
The expensive walking trousers I bought were never used. She wore the lycra type leggings she wears to the gym.
I had to buy a longer roll mat for the Silver as apparently the one borrowed from school for bronze was too short - apparently they do come in different lengths!
Food wise she took a packet of pasta and little sauce pots for dinner and porridge pots for breakfast.
Apparently nothing that requires boiling water for lunch as they don't have time for that.
Lunch/snacks were brioche rolls, cereal bars, chocolate, biscuits and packets of olives!
Remember to pack insect repellant and suncream.

If anyone is near a uniqlo they currently have a sale on for long-sleeved wicking quick-dry t-shirts from the men's dept - £7.50 each. Pack down to nothing.

(I've never been to uniqlo before - was looking for longjohns, but they don't have them in spring. Not even M&S had them!)

I wouldn't bother with long John's. Good job on the top :)

Just cracked up laughing. Read the title and honestly thought ''What the bloody hell has the duke gone and said now!'' :)

Mine is back from his practice run! Did not get Lost On The Moors, did not freeze or starve, and has returned with all his toenails intact. One tiny blister which he did not notice until he took his sock off this evening.

Yay! Mine is not back until tomorrow. They have The Loudest Girl On Earth with them, so I am anticipating no trouble with bears. I could see at least four canisters of spray within grabbing reach though, so they should be ok.
I did venture to ask what they were eating and there was a confused slightly bizarre explanation of rice and packet curry sauce followed by hot dogs. I guess I am running a backpacking food training day next month lol. But they won't starve. Now I get to put my fingers in my ears and lala lala until the SPOT sends me the 'all ok - at the campsite' message... I am going to guess they will forget to do it though, in the excitement of weirdly packet curry sauce...

DS has a bergen similar to this one www.surplusandoutdoors.com/shop/camping-equipment/rucksacks-bags/cadet-rucksack-bergen-60-litre-873303.html

He attaches his sleeping bag and mat to the outside for additional room inside.

I'm going to report back tomorrow as my ds is out on his practice expedition right now. It sounds as thought the Surrey Hills are overwhelmed with overpacked teens this weekend

He Skyped me earlier fropm the campsite and I did ask him whether the Duke of Edinburgh would have approved of that.

My guess is that they overpack clothes and underpack food but let's see.

In general we/Ds have really enjoyed it. He has shifted his volunteering from 3 months to being the 6 month module as he was liking it so much. He has genuinely enjoyed it.

Well we've done the shopping, and DD has raided my wardrobe to find all the appropriate clothes (I haven't thrown anything away since 1987 and I'm roughly the same size as DD so clothes for any conceivable occasion are someone half way to Narnia).
Now all we need is food packing. We're IC snacks so we need something suitable for a group of vegans with nut allergies .

Actually that's an exaggeration - they're vegetarians not vegans but cheese is out of the question due to lack of refrigereration

We're IC snacks so we need something suitable for a group of vegans with nut allergies

What about making up some homemade granola bars? Oats, honey, dried fruit, vegan chocolate chips? or some kind of raisin cookies?

My DS took a tube of squeezy cheese and a bag of Krisprolls and lived to tell the tale :)

German smoked cheese (comes in little sausage shapes) doesn't need to be kept in the fridge, Babybel might also be OK, as it's sealed.

Two DC made it all the way through to Gold, last one will be starting Silver next year, so I've hand held lots of DofE expeditions . Funniest thing was DD1 realising that on each level, she had a lighter rucksack than the level before, despite them being longer each time. Current DofE leader at school has a very prescriptive kit list especially for Gold, but although DD2 complained like mad, she did actually need all four layers plus a woolly hat on Dartmoor in July. Her sachets of hot chocolate powder were very welcome on that trip.

I'm assured that squeezy cheese melted over pasta is pretty nice especially if you ignore the mud and grass. Another thing we've done is to get a couple of those squeezy bottles you get for taking shampoo in hand luggage, and fill them with nutella and peanut butter. Then you can get a mouthful of either for a quick boost.

ignore nutella and peanut butter for nut allergy group, sorry, I missed that.

My ds is doing his Bronze practice walk at the moment.

For those asking what to wear looking at the 100+ from his school doing it all the girls wore leggings and all the boys adidas track pants!!

Food he took 4 x pack uncle Bens instant rice, peparami, haribo, pancakes and Nutella- they all bought their food together- I left them to it!!

Actually that's a great idea - I have an old Annabelle Karmel super simple oat and raisin cookie recipe which I could extend to include chocolate chips and if I bake them myself I can guarantee they're nut free.