21st – 23th September 2023

Expeditioning is a massive part of scouting and Wild Wolf,  it consists of hiking and wild camping while carrying all your gear on your back. Read on to find out about our most recent expedition in Eryri national park, a sodden but joyful camp…

Friday

We started our camp at 5pm on friday afternoon, an excited group of explorers arrived at scout park to get group kit out of the stores and pack the bus. Then half an hour later we were on the road! 

On route in our tent teams we planned our meals during the expedition so that when we stopped for shopping we could be as efficient as possible. During the shopping trip, teams had £10 per person for two breakfasts, a lunch and dinner. For dinner, some teams chose pasta and some went more extravagant such as a stir fry. 

Then back on the bus for the final couple of hours of the journey and finally we arrived at Garth Farm campsite. After the long journey the head torches were out to set up tents and straight to bed for a busy next day.

Saturday

Starting the day at 8am, we promptly packed up camp, ate breakfast and made pack lunches for the hike. A short trip in the minibus took us to the start of our expedition! Our group split into two teams for slightly different hike routes to accommodate for different abilities, and off we went… 

Our Saturday hike was extremely lucky with the weather, mostly dry and at points even blue sky! The hike started off strong until there was an unlucky encounter with a mud pit, resulting in a very sodden and muddy pair of trousers and shoes. A couple hours into the hike we paused for lunch on a sheltered and rocky mountain side. 

Then we continued our hike with a lot more elevation to go as well as some descending. After quite a lot of scrambling up we reached the top of our hike at over 850m of elevation. Then a short descent led us to our wild campsite for the night. 

We pitched tents next to a slate structure which would provide us for shelter when cooking as well as weights to hold down our tents later on in the night. We cooked within our tent groups our meals we had previously planned and bought on the journey to Snowdonia. Our dinner was warm and very appreciated after the long hike, but the calmness didn’t last long, the weather started to turn. 

As it got dark we scurried to tidy up dinner and place weights on our tents to secure them overnight. 

The wind howled all night as well as a lot of harsh rain, but as we all tried to sleep, unluckily we had two broken tent poles. This ended with the putting down of a tent in the middle of the night in the rain and people combing tents.

Sunday

We woke up bright and early to pack up camp quickly in the still rainy and windy weather. A lot of teamwork and resilience was shown through helping each other and the speed at which we packed up despite the weather. 

By eating our breakfast during the beginning of the hike we saved time so that we could get going to leave the weather behind us. This second hike was longer than planned so that we could be safe in the weather by not having too much elevation. We were sodden but had high spirits the whole time. After an hour or so we gave up trying to stay dry, our waterproofs were not much help as well as our waterproof bag covers. The wind caught many bag covers which turned them into sails instead. Despite the clouds the views on the hike were still amazing!

After a long and wet morning we arrived back to civilization (Plas Y Brenin, the National Outdoor Centre) by midday resulting in us having an hour to warm up, change, and have chips and hot chocolate before our drive home.

We were only on the road for a short while until the van had a few technical problems pushing our collection time back a few hours. Two 8 seater taxis came to our rescue and took us quickly back to scout park.
Finally to end our camp we had a quick parade and goodbyes to Marina who turned 18 the next day. Then everyone went home for a well deserved sleep!

It was a great adventure which was an awesome learning experience especially for the younger explorers. Snowdonia is visited often by Wild Wolf so read about our other adventures there in the future!