A Typical DofE Expedition

A Typical Expedition
Life on expedition is inherently changeable - the weather, prevailing conditions, your team members and terrain may all play a part to vary experiences from expedition to expedition. 

Below is a run through of a typical DofE Expedition from your training day through to the finish of your qualifying expedition. 

 

Training Day

On Day 1 you will arrive at your starting location and meet your instructors.  

On arrival the staff will conduct kit checks, or begin with some of the training syllabus and observe who gets along and who works well together. 

Once your kit has been checked, you will go through all of the training (or the remaining sections if already started), which includes planning your routes for each day. Later in the day you will start putting up your tents at the campsite, and do some training surrounding cooking using stoves and then cook your tea. You will continue to get to know your team during the evening and then camp overnight, sharing a tent with one or two of your teammates.

 

Practice Expedition

You’ll wake up in the morning the following day at the time agreed with your team the night before, cook your breakfast, take your tent down, pack your rucksack and do a litter sweep of your area to ensure it’s left in a good state. You will then set off on the first day of your Practice expedition, following the routes you planned during the training day. 

Your instructor may begin the day walking with you to really embed what you learned during the training day, but as the day progresses they will start to remotely supervise you and just meet you at certain points along the way. You can read more about remote supervision here, but essentially it is a way instructors can supervise your team without compromising on the self-sufficient aspect of the DofE expedition section.

En route you will need to find a spot to have your lunch. It can be good to plan where and what time you plan to eat lunch each day, so the team has a target to work towards. Unfortunately you won’t be able to use your camp stoves while walking, so you’ll need to plan some good cold options before joining us. Having regular snacks during your expedition is also a good way to ensure you maintain your energy levels. On booking you’ll receive a food information sheet, which gives you a few ideas of what to bring.

You will meet your instructor team at the campsite in the evening, set up camp, cook tea, socialise and again camp overnight. You will repeat this for the duration of your Practice expedition, and upon completion you will receive a completion certificate. With this experience you can fully prepare for your Qualifying expedition at a later date. 

You may join us on a ‘Back-to-Back’ expedition however, and this means that you’ll be heading straight into your qualifying expedition the following day. On ‘Back-to-Back’ expeditions you’re able to bring a spare bag with extra clothes and food, and you’ll have access to this on the changeover evening so you can swap things in and out of your main rucksack. You may also arrange for a parent, guardian or friend to meet you at the campsite who can bring extra supplies. If you’d like to do this, we ask that you get in touch with us beforehand just so we’re aware, and we can also confirm the campsite location with the person dropping the supplies off. 

 

Qualifying Expedition

As mentioned above, you may be going straight into your Qualifying expedition if you’re joining us on a ‘Back-to-Back’ expedition, and if that’s the case you will follow the same pattern as the Practice expedition each day for the duration of your expedition. 

If you’re joining us on just a Qualifying expedition however, this will be slightly different. You will arrive at the specified location on Day 1, and take part in an acclimatisation day. This day gives you the opportunity to meet your teammates, conduct route planning and think about your team goal with them. You may also run through the training and go on a short navigation walk so your Assessor can observe your skill level and make sure they’re happy for you to go out on your Qualifying expedition. This is necessary as in a lot of cases the Assessor will not have worked with you before so they need to do this to ensure both your and your team's safety. 

In the evening you will set up camp, cook your tea, and camp overnight. You will wake up at the agreed time the following day, strike camp and begin your expedition. Unlike the practice expedition, your Assessor will remotely supervise you throughout so you won’t see a lot of them during the day. You will meet them at the campsite each evening for the duration of your expedition. 

Upon completion you will receive a completion certificate from us, and the Assessor will write your expedition report. They will send this back to the team in the office, and we will upload this directly to your eDofE account. You will be informed by our office team once this has been done, you will just need ask your DofE Leader to fully sign this off.

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