Keeping dry on a Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Expedition is a skill learnt through good advice and experience. Once a young person has completed all levels of the Award (Bronze, Silver and Gold), they’ll have done 18 days hiking and 12 nights camping. Not surprisingly, by that stage, they’ll have some good tips to share on how to cope in wet weather.
In early October 2018, we ran a Gold qualifying expedition on the Isle of Arran in the Firth of Clyde. The first two days of the expedition were sunny and fine. The second two days, however, were pretty wet…. it rained heavily. In the video below, Heather, Maria, Amarah, Briony, and Samantha share their top tips for keeping dry.
Top tip No. 1: Check the map and look for places you can get shelter from the rain en route, like forests.
Top tip No. 2: Check the weather forecast and look for the best weather window. You might be able to start earlier to avoid the worst of the weather.
Top tip No. 3: Make sure you line your rucksack with plastic bags to ensure your kit stays dry.
Top tip No. 4: Make sure you have something hot to eat and drink in the morning, it’ll make you feel much warmer.
Top tip No. 5: Wear gloves even though they might get wet. Your hands will be warmer, and you can always wring the water out of them.
Top tip No. 6: Put your waterproofs on as soon as it starts to rain, don’t make the mistake of getting your warm layers wet.
Here are some fair-weather photos from the start of the expedition. Arran is an awesome place for walking and Duke of Edinburgh’s Award expeditions with beautiful mountain and coastal scenery, and some great campsites. Oh… and we saw fossilised millipede tracks and an otter.
If you’d like to join one of Open Gold expeditions, click here.
