On 14th May 2022, twenty 8th graders started their practice expedition for Duke Bronze. The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Bronze level expedition consists of two days of walking (approximately 35 kilometres) in a group unaccompanied by an adult. We, the participants, planned all aspects ourselves – menu, cooking, route planning and navigation – and were also fully self-sufficient during the hike.  We camped on a farm overnight and completed a circular route. The first section of our planned route went well, we thought. When we arrived at the Rimpertsweiler Hof in Salem, we met another group, so we walked with them for ten minutes until our paths split up. Everyone was in good spirits. The last few kilometres to the Sturzhof were the toughest, particularly as we realized we were two hours behind schedule. When we arrived at our destination at 5:30 p.m. we were all hungry and tired, but we immediately started setting up the tents and cooking. Dinner was spaghetti with tomato sauce. Later in the evening our teacher Ms. Tommy visited us to discuss our return route; we decided to shorten it due to the longer distance to the Sturzhof. At about 9:00 p.m. we fell into bed exhausted.

The next day we woke up at 6:00 a.m. so we could start walking at 8:00 a.m. Because I had forgotten to buy bread for breakfast, we all ate miso soup with glass noodles. But that was just perfect! We started our walk ahead of schedule and so at 11:30 a.m. we ate lunch close to Mittelstenweiler. When we arrived in Salem we were three hours ahead of schedule, quite the opposite of our first day of hiking. On the school grounds we put up the tents again to let them dry in the sun and helped return the things we used on our expedition.

For our next trip we know that we definitely need to plan our timing better and buy more food. In total we all enjoyed the expedition and are looking forward to the “real” expedition in the next epoch.