We’ve put together some rough guidelines to get the most out of The Duke of Edinburgh's Award expedition, the 10 Commandments, if you will. Do your best to follow these rules and hopefully they’ll help make your expedition more enjoyable!
1. Stay Dry:
The first rule, and in our opinion the most important, is to stay dry. Staying dry means staying comfortable, it always seems to be the case: on the day of your expedition, the heavens will open and the skies will go black and you’ll ask yourself “why am I doing this?” But fear not, pack your waterproofs on the top of your bag to they are easy to get to in a hurry. If you’re out and it does start to rain, Stop! Stick your waterproofs on, and then carry on. Once you’re wet, it’s hard to get dried out fully.
Once you’re wet, you’ll get cold; when you get cold you get miserable, so stay dry, stay comfortable, stay happy.
2. Pack Light:
Be critical with your packing, think to yourself, will I really need this? The lighter you pack your bag, the easier it will be to carry, the less it will tire you out, and the more fun you’ll have.
Remember, you don’t want to be carrying more than 1/5th of your body weight for long periods, so leave the laptop at home, and remember carrying a heavy bag doesn’t make you look manly, just tired and sweaty, so pack light.
3.Pace Yourself
You’re doing this for fun so remember, it’s not a race. Make sure your group walks at the pace of the slowest member, take your time, look around you and enjoy your surroundings. Also walking slower is less effort, so tires you out less which is a good thing. Not to mention when you’re powering along through the country side, head down just thinking where to put your foot next, you’ll get hot and sweaty, sweaty means wet and wet means cold. Remember, what’s the first rule?
Oh and you're just a few hours from sharing a tent with your friends, so less sweaty is good.
4. Morale is Everything:
Keep your team spirit up, some of the best conversations I’ve ever had have been when tromping through the moors on an expedition, the things you talk about can make the time fly by. In those times when everyone’s gone quiet, taking things like jelly sweets and Kendal mint cake can put anyone in a good mood. Not to mention they’re a quick burst of energy for when things are getting tough.
5.Breakfast, Lunch and Tea:
Remember when your parents told you breakfast is the most important meal of the day? They were right.
When you get up, you’ll have a big day ahead of you, so eat like a king, cooking up something hot is always best; it wakes you up, and gets you ready for the day. Throughout the day, keep snacks to hand, use the side pockets of your rucksack or ask a friend to pass you food. Things like cereal bars and sweets are great. Just graze constantly to keep your energy up.
Lunch should be easy, near the top of your bag so it’s simple to get to, and make sure there’s plenty of it. For your dinner, get cooking again, group meals like pastas are simple, quick to make and full of energy. When it comes to washing up, if you have any food really stuck on there, stick some water in the pan, with a bit of washing up liquid, and bring it to the boil, this should get most of it off.
6. Don't Be The Tough Guy:
If it feels as though you’re starting to get blisters let your team know, stop, and sort it out. If you’re starting to get cold, let your team know, stop, and sort it out. If you’re comfortable, you’ll enjoy yourself a lot more so look after yourself and your team mates.
Share the heavy items out through the team, rather than one person carrying it all. Split things up, carry a bit each, for example your tent. One person carries the outer flysheet, one the inner, and one the pegs and poles and before you know it, you’re carrying 1 kg instead of 3kg.
While it might not sound like a lot, you’ll notice 2kg after a whole day walking.
7. Use A Rucksack Liner:
Use a dry bag liner inside your rucksack to keep everything dry, it’s that simple. If it’s raining hard, it will soak into your rucksack; wet your food, your sleeping bag and your spare clothes.
Water is heavy, at 1kg a litre, it can add up quickly, and you’d be surprised how much water your once lovely and warm sleeping bag will soak up. That breaks rules 1 and 2, a wet heavy bag, wet spare clothes and wet sleeping bag will end up breaking rule 4 too.
8. Prepare To Be Cold:
No matter what time of year it is and no matter how warm you are when you set off, in the evenings and night time it’ll get cold. Pack away some thin gloves, a hat and a fleece, you may not need them, but for the weight, if you do you’ll be so thankful you have them.
9. Bring The Right Clothes:
Choosing your clothing can be difficult, especially in the changeable climate in which we live. It can go from hot and sunny to awful and wet in a day, so the best way to adapt to this is with the layering principle.
You start with a baselayer that to wicks sweat away from the skin, keeping you warm and keeping you cool. A baselayer must not rub, and most of all, must be comfortable.
Your mid layer is to keep you warm, normally fleece or a hoodie, look for something light and packable.
The final outer layer protects you from the elements, often a waterproof jacket. Again, look for something light and packable. Remember rule 2, most of the time this will live in your pack. Adjust layers as weather dictates, take off and put on layers, that will help keep you warm, dry, comfortable, and of course, happy!
10. Learn From Your Mistakes:
Take a notepad on your practice and every time you think ‘oh I wish I had…’ , write it down, then you can pack it next time. If one day, you start to get blisters, prepare your feet before hand by taping them up. Or if you found that cheap pasta sauce you thought would be great had you wishing for a takeaway, try something new and something tasty!
Remember, when it comes to your expedition, everything in your pack, you should have used before.
The main thing to remember is to have a laugh, crack jokes and play pranks. You’re there to enjoy yourself after all. Your expedition will be what you make of it, don’t look at the negatives, focus on the positives, and all the funny things that will happen throughout. You’ll enjoy yourself if you go out there thinking you’re going to have a good time.
Written by David Curtis of our Blacks store in Gateshead
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