Emma tells us how she completed her Gold DofE Expedition

I have just completed my Gold level Duke of Edinburgh's Award Expedition with Outdoor Concepts. The experience of Programme Director Craig along with the rest of the Outdoor Concepts staff team was invaluable -  from an information evening through to training, practice and then Qualifying Expedition, this was evident throughout.  Their thorough preparation, essential training sessions and calm and encouraging attitude towards our group was a great help. 

We were given plenty of training and advice to make sure we were completely prepared for the expeditions. This included assistance planning our route, advice on what equipment to bring and essential first aid training. These were all delivered to the highest standard and as a group we felt ready to take on this challenge. 

After our training we then completed our practice expedition in the Mourne Mountains and we quickly learnt that gold expeditions are very challenging!!!! After this we received some strong and firm encouragement from The OC Staff Team to keep us motivated and key points to improve on to keep us on the right track to pass our final expedition. 

Our qualifying expedition, in the beautiful Wicklow Mountains, then ran smoothly as did our final presentation, thanks to Craig’s guidance. 

I am overjoyed at my group’s achievement and am very thankful to Craig and the whole Outdoor Concepts Team for all the work they have done for us this year.