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Fastpacking / Wild Camping

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Homer Feb 2021 12:41pm, 26 Feb 2021 13,919 posts	Quote Pin Homer DofE-ers are an interesting case study. Often using whatever kit they have or what their parents can give them, often using use 65 litre packs for one night - and most of the filling is just their sleeping bag! But they are young, strong and don't walk that far
Rosehip Feb 2021 12:55pm, 26 Feb 2021 19,820 posts	Quote Pin Rosehip My daughter is about half my size, walked 3 days with a 50L pack that weighed nearly as much as she did - it was the extra clothes they were told to take that added unnecessary weight. I wouldn't take a complete change of kit for every day if doing what they did, clean kecks and T-shirt and dry socks maybe.
cackleberry Feb 2021 12:57pm, 26 Feb 2021 1,998 posts	Quote Pin cackleberry Ha ha, yes the difference between my D of E kit list and what I took for a fortnight backpacking the C2C as an adult was quite extreme! They always look so miserable when you see them out and about, poor souls.
Derby Tup Feb 2021 1:01pm, 26 Feb 2021 49,122 posts	Quote Pin Derby Tup I always remember overhearing a DofE lass on the phone in the Peak one evening, ‘ Yes, we’re okay mum. Gemma’s broken her leg and it’s raining but we only have ten more miles to do’
flyingfinn Feb 2021 1:24pm, 26 Feb 2021 2,544 posts	Quote Pin flyingfinn We get lots of DofE groups round here. I always refer to them as the "snails" because with their huge packs that's what they always remind me of. I was one once as well and I think it's almost an initiation test designed to see who really wants to do that sort of activity! How many kids never go back having had the interest knocked out of them by having to labour under a pack as big and heavy as them? If you were going to design an activity to encourage kids to walk and camp in the countryside it is pretty much the antithesis of what you'd be looking to do. Particularly these days when certainly at Bronze level the kids are met at every road crossing and hardly allowed out of sight (I hate to think what the modern reaction would be to the wild camps in the Upper Derwent Valley that formed part of my DofE training! But I guess it gave the teachers a night off and allowed them to head to the pub 🤣) having to carry that much kit just seems to be designed to make kids suffer rather than trying to hook them into a more active lifestyle.
cackleberry Feb 2021 1:28pm, 26 Feb 2021 1,999 posts	Quote Pin cackleberry Our school wouldn't let us go to the Outer Hebrides for our Gold expedition. Thankfully, I had connections among the youth leaders on the County Council and they came out to assess us, including turning a blind eye when they bumped into us in a cafe at Callanaish...
Homer Feb 2021 1:56pm, 26 Feb 2021 13,921 posts	Quote Pin Homer One of my secret other roles is as a DofE assessor and supervisor for expeditions. You wouldn't believe the arguments I've had with teachers/parents/others about the need to carry a complete change of clothes for each day. On the plus side - I have managed to get groups out in the proper wild but I have to do it through the scouts
Rosehip Feb 2021 3:12pm, 26 Feb 2021 19,824 posts	Quote Pin Rosehip - are you saying that the clothes are or aren't in the DofE rules, Homer ?
Rosehip Feb 2021 3:13pm, 26 Feb 2021 19,825 posts	Quote Pin Rosehip The scouts did much less checking up on the kids than the school did - though there was a 10 yr gap btwn eldest and youngest doing theirs, so the safety elves probably got more jittery in between.
Homer Feb 2021 3:22pm, 26 Feb 2021 13,923 posts	Quote Pin Homer My groups are encouraged to go without - fresh socks only But the official kit lists given out by DofE tells people to bring things like '2 or 3 tops' etc and always seems like it veers on the side of silly but encouraging mummies to shop dofe.org A lot of the folk leading DofE groups are not themselves experiences campers so can't make a judgement call so they go with the official kit list