Hello readers! Greetings from my bed, where I am hiding under 2 duvets in a bid to a) avoid turning on the heating properly till mid-November and b) chase away the chilled-to-the-bone feeling left behind by a weekend sleeping outdoors. It's been a fantastic weekend, 2nd in a row spent in the beautiful Cesky Raj, and my first proper full outing with the EISP D of E group. It was just great to be out with such a lovely team of friendly colleagues and enthusiastic students, and to see what those students achieved for themselves. I have always loved this about the D of E award, both as a participant myself and as a leader, the fact that it encourages and enables young people to get out there and push themselves to limits they perhaps never knew they had. Certainly I would not know how to enjoy the outdoors so much as I do now, had I not joined the D of E group at my own school back in 1995 or whenever it was... Over the last 6 years working on the D of E at Mountbatten I have had some of the most rewarding and silliest times of my career, and it is encouraging to know that after this weekend they are set to continue. Admittedly it doesn't look like there will be much in the way of Legless, Flailing Branch or Fire Jumping here, but at the end of the day one can find just as much pleasure/weirdness in random Archery competitions or pubs in rocks..... Yes folks, that's right, welcome to the world of Czech D of E.
Thursday afternoon saw Gully (hilariously disorganised Welsh friend with the world's kindest heart) and I lead the Silver Expedition group out of school, onto bus, metro, bus and bus up to a Royston Vasey, or at least the Czech equivalent. First challenge was to find the B&B - easier said than done. I think we bluffed it successfully - "kids, first D of E initiative test is to find the accommodation... it's a test... we know where it is really..." - but just in the nick of time, an elderly village local shuffled his way up the road and led us directly to the front door of our self-proclaimed 'stylish pension'. One hearty chicken-and-potatoes dinner later, laid on by the B&B lady for 50kc, we planned the expedition routes and headed to bed. At this point I shall do my best to recreate the atmosphere of that B&B. Imagine, if you will, all the colours from 1960s decor thrown together in one happy place, accompanied by the smell of your Nan's cooking and the sounds of creaky doors and howling winds (well, I made the howling winds bit up, but the rest is accurate). Once the kids were off to bed, Gully and I celebrated our safe arrival in Cesky Raj with half a soluble asprin each in shot glasses whilst seated in our brown Granny chairs watching static on the un-tuneable portable TV. Rock n' roll, needless to say.
On Friday the kids completed a fairly eventless first day of hiking (eventless apart from leaving a map behind in the B&B, getting lost several times and realising on arrival to the campsite that they'd forgotten the poles of one of the tents, that is). Meanwhile Gully and I 'remotely supervised', ie we had a picnic, caught the train, did some shopping, went for lunch and enjoyed a hot chocolate at the campsite awaiting their arrival. At this point, I thought, Czech D of E is definitely for me. Chaos took hold at check-in at Autocamp Sedmihorky, however, as somewhere in between English, Czech, German, gesture, mime and much furrowing of brows, we managed to ascertain from the bewildered campsite lady that our kids were supposed to camp in the middle of -wait for it- an Archery masters weekend. Blimey. Bob Rhodes would have had a bleedin' fit at this flagrant breach of Hampshire County Council D of E health and safety regulations, were he to have been present. As the archers proceeded to set up all manner of bizarre plastic animal models as their targets, we harangued the campsite lady to give us another piece of grass for use. Eventually she decided we could camp inbetween the rows of families in their caravans. Fine for our kids, but would you like a bunch of worn-out irritable teenagers camping outside your plastic caravan window? No, thought not. Anyway, kids arrived, set up camp and started to cook their delicious dinner (largely goulash). We retired to our heated cottage to eat a fine chicken curry brought down by Anuska, our third colleague who joined us that evening, accompanied by an entirely appropriate amount of wine and some very sensible conversation. A rather perfect evening, all in all.
As Saturday dawned, so too did the Archery Competition announce its opening with the Human League's 'Don't you Want Me' blasting out through the tannoy system. Hi-de-Hi! this wasn't . As soon as we could we bade farewell to the archers who were so busy firing arrows into their plastic gibbons and leopards, they probably didn't notice us leave. We set off the Silver group on their route, and accompanied the newly-arrived Bronze group up the hill to Hruba Skala castle. After a bit of route-planning at the top we abandoned them, too, for their first taste of hiking without the teachers! Unwittingly I had established myself as 'map technician' and was being relied on to make sure we, unlike the kids, did not lose our maps. I succeeded in this, but failed in making sure we did not accidentally miss part of the path and end up clambering up a near vertical hillside to find our way out of a staggeringly beautiful but very deep gully. This is where I found out that on Czech D of E - completely unlike Mountbatten's - the teachers hike too. No minibuses here, oh no. It was a lovely day though, blessed with sunshine and clear blue skies, as we walked through sleepy villages and caught back-garden glimpses of pre-Revolution Czech life (and indeed post-Revolution life, for it is still like that in many parts here). We feasted on pumpernickel bread, cheese, ham and biscuits for lunch, and spent the last hour or so walking, talking, pepping ourselves up with wine gums and bracing ourselves for imminent arrival at Hell.
Yes, Hell.
And on that note I shall temporarily pause the story and leave you guessing, for my fingers ache from typing and my back longs to be stretched out and have its rucsac grooves softened. Am I being melodramatic enough? It's not that bad at all, really - I am just tired and feeling a little pathetic. And very, very sleepy. The story will resume tomorrow after a good night's rest.
Hoping you are all well, wherever you are reading this. Tomorrow - tales of Hell and High Mud. And goblins serving beer from the rocks in which they dwell (really). Love to all xx
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