Posted: Wednesday 20 May 2009
Expeditions
There's a great story - probably apocryphal - about the Duke of Edinburgh, who was out on the Scottish hills with his ghillie one day when, after a long stalk, he finally got into position for a shot at a magnificent stag. He was lining it up through the sights when a group of walkers carrying rucksacks suddenly appeared on a nearby ridge. The stag saw them and quickly disappeared in flight, leaving the Duke fuming with rage. 'Find out who those idiots are...' he raged, only to be told later '... I'm afraid they were young persons doing their Duke of Edinburgh's Award expedition, your royal highness'.
We have a terrific DoE programme here, and although all parts of the Awards are valued and enjoyed by those who take part, it's clear that it's the expedition phase which provides the most memorable experiences. Parents with children below S4, where our scheme starts with the opportunity to do the Silver Award, will probably not realise that we offer more than treks across Scottish deer forest.
Pupils can choose between walking, sea kayaking, Canadian canoeing, mountain biking or ocean sailing their way around much of the Highlands and Islands. It really is a tremendously exciting programme which, although not cheap, does represent excellent value for money, as all equipment is provided during several training weekends as well as the final expedition itself, all under supervision from expert instructors from the outdoor centre we use in Newtonmore.
Expeditions have always been a rich source of material for a travel book written once the voyagers are safely home, and their popularity seems to suggest that most of us not only enjoy exploring, but also like reading about other people doing it, particularly when things go wrong, of course. Apsley Cherry-Garrard's The Worst Journey in the World, about Captain Scott's doomed South Pole expedition, is often hailed as the best travel book ever written. I find it full of unintentional humour, with the author grimly recounting the range of speeds of each horse pulling a sledge, and how the sledge weights were endlessly argued over. Plus the morbid fascination with pemmican...
Contrast that with Eric Newby's A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush, which went to the opposite extremes of planning, or Brazilian Adventure by Peter Fleming, where a similarly blasé approach is taken. The best intentional parody of earnest exploration is surely The Ascent of Rum Doodle by WE Bowman. I defy anyone to read this without laughing. In fact I will gladly give bohees five to anyone who can do it. I recently read Explorers of the 21st Century by Magnus Mills, which offers quite a different, more sinister, pastiche of this type of literature, and anyone who has read Mills' deadpan comic style before will understand that in his books nothing is ever what it seems. Or is it?
I know that part of the DoE Award involves completing an account of the final expedition, but apart from a very entertaining DVD made by one group a few years ago, I have not seen any of these. Can I encourage all pupils past and present to put forward their expedition accounts in a form suitable for inclusion on the website? I'm sure their adventures would make interesting reading ...