I started the award in 1986 and in doing so began a love of hillwalking and the country. I began with bronze but always wanted to do the gold in order to meet the Duke of Edinburgh, which after 2 gold expeditions we finally did in 1992. Looking back they were wonderful times and we were so unprepared. We took 100 sausages on the bronze and bottles of milk! During our first gold expedition, we had extremely hot weather in the Brecon Beacons so much that one of our team dropped out with heat exhaustion. Upon our return we found we had failed having done 3 km less than we should have done. Not to be deterred we did a second expedition with the opposite type of weather; driving rain and gales. As we ascended the mountains near Storey Arms, the army were coming down as it was too bad up there. We later also came down having been up there for a couple of hours in the fog and descending to find ourselves 100 yards up from where we started. We met wonderful people during this time and our leaders were close to the Morlais Mountain Rescue Team. Our leaders were a great bunch, a dog handler, a BT worker, and our youth worker was a real gent who I ended up knowing as Chairman of my local Royal British Legion.
I am always so pleased to see groups of children bedraggled at the side of the road during their expeditions and sympathize with them. We are all part of a worldwide club and I am so proud to be a member of it.