At the end of March, Amanda Lee and myself spent a week at Hassness in the Lake District with Ramble Worldwide Holidays doing leader training to become holiday walk leaders for RWH. It was a full on week, with 12 hour days as it involved not just doing the navigation and map reading but also dealing with clients, undertaking role play scenarios, handling emergencies, writing incident reports, diversity awareness and generally showing we had the right people skills to become a leader.
There were 7 prospective leaders plus a member of staff going through the training which was to get us up to the silver National Navigation Award Scheme. Although I had previously obtained the silver qualification, I hadnt really put it to use since then as it's so easy nowadays to use a phone or tablet and plot / follow a route with that. Certainly my compass skills had been lost but the good news is that there is so much available on You Tube to remind you I was able to brush them up ahead of the course.
Eager to get started, Amanda arrived at midday on day 1 and walked around Buttermere lake, while I arrived a few hours later having stopped off at a National Trust property just outside of Kendal.
The first day was a gentle introduction and getting to know one another before map reading and map locating on day 2. Out in two groups we had to each lead a leg to a precise spot around Buttermere lake, which involved a mix of pacing and measuring. The next day we moved on to compass skills and how to take bearings, again heading out into more difficult terrain and being asked to lead the group to a spot roughly 1 metre square which certainly proved trickier than the previous day.
A day indoors proved far from an easier option, as we were bombarded with scenarios, emergency planning, as well as various instructions on how to deal with issues in resort / before setting off. A short bit outdoors in my group involved a difficult client called Jim from Australia who turned up in denim shorts and no waterproofs on day 1, ran across a stream several times ignoring the leaders instructions, tried to push me off the edge of the cliff path, and then refused to climb a steep hill. On the way back to base, we also came across a comatose trainer playing a walker who had suffered an epileptic fit and was out for the count who we then had to deal with.
Thankfully both Amanda and I had brought two bottles of wine each to see us through the week - great minds think alike- as we certainly needed a glass or two before dinner to keep us going through till 21.00!
Fast facts were another area we were assessed on - our ability to remember and impart facts in an engaging manner. I had been allocated Alfred Wainwright and his connection to Haystacks and Buttermere church. Thank goodness for Wikipedia and the internet as I was able to learn his ashes were scattered on Haystacks by his second wife Betty and that there is a memorial plaque in the church to him. For my second fast fact, I went off piste and decided on Kendal Mint cake purchasing a packet with 3 types of mint cake off ebay- brown sugar, white sugar and chocolate coated mint cake. Despite apparently being the energy snack for walkers and climbers, it proved not to be very appealing to the group and I came home with half of it - so beware it may be offered around on future walks!
For our week in the Lake District we were lucky weatherwise until the last day, even managing ice cream stops two afternoons with Hilary, our group trainer, who got the fact we needed a little bit of sugar and down time - referred to in the walk leader manual as cherry pie moments. Unfortunately for Amanda and me, being strong candidates meant we got our assessment on the last day and whereas the first group had a lovely dry sunny clear day, we got the short straw and battled rain and wind gusts all day. Our glasses, compasses and maps were battling with the rain and on several occasions we had to ask the assessor to go over where exactly he wanted us to lead to as trying to find a tiny x among the rain drops proved hard. Likewise visibility was less than 50 metres so there was no guessing or spotting features from afar. And he didnt ease up on us at all making us each do 3 legs for the assessment. Only mid afternoon did we finally reach a hut where we took shelter for 10 minutes and poured the rain out of our boots!
Finally the assessment came to an end, possibly sooner than expected as when the assessor asked me to show him where we were just after 3pm, my reply " I couldnt really give a s***!" made it clear we had simply had enough and wanted to get down the mountain, back to the hotel and a hot shower.
Anyway all four of us in our group were awarded a silver + pass (70%) so going forward we can both lead RWH holidays up to grade 6, which means in future if you pick RWH for your holiday, you may well end up with either Amanda or myself as your holiday leaders - yes there really is no getting away from us !
