Last weekend in June I was hoping for sunshine and worried about sunburn. Whilst the students trekked around the countryside with heavy rucksacks I felt a fraud wearing my thick socks and sturdy walking boots. The joys of supporting on the Silver expedition, they do the hard work while the adults just tag along at a distance making sure they are safe. When I say tagging along I mean driving through picturesque market towns with thatched cottages often depicted in jigsaws or on old school chocolate boxes. The North Wessex Downs are certainly underrated but I assume that the locals are often pestered for drinking water from large groups of enthusiastic youngsters looking like some kind of Ninja turtle hobbling along with map and compass at the ready.
At least I did camp out for 2 nights so feel a bit better about my townie relationship with the outdoors. I also actually did smell the roses whilst waiting at a junction to a main road for a few hours. It was very pleasant walking up and down the path surrounded by sweet smelling buds whilst trying to keep busy and not look too weird on someone's security or door bell camera.
Well we all survived and hopefully they passed.
Not much beats sleeping in a tent, when it is pelting with rain. Cosy as anything!