2418 take to the hills of Matlock to practice for Silver DofE


On the 28th of March, six of Sherwood’s budding cadets made their way to Matlock Bath where they would start their challenging, long expedition to Bakewell the following day.

2418 Silver DofE (1)“Having looked at the weather forecast, it didn’t seem so promising but by 8:30am we were ready to leave the Mining Museum, whatever the weather.

After trekking through many steep and sludgy hills, we started to lack energy and motivation but we knew we had to carry on to achieve our goal. We took it in turns to navigate the map for different legs, and despite making a few errors, we finally arrived at the campsite at around 5pm.

It was hard work at the campsite setting up tents in the freezing weather, but getting a hot meal down us warmed us up and moral was high. We had to get up early the next morning to pack our kit away and get ready to set off, despite the weather still being miserable spirits were high and all were ready for the second day.

Even though we had many sores and aches, the thought of arriving at the finishing point that evening lifted us mentally and physically. The second day seemed easier than the day before as we became used to climbing up the hills with our heavy rucksacks. After eight hours of trudging through the rain, we eventually made it to the finishing point, relieved to know that we had finished half of the expedition phase. We cannot wait for our live expedition!” reported Cadet K Gardner and Cadet C Bowen.