On the 21^st July 2010 20 students set off on what were 9 of the longest days of their life. They endured sun, wind and rain to achieve their Gold Duke of Edinburgh award.

We walked over 120 kilometres of Lake District terrain, and started the actual expedition on the 4^th day. Here we had to walk a minimum of 8 hours a day to reach our next campsite and research a particular interest such as flooding or the local flora and forna. There were ups (eating, sleeping, finishing) and downs (arriving at the campsite to find the bridge has washed away) but all three groups got through and passed.

All of the teachers were brilliant especially Mrs Holdway, Mr McNally and  Mr Flett  who was at the forefront of organising the expedition and raised morale when we were all aching and had blisters (not to mention organised chocolate and wine for when we finished) and we were all sad to see him go.

We all had a great time and will never forget our DofE experiences, and are all glad never to have to eat tuna sachets and super noodles again.

The DofE year of 2011 has been something we are all proud of achieving and has given us skills that will always help us and most importantly has shown us that we have endurance that we weren’t sure at the start we had.

Congratulations to the Duke of Edinburgh groups of 2011 and be glad that we never have to eat tuna sachets and super noodles again!