This was a great expedition, involving all sorts of challenges
and difficulties. The explorers just kept on arriving and
eventually we started off with twenty-two: Abbie, Adrian,
Alasdair, Alasdair C., Alexander, Allan, Benjamin, Charlie,
Chloe, Christopher, Edward, Jack MacMillan, Jamie, John Donaldson,
Katie, Lucy MacMillan, Peter William, Robbie C., Robin D.,
Sarah and Thomas; seven helpers: Ann-Marie, Howard, Jean B.,
Ken, Pamela, Peter and Selena. Plus Bruce showing plenty of
stamina for an old dog.
I warned them at the start that it was going to be a long,
hard walk, but it turned out to be even longer and harder
than I expected: we didn't get back to the pantry until well
after two o'clock.
We started along the track towards the Singing Sands and the
fast ones waited at the big forestry gate for everyone to
catch up. Then we took the dark side track through the forestry
and assembled again at the fork in the track.
This is where the difficult part started: I knew we had to
go down the hill but I missed the turning and we had a bit
of a scramble to get through the forestry to the beach. Everyone
was rather weary at this point but the young explorers were
suddenly charged with energy when they got to the top of the
dunes and saw the sea in front of them. They all raced away
leaving the adults to catch up where they could.
We all assembled above the bay and I explained about the beach
being a training area for the D-Day landings in World War
2. This explained the two mortar shells the explorers quickly
discovered, plus the amount of shrapnel lying around the place.
Rolling and jumping down the dunes was easily the most popular
activity.
Since we had taken rather a long time to get to the beach,
I had to start the return trip fairly promptly, certainly
a lot sooner than most of them were ready for.
Coming back was far quicker, but tiring since it involved
a fairly tough climb. Katie took the compass and was able
to keep us going in the right direction until we struck the
path again. We were all shattered when we got to the top,
and there was still a good long walk back to the cars. A sore
ankle hindered Jamie and Peter William had a nasty headache;
they both did incredibly well to finished at all, but all
the explorers were pretty subdued when we got back to the
Pantry. John Dye
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