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About Expeditions
This is the part of the Award where you plan, prepare and undertake an adventurous journey by foot, cycle, horse, canoe, boat or dinghy in an unfamiliar, remote environment. You become part of a self-reliant team, working together to overcome real challenges.Training includes safety and emergency procedures, first aid, navigation, route finding, map and compass skills, country, waterports and highway codes, equipment selection and care, camping and team building.
· Bronze - a two day expedition in any rural area.
· Silver - a three day expedition in any rural area, canal, river or inland water (or an estuary or sheltered coastal waters if sailing).
· Gold - a four day expedition or other adventurous project in remote wild or open country. For water ventures you can choose a river, loch, estuary or sheltered coastal waters. Yachts and keel boats may venture into the open sea.
All expeditions should have an objective and a route needs to be planned to support this objective. Examples include studying the use of land, historical sites, the formation of landscapes, wildlife and buildings.
A report must then be produced, either on an individual or group basis which clearly shows what was discovered collectively. This can be oral, written, multi-media or exhibition based and should cover the following:
· An outline of the expedition objective, a list of group members, the name of the group the assessor, and dates of the expedition training and assessment.
· Route cards, route tracings (from a map), name and grid references for the camp sites, and name and number of maps used.
· Equipment list and menu plans.
· Detailed log/diary. This should include observations on weather and scenery and the relationships within the group, highs and lows, what went well and what went wrong, amusing incidents, photographs and what you might want to do differently next time e.g. food
Note: The objective, together with the method and date of the report (see below) must be discussed with the assessor before the venture. The assessor places as much importance on the log and the expedition's objective as the walk itself. Only once it is all assessed to a satisfactory level will your record book be signed by the assessor.