Helen Sheppard

While on my Gold DofE expedition we were walking over the Aran Ridge in Snowdonia when we encountered some horrendous weather - with the heavens opening and fog coming down thick (pretty typical weather for Wales in July!). The path was very boggy and one of the walkers in my group managed to slip off some stepping stones straight into the bog in a very comedic manner. She managed to pull herself out and I attempted to traverse the same route before ending up waist deep in the bog myself - ruining the pair of socks I was wearing on my hands having failed to pack any gloves. Covered in bog, I wasn't feeling too bright myself but my team mate came off worse and actually went into medical shock. Though we knew exactly where we were on the map, with the heavy fog we couldn't see where we needed to go next and didn't want to get caught wandering off the path given the condition of my team mate. We ended up pitching two tents which the five of us squeezed into, changing into dry clothes and trying to get warm while also making contact with base camp to organise a rescue party. The bog oozed up through the groundsheets of our tents and it wasn't the comfiest of set ups. It was dark by the time our rescue party reached us and we then had to pack our tents away by torchlight before hiking down the side of the mountain to find a clearing in a forest to do a second night of wild camping - pitching our soggy, boggy tents in the dark of night was certainly a challenge. We'd been looking forward to a campsite with toilets and showers but had no such luck. Though it was pretty miserable at the time, we all enjoy looking back on the adventure and it's certainly helped us developed resilience in the face of adversity. Our DofE assessor told us we'd done exactly the right thing given the circumstances we'd faced and apparently we've been used as an example in the years since - so much so that our group is slightly legendary at our school!
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