Mountaineering, DofE Gold, 'Northern Spanish Steps', Spanish Pyrenees, Jul 2011, ID 1163

Liverpool College CCF

The planning for these expeditions begins months in advance in retraining or refreshing our cadets on walking & map reading skills. We undertook our mandatory practice expedition in the Lake District Park in early April in the snow covered mountains - well, if we could do it then the Pyrenees would be a doddle?

There were 17 cadets and 7 staff on the Spanish Pyrenees expedition, broken down into 3 expedition teams each with an assessor and supervisor. We descended on John Lennon International Airport for our 0530hrs flight to Barcelona on EasyJet, and cadets were on time and excited about the trip. The advance party with the stores and equipment had set off two days earlier and were making camp for our arrival.

We duly arrived in base camp to find the camp built and our tents up and ready for us, the chef had dinner ready and a feast followed. The next few days passed quickly as supervisors and cadets went through their plans in detail. Route cards and campsites confirmed, food planned and purchased, kit checked and inspected and project work started.

Saturday 23rd July we had a final inspection by our assessors, a safety briefing and then we departed on our separate ways in our hire vehicles. Each group moving to a camp site in the area of their start point. The groups were to walk four days of the GR11 Long Distance footpath that crosses Spain adjacent to the border with France. Our groups were walking in the Eastern side of the GR11 route around the areas of Berget, Lavijol and Sant Aniol D’Aguja.

The three groups were made up of year 12 cadets from the CCF. We had a boys group of 6 boys who were going for the physically demanding challenge (which they got). The group of 6 girls were looking at flora and fauna and our mixed group of 2 boys and 3 girls were looking at the formation of rocks and mountains. These were the topics they were to report and present on later in the trip.

The expeditions went extremely well (albeit with the odd hiccup) and the groups were able to marvel at the stunning beauty of the Spanish Pyrenees. They all had extremely positive experiences and this was evident in the presentations they gave on return to base camp. These covered not only the project work, but they also asked to reflect on personal experiences, difficulties and the challenges they faced. Some chose to mention the testing weather as they faced mist and fog in part of the expedition some, the difficult terrain and constant climbing whilst others chose to reflect on group problems and personal issues and disputes that they encountered. However without exception everyone had an amazing experience and enjoyed the challenge immensely.

10 days after arriving in base camp we broke camp and headed off for some well deserved R&R. Unfortunately the road party had to head off on their 1000 mile return trip home while we moved to a hotel in Tarragona, a small town some 35 miles south of Barcelona. This was to be our base for two nights. Tarragona was close to Port Aventura theme Park which was on the visit itinerary and a short commute to Barcelona for a day visit. Tarragona had its own city beach which the cadets enjoyed lazing about catching the rays!! The town square had a multitude of restaurants and we spent two nights eating Al fresco in the most amazing setting of the town square.

All too quickly we were off to the airport for the journey home to Liverpool. The 17 cadets who attended the trip although thoroughly enjoying the trip learned a lot about themselves and achieved the qualifying standard for their Gold Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Expedition. The generous support that the Ulysses Trust provided was very much appreciated by the cadets who took part.

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