Region members enjoyed another great walking weekend in the Peak District. This was our third trip to the area. It’s proving popular and we hope more of you will be able to join us in future. Look out for future trips which will be to Hawkshead in the Lake District from 17 to 21 June and Dartmoor 25 to 27 September.
During the weekend people had a choice of walks across the Eastern Moors. It’s a beautiful area as you can see from the pictures. There are vast open spaces of heathery ground and at the edges of the moors there are outcrops of the famous millstone grit. It’s a hard and gritty dark rock which outcrops in weird and wonderful shapes. From the gritstone edges you can see for miles across the landscape. This time we got as far as Stanage Edge, Derwent Edge, Froggatt Edge and White Edge… notice the edges theme! We also made it across Ramsley Moor and to Tissington.
We were really delighted that Janette Willetts achieved her Level 2 Supported Walk. Congratulations Janette! This means that she has now completed her qualification – a wonderful achievement.
On Saturday, we were joined by Felicity Oswald, CEO of Girlguiding. We had a great time together practicing our map skills, hopping over streams, picnicking by a ghostly abandoned reservoir and getting our boots covered in mud. We finished off with a nice slice of cake at the grand Chatsworth House garden centre tea room.
We stayed at Pax Tor which is a lovely Brownie holiday house. Highly recommended. Some of the skills we worked on this weekend were around the theme of event management. We went through the kinds of communication that are required during an event not just to keep everyone informed but so that safe decisions can be made bearing in mind more challenging settings.
All of the walks counted towards people’s log of walks which is a record which they build towards a qualification or for their own satisfaction. We support people who are working on qualifications but it’s not a condition of attendance.
If this kind of thing interests you, we’d love to hear from you. Please get in touch with Helen Smale, the region Walking Adviser on walkingadviser@girlguidinglaser.org.uk and keep an eye on Spotlight for our next event.
