Click the link to see the highlights of our Bronze Award Experience!
We learnt so much over the course of the award!
I think the whole experience has given us many new perspectives. We had hardly any arguments and if we did it was over something trivial like where we were going to have lunch or if we should eat the smores for dinner or for lunch and who was sleeping in which tent.
For starters we learnt that you really need to be respectful of all the other members of your group. If someone wants a break, you should take a break. If someone is walking slower then everyone else you should slow down and stick with them. You should never leave anyone behind, and storming off ahead is not the answer.
I think we also learnt that everyone’s input was valuable. Like when we were lost we had so many ideas about where we could go and how we could get back on our original path. Some of us wanted to retrace our steps while others wanted to continue North in the direction we were supposed to be heading. We all participated whenever there was a problem, and that helped us push towards our goal. For example the mud problem. Lets just say my shoe was stuck in that mud for quite a while and everyone had a go at trying to get it out. But then just out of sheer desperation Pilar picked up a stick and managed to pull it out. It may not have been the easiest and most efficient way of getting back my shoe, but it definitely worked.This gave us the courage to share our ideas and we realised that 6 heads are 10 times better then 1.
Getting lost wasn’t the best experience ever we have to admit that. But we learnt from each of our failures. Even when we ended up walking round in a circle we started to think about what lay ahead of us. How could we limit our loses in order for us to get to camp in the quickest amount of time possible.
Next, you shouldn’t pack the compass at the bottom of your bag. We learnt that what we thought was a silly piece of equipment, can actually be quite useful when lost. I also think that taking turns in the map reading made us trust each other more, as you put faith in the map reader that they were taking you in the right direction.
Also, we learnt the importance of road safety and getting from one place to another without getting run over. It took us a while but we soon fell into the rhythm of walking on the right site of the road and also in single file. We had to respect other hikers by clearing the road and the paths because our noisy rabble coming towards them was all a bit hectic.
As well as respecting each other we learnt about how to respect the environment we were hiking in. We made sure to pick up all our litter as soon as we left a rest spot and when we came across a group of Chamois we were quiet not wanting to scare them away.
Helpful tip from Mr Corbin! – When you enter a field of cows make sure you have sticks to scare them all away!
Packing less food for our next trip is definitely something we should consider. Sophie brought 28 migros energy bars on the hike. She still had around 24 energy bars to eat when we arrived back at school. The food weighed a ton and the majority of it was chocolate.
Finally, we learnt that we really get on great as a group of friends and more importantly that hills are not our forte. We have decided to avoid them all from now on as they take forever and when they seem to be evening off, they are lying to you. They just continue going and going.
Overall, the Bronze experience has been enlightening! It is something that I will look back at with fond memories even if those memories are ones of aching muscles and backbreaking backpacks. Bring on the Silver Award!
A big thank you to Miss Wilson, Mr Corbin and Mr Hetherington!
