After our second camp of the training programme earlier this month, we all felt like we deserved a break in the rain. On our 10th and last training walk of the year, we finally didn’t have to battle the awful weather!
For this walk, we had a 20km route to minimise the risk of injury ready for the event in two weeks’ time. We set the 45-mile team in one direction and the 35-mile team in the other. This is a great test to see if the 45-mile team have a quicker pace in order to complete the 10 mile longer route on the event itself. We were based around a well-known area of the moors and took in the misty views at Hound Tor, Greator and Black Hill. The mist was eventually blown away as we hit Bonehill Rocks, Bell Tor, Chinkwell Tor and Honey Bag Tor. The 35-mile team almost missed a tor before the wind blew the fog away to reveal Honey Bag Tor less than a KM away. This shows, more than ever, the importance of reading the map, taking in the landmarks and using the compass. Each team has to hit a checkpoint in a timely manner in order to keep going to complete the route. Using checkpoints throughout this walk highlighted the importance of team work and time management. The teams navigated to Buckland Beacon where they saw the 10 commandments stones, onwards to Rippon Tor and back down to Haytor Rocks. All students worked hard and completed the route using great navigation, speed and organisation and were even met by an ice cream van much to their delight!
We will receive each team’s routes on Tuesday next week ready for the official Ten Tors Challenge on Friday 10th – 12th May. Students and the staff will be camping from Friday and the teams will be expected to finish between 1pm and 4.30pm on the Sunday. We can’t wait to meet them at the finish line after all their hard work this year, and I am sure they will be excited to collect their victory pasty!
