Early in the morning on Saturday October 1st  five adults, eight Scouts and one Explorer met at the Scout hut for the start of a Mountain Experience Weekend. We all excitedly piled into the minibus and headed up to Edale, which is in the Hope Valley in Derbyshire.When we arrived in the car park at Edale we met up with Ben who had driven up on his own, as unfortunately he couldn’t stay with us all weekend.

When the kit lists for the weekend were issued  we thought that waterproofs, warm hats, gloves and several ‘layers’ would be the order of the day, after all this was  the Peak District in October ! We couldn’t have been more wrong, the weather was sunny, very warm and there was no sign of rain. Before we split into our two walking groups we had to check that everyone had extra water, sun hats and sun cream, but I tell you this - we weren’t complaining!

When we arrived outside Coopers camp site we had a final kit check and then the first walking group led by Ben headed off. About ten minutes later the second group headed by Richard set of as well.  The Route from Edale took us through a wood and over a stream and we were soon following the path that led us along Grindsbrook  Clough. The sun was beating down and the ascent was quite tough. Spirits were high and everyone was having a great time. The Scouts seemed to have boundless energy and were doing great impressions of mountain goats.

When the second group had completed the ascent to the top of the Clough they met up with the first group who had waited for them and everyone had a welcome rest and some lunch. After lunch break we headed for Kinder Downfall by traversing the Kinder Plateau. This proved to be great fun and involved a lot of peat bog jumping, On this leg of the journey we had more than one person end up in a bog up to their knees. They were soon helped out by the others amid a lot of hilarity. All good fun and all perfectly safe, even if it was a bit messy.

On reaching Kinder Downfall we had time to have a paddle and cool down a bit. A sheep seemed to appear from nowhere and immediately befriended Ben. I think he was after food but he should have known he was wasting his time! For some reason the youngsters named the sheep Rob. Meeky our Explorer Leader took the opportunity to invest Georgie as an Explorer Scout whilst we at the Downfall. This was a most memorable occasion and we are sure that Georgie will always remember the day of her investiture.

We finally left the Downfall ,and Bob the sheep, and headed for Jacobs Ladder. The youngsters still seemed to have boundless energy as we descended Jacobs and headed back to Edale and our minibus. After saying goodbye to Ben,who had to head home , we boarded the minibus and headed for our overnight accommodation which was nearby in village called Whaley Bridge.

We soon arrived at 1st Taxal Scout Headquarters in Whaley Bridge which was to be where we slept the night. It wasn’t luxury as we had to sleep on the floor in the main hall, but at least we didn’t have to pitch tents and there was full kitchen and toilet facilities and the luxury of a showers.  I am sure we would have appreciated it even more if it had been cold and raining which was the weather we were expecting. After a great evening meal which had been prepared for us by Jo and warmed up by Richard we settled down for the night. By now we were feeling quiet tired. We had been out on the mountains for about seven hours and had walked around sixteen kilometres.

We really didn’t want to get up the next morning when Woody told us it was time for breakfast, but he was quite insistent so eventually we all dragged ourselves out of our sleeping bags and got dressed. After a full breakfast we cleaned up the building and once again we boarded the minibus. Our destination on Sunday was Ladybower Reservoir for a short walk. I think we were all quite pleased to hear the words ‘short walk’ from Richards mouth. We parked up at the visitor centre and set off for the walk which was a lot easier than the one  we did on Saturday. After about two and a half hours we all returned to the visitors centre and most of us bought ice creams and pop. All too soon it was time to head back to Bedworth and we were all on the minibus again, tired but happy, with aching limbs  but with a great sense of achievement . It was a great weekend and one which we will certainly be repeating soon.


We stayed at another Group’s Hut. The mountain climbing was fun. There were peat bogs so me and Lee played peat bog running, but the last one we did turned out to be a stream and we got soaked.

Jay

My favourite part of the mountain experience was the first hike when we all got stuck in peat bogs. I also like the hike on the second day because it was shorter and  did not tire us so much.

Callum

The Walking Weekend was great fun. I enjoyed all of it except for the sleeping part. When we were walking I realised that my sun cream was attracting bees. I constantly had a buzzing noise behind. The best part was peat bog jumping when we saw Meeky stuck up to his waist in peat.

Matthew

It took a long time to climb up but it was fun. We had a pet sheep called Rob ! He chased Ben for his food. We walked for  seven hours and Badger was sweating really bad. It was awesome

Kaylem

What a great weekend. It’s been some years since I have walked that route and I had honestly forgotten how tiring it was. I personally got a great sense of achievement in completing the walk and appreciated all of  the support I received. Thanks to everyone who made the weekend such a brilliant success.

Woody

Visit of photo gallery for some pictures of this activity