Rain, high winds and dampened spirits couldn’t stop eight girls from John Kyrle High School from getting their Duke of Edinburgh silver award after canoeing part of the River Wye last weekend.
The girls donned waterproofs, picked up a paddle and learnt how to canoe after spending two days walking, on the hottest weekend of last year, to get their bronze award. They decided it would be cooler to take to the water for the silver.
The training sessions began last September when the Year 11 girls were taught how to paddle competently and deal with a man overboard or a complete capsize in deep water. They went on to complete a practice expedition, canoeing from Kerne Bridge to Monmouth with an overnight camp at the Biblins.
They took a break to complete their GCSEs but as soon as the last exam was finished they were back on the water and last weekend they completed their assessed expedition.
The girls started the trip at the Whitney Toll Bridge on Friday and, with the sun shining, they powered down to their first overnight camp at Byecross. At six o’clock on Saturday morning they got up to rain but were undeterred, hitting the water by 8pm and arriving wet and cold but in good spirits for lunch in Hereford.
Paddling strongly they continued to Lucksall’s for their second camp. After going to bed early and sleeping through a wet and very windy night, the girls were up at the same time to rain and high winds on Sunday morning. The last day’s paddling was very hard and the weather was particularly windy. The assessor gave the girls the option of abandoning their trip, but they continued and turned into a more sheltered stretch of river, finishing the expedition successfully at the Hole in the Wall on Sunday afternoon.
Along the route they completed a project studying flora and fauna on the river. The girls are now talking about canoeing in France or expeditions on horseback for the gold award.