Please see also: The Leader's Report
Some scout troops from Brighton went on a hiking weekend to Dartmoor. We went off on Friday 7th February and we came back on the 9th.
We set off in several mini buses with high spirits and made up songs on the way. We stopped off on the way at two service stations where we bought some food and drinks. It took us about six hours to get there.
When we got there we unpacked out kit and went to sleep. After an awful night with Ben Manifold's snoring we recovered to a lovely breakfast and we prepared for our long journey ahead.
The hike too from roughly 9 o'clock in the morning to roughly 4 o'clock in the afternoon. During the hike we encountered many obstacles such as mud, rivers, rocks, steep hills and GUN SITES.
That night after the hike we all had blisters and sore feet and to make it better we all went to the local pub where we all got a nice drink (lemonade or coke! - ed) and a game of skittles. That night we all went to sleep in our grubby sleeping backs only to hear the grunt of Dick Ruck's snoring and Ben Manifold's squeal.
The next day we were all tired and grumpy and we all had to pack up the mini bus. After this we had to go on another hike.
This was very tiring especially as we all had tired feet from the start but we still enjoyed it. The journey back was not as lively as the first, but we still enjoyed it and we were all pleased to come home.
WHAT AN EXCELLENT TIME AT DARTMOOR!!!
Lloyd Passingham and Daniel Hawkins.
"Romeo, O Romeo" sung Lloyd. Lloyd Passingham had been entertaining us all the way down to Dartmoor, whether it was singing, or acting out his own version of Romeo and Juliet.
With the radio blaring out nearly all the way down, it was great fun. Eventually we arrived at Sourton Hall and unpacked our bags and went to bed.
We woke up the next morning to the smell of eggs and bacon. We got into our groups and set off. It was an enjoyable walk, searching for post boxes then gobbling up the cream eggs that followed.
It was all going well, until Chris Almond led me, Ben and Daniel right through the middle of a Bog, and all our feet got soaked. From that point on it was not so wonderful.
When I got back all I wanted to do was go to sleep, but we were kept awake nearly all night by Ben Manifold snoring. It was TERRIBLE!
The next day we had a shorter walk all together, and made the trip back.
I really enjoyed it and will definitely go next year!
Jared Heatherington.
The weeken started, same as last year, at the Lido car park in Saltdean. The journey down to Devon was okay and we stopped twice at some services, Southampton and Exetor. We reached Sourton at about midnight and I bedded down in my brand new Mountaincraft, top of the range sleepuing bag which I received at christmas.
In the morning, everyone was up early and tucking into a cooked breakfast. After washing up our plates, we got into our hiking groups for the day. I was with Daniel Garner, Adam Blowers and a Peter from another troop. Our teamj leaders were Lee Martin and Nick Mills. We discussed our route which was around 16 miles. All the routes were about this long but I think ours was the most hilly.
And it was hilly! We started off walking along the side of a hill for a while and then made our way to "Crow Tor". A tor is a big lump of rock or lots of rocks lumped together. The route crossed a wide stream which we had to cross by rocks. Luckily I did not continue the saga of Andrew Ruck and a certain Dartmoor stream! (I fell in last year!) We had a short break at Crow Tor and carried on towards the via point, South Common Plantation. It was five kilometres to this point and was the hilliest part of the route.
We came to several hills that were almost as steep as Devils Dyke(Very steep!), and about as high up aswell (Very high!). We asscended up them thinking "Which insane lunatic chose this route", and came to the conclusion that whoever it was was totally out of their mind! During this part of the hike, Lee Martin took a bearing on what he thought was a rock that was marked on the map, but later turned out to be a Dartmoor pony! We had gone wrong. But we were not lost, we assured ourselves. We looked at several plantations but none had all the features that the one we wanted had. We asked some locals where we were and found that we were at White Tor where I had been last year. It took us quite a while to get to the right place, and by this time Nick Mills had developed blisters upon blisters! At the via point were Steve Martin and Brian Early who told us that we could not go the intended route because the ranges were being used for shooting.
We then took a route from the via point to a small village called Creason and then up a path across the moors to a car park where we were picked up by Steve Martin in the mini bus. The route had not been much shorter than the intended route so we were still absoloutely shattered! We got back to the hut and had a tea of mince, potatoes, carrots and peas. Then apple pie for pudding.
At about 8.15 pm we went down to a nearby pub, the fox and the hound for an evening of skittles. It was great fun and I had lots of goes at bowling the skittles over. Phillip Colyer actually managed to bowl the ball straight through the middle of the skittles when all nine were standing! It was straight to bed when we got back to the hut and everyone was completely zonked in no time at all. In the morning, we had the usual cornflakes and fry up then cleared the hut and packed our bags. Then we travelled to a national trust forest walk for sundays morning hike. It was about six miles through the woods and very muddy. Some of us got halfway up an everlasting extremely steep hill only to find that we had climbed it for nothing and had to go the other way! The hike was tiring considering the very hilly moorland treck the day before.
Then it was straight into the mini bus and home. We stopped at Weymouth and Southampton and finally the hut for a brief clear out of the bus. Then it was home to a well deserved half term holiday.
Rating:
10/10
AWESOME!
Andrew Ruck (APL)
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