BUXTON BLUES
The journey on the faithful (but aging) minibus was surprisingly smooth, even though the increasing possibility that the bus would self destruct was all on our minds.
Four hours after setting off from school we arrived in Buxton having not seen any sign of civilisation for about an hour. As we arrived in the small town the word ‘backward’ sprung to mind.
We soon arrived at the WCE (World Challenge Expeditions) training centre where we met the rest of our team from Inverness for the first time. We soon realised that we all got on very well (after we learnt to understand what they were saying!)
We all spent the next few hours “getting to know each other” in the words of our team leader, Kate. In other words we played a lot of useless team building games and decided who would be carrying the most for the next two days. It was about this time that I realised I should have opted for a smaller rucksack.
After collecting our food supplies for the next two days of camping from the town we set off. The journey took roughly 30 minutes to the campsite passing a pub which we were told was the highest pub in England. At first I miss interpreted what this meant until I was told it was the pub at the highest altitude in England!
The campsite was at the very most, basic. Our accommodation for that night was going to be several tents, in a sloping field with one yes ,one whole luxury tap!. The food that evening consisted of re-hydrated sweet and sour chicken. That night everyone had little sleep as gale force winds and a torrents of rain lashed down on our make shift accommodation.
We all ate our breakfast quickly, not sure on actually what we were eating. We were all assigned jobs, I was “elected” medic and assistant navigator, and Andy was…well he talked a lot.
We set off half an hour behind schedule and in a cruel twist of fate it began to rain. At first all was well and spirits were high, until the constant thought of the next 20 miles and the weather began to kick in.
Overall the remainder of the day went reasonably ok, except for the constant rain, mud, wind and “minor” arguments.
That night after walking approximately 21 miles we reached the 2nd campsite an hour behind schedule to find ourselves with a mixture of re-hydrated spaghetti Bolognese and chilli-con-carnie, at most it could be called interesting.
The next day, our leader Kate told us that it was an hour back to the WCE centre; after expecting a hard slog to the finish we found the training centre 2 minutes around the corner!
We cleaned up, ate our first proper meal for two days and were given a slide show to “build enthusiasm for up coming expedition”; Hah!
Its funny what a little rabies can do to you!