Their story, in their words…
Our group hiked and (wild) camped for 5 days in Dartmoor national park which was a length of time none of us have done before, not including the fact that we were also wild camping most of the time, without any adult supervision. This was very nerve wracking for most of us, since, although 3 of us had bronze Duke of Edinburgh experience and 2 of us silver, many of the aspects of this trip were new to us.
Things like gathering water from fresh and running water sources to treat with purifying tablets or boil, was totally new to us and it felt like another level of camping. Even through the fear, however, we also looked forward to the scenery, skills, experiences and challenges we were to face, which helped us push through.
The trip went generally well, of course not without its ups and downs. For example, the first day going to the second, we were worried we wouldn’t be able to find a fresh enough water source to last us until the next day, which worried us a lot. We attempted to look for the ones scattered on the map, only to find them muddy, or mostly drained. This was until we found a cow watering trough with flowing water along our route, not too far after some of us had run out. This, to all of us, felt like an achievement. We filled our water bags with the water and ensured to also use water purifying tablets on it to prevent any slight possibility that the water could be contaminated.
Examples like the one above taught us many skills and challenged our endurance, independence and teamwork skills. Even from the planning stage, we developed our researching and improved our planning skills when not only looking for our route to follow for the 5 days but ensuring we would walk along public toilets as frequently as possible, by water streams and sources as well as campsites and possible wild camping areas.
I believe that this trip that the Mark Evison Foundation funded for us has helped and challenged us in many ways. We have learnt to be confident in going outside of our comfort zone and challenging ourselves in as many ways possible. The trip tested our patience, mental and physical endurance, and showed us that hard work, even through pain and a result that may seem out of reach, pays off. We are very glad that we had the opportunity to experience this trip with the help of the Mark Evison Foundation and would definitely recommend it to anyone else who is thinking of doing the same, or any other extraordinary thing!
