The Chase Walk by Jack

CHASE WALK 2011

No normal people would think that waking up at 5:00 in the morning is a good idea, however as we are explorers we aren’t normal, with that in mind the unit’s 10 entrants slowly trudged towards the Beaudesert cooking shelter to eat breakfast before getting ready to embark on the 40 mile walk that lay ahead.

We had 2 teams with 4 members in one (Jack, Phil Chris and Tom making up team 67 Nigel Theaker’s Barmy Army) and 6 in the other (Matt, Sean, Ash, Alice, Lizzie and Robin making up team 10 with the highly inventive team name of Lichfield District Explorers).

Prior to beginning both teams nearly failed the kit check due to a non-functional watch for one team, and a pair of trainers for the other!! However, the nice, kind kit checkers allowed us to carry on regardless.

Matt’s team started at 6:08, while Jack didn’t start until 7:06, meaning Matt had an hours lead on Jack, however, this didn’t last very long, as Jack’s team had overtaken them by 08:45, with them not being seen again for the remainder of the walk. Karma came when an old leg injury on Jack flared up 20 minutes later meaning he couldn’t run for the rest of the day.

Both teams had an aim, Matt’s was to finish, while the hugely ambitious, competitive (and stupid) Jack, Phil, Chris and Tom wanted to beat the very strong scorpion ESU team. All was going well until checkpoint 9 and 24 miles, when that very team came blasting past them, much to their annoyance.

The walk remained uneventful for them, except for the huge game of “leapfrog” with the team from the 7^th Lichfield for a good 8 miles, until 38 miles where Jack’s team finally got away and finished just over an hour later at 18:54 in a hugely impressive time of 11 hours and 48 minutes. Showers, the rugby match and a huge pizza and chips dinner (Thanks Nigel!!!) were warmly received at the end.

After their overtaking Matt’s team soldiered on up to 21 miles where Robin called it a day and retired. The remaining members continued onwards towards the finish, and any remnants of food left behind. They received texts promising them of the full team meeting them at the finish, which soon turned to just Jack, Robin and Nigel, then Robin and Nigel and then just Robin, due to everyone else having enough and going to bed. They eventually finished at 23:40 in a time of 17 hours and 32 minutes.

The next day bought no major surprises with Jack’s team coming second in their age category, losing to the mighty scorpion ESU who finished in a new course record of 10 hours and 3 minutes!!! Matt’s team came 18^th in the under 18s and 27^th in the mixed gender team category.

The walk was greatly enjoyed by all, and are all looking forward to a long sleep on Sunday evening. Then the thoughts for next year begin, with Jack’s, Phil’s, Chris’ and Tom’s eyes still on the trophy!

Lichfield Explorers – Silver D of E

For all those explorers participating in Silver D of E

Please ensure that you attend this Wednesday, the intention is to co-ordinate the groups doing the Silver Expedition, and provide a refresh on the training you received for your Bronze awards. We have to sign off your training sections before you can complete the practice expeditions.

Route cards and Maps will be distributed for the Groups completing their Practice Expeditions for the Weekends 8th-10th April and 15th-17th April (note, you do have to complete a route on the Friday evening). We expect you will complete these route cards in your own time.

Please also give some thought on project ideas for your main Silver Assessed expeditions in July and September.

Please also give some thought to what else you have to do to complete the other areas of the Silver Award, we can only really assist on expedition areas, but any leader is happy to advise on any other area of the award. By now you should have a good idea of what you intend to do for the other elements of the award.

If you have not signed up yet, you need to bring the attached form completed with payment on Wednesday.

If you feel you are not able to commit to D of E, please let us know so we are not planning unnecessarily.

Regards

Paul/Ralph

D of E application form.pdf

Further to Nick’s e-mail.

It is now a requirement (mandatory) that you log all of your Area’s on eDofE which is available from the dofe website http://www.dofe.org/ (top right hand corner) You were each assigned an individual logon when you signed up for your bronze award. Please let me know if you do not know your logon details and i will arrange for your password to be reset.

Each area must be submitted (ie physical recreation, Volunteering, Skill & Expedition) and approved by leaders. The expedition areas must also be completed, and approved BEFORE you do the expedition. ie route cards have to be uploaded and approved.

If you do not use edofe to log your information, upload evidence and gain approvals that you have completed the area then it is very simple, you will not obtain the award. Unfortunately this is the way things have gone, and manually completed books will no longer be accepted (although a scan of the relevent pages is!)

The following people have, according to our records still not registered for Silver, and if you do not do it soon you will not be able to complete, and could well let the rest of your group down for the expedition:

Tom Pritchard
Sam Smith
Daniel Edmonson
Jordan Edmonson
David Murdoch
Alex Johnson

Repeat, if you are not registered, you will not be able to do the expedition, as the approvals cannot be completed retrospectively. Please let me know if you need a form.

If you have any questions please contact me.

Details of the expeditions will be released shortly, but to inform those who were hoping to complete their practice expeditions in 2 days, basically you cannot. The expedition must include 2 nights of camping, and cooking 2 substantial meals. I’m sorry, but this is DofE rules.

Please remember DofE is a commitment.

Regards

Paul/Ralph

Lichfield Explorers – Silver D of E

To all Silver D of E Participants

Some of you have advised us what you are doing for your Physical, Skill and Volunteering sections of your award. Many of you have not. If you don’t, we can’t help you and you won’t get your award. For those of you who don’t know what to do for your Volunteering section, please read and act on Andy’s email.

Go on, do it!

Nick

MIAS – Mountain-Bike Instructor Award Scheme

Congratulations to Nigel who has recently gained his Level Two MIAS qualification.

Lichfield Explorers – Young Leader training

Hi All,

This email is for those of you that help with another section or would like to help with a section either because you just enjoy it or for the volunteering section of your D of E award.

It’s very important that you gain the help the Young Leaders’ Scheme gives you to help you do a great job within the section you are working. The modules are great fun and well worth having a go at.

Please find attached the program for this year and if you want any further information just ask.

If you are doing Young Leader for DofE you must complete Module A plus two others for Bronze, and more for Silver.

If you are just starting out you need to do Module A which is running this Tuesday 15th February at the 7th Lichfield Scout Hall in Ash Grove, starting at 8-30pm and finishing at 10-00pm; you don’t need to book just turn up.

Nigel.

YL Programme 2011.pdf

Derbyshire Peak District Walking Weekend

Everyone should be back now from a wet Whaley bridge weekend.

Two groups climbed Kinder Scout on Saturday, plenty of rain, hail & boggy peat to be had by all. Followed by the best pasta dinner on the planet. We almost watched a couple of films (you had to be there, next time I will test the equipment before I leave). I left late on Saturday evening but the plan was a further walk on Sunday before heading back to sunny Lichfield.

Add your comments to this if you attended as we all have loads to say, especially Liam who is running for parliament in Egypt.!!!!

Lichfield Explorer Scouts

Welcome to Lichfield Explorers

From Canoeing to Walking, our leaders have a vast range of skills.

This website details some of these for prospective members to see, and hopefully the photos section will give you an insight into what we do – from Conservation Camps in the Peak District to Walking Camps in Snowdonia!

For those of you that may be interested in getting some more information, please visit the contact page where more information is given.