Saturday 28 July

After a long, but uneventful journey, all have arrived safely at the Falkenlager.

We left Waterbeach at a silly time on Saturday morning, took the ferry to Calais and arrived in Rheindahlen mid-afternoon. We were able to use the outdoor pool to relax after the trip. A steady drive south on Sunday to Sonthofen where we settled in and prepared for the first day’s activity:

· The GOLD group are heading off into the mountains with Capt Tonkins where they will climb the Nebelhorn (2,221m), Rotkopf (2,178m), Glasfelderkopf (2,271m) and Sattelkopf (2,079m). They’ll stay Monday night in an alpine hut, the Prinz Luitpold Haus www.prinz-luitpoldhaus.de

· The SILVER group will spend Monday learning to canoe on a local lake and river before their 2-day canoe expedition on Tuesday and Wednesday.

· The BRONZE group will spend the next 2 days climbing the crags overlooking Schloss Neuschwanstein.

* The GOLD group are back safe from the High Alps trip which was fantastic ! It was great weather and the

alpine hut accommodation was wonderful. The group is a little tired - but totally elated !

* The SILVER group weren't able to do the river trip as planned, but more time spent on the lakes means

* The BRONZE group have spent their time climbing at Kempten on the indoor wall and on the crags.

Thursday 2nd August

So far, everything is still going to plan thanks to a great deal of hard work (and some flexibility) by the adult leaders and cadets.

Yesterday was a rest day for 2 groups of cadets, we took it easy and went to visit Schloss Neuschwanstein... the film and any photos you see somehow manage not to show the acres of car-parks and ice-cream stalls! However, very beautiful indeed. The Silver group finished their 3 days of canoeing with a river trip down the Iller. They had a fantastic time in and on the water.

As I write this, the Gold group are out on the first of their 2 days climbing, the Silver group are over at Scholss Neuschwanstein (pictured above) and the Bronze group are on the Grosse Alpsee on their first of 2 days canoeing.

Jack Woodcock spent the night in hospital having tripped in the dark and fallen on his arm which he had broken 6 weeks previously; thankfully, it's ok. And we've had a few cases of vomiting and diarrhoea in the Gold group... probably some dodgy water on our trek in the high Alps. Other than that, everything is fine; Capt Steve Swann joined us last night having just returned from 6 weeks with a World Challenge expedition to Namibia.

Monday 6th August

Nearly there!!

We're in the final phase of the trip now; the D of E qualifying expeditions. Most of the previous serials have gone according to plan although we have had to curtail some activity due to the stomach bug. It appears that the Gold group drank some dodgy water from a stream on their high alps trek, that affected some of them directly and they passed it on to others. 19 out of 29 of us have had it :-( But it was only a 24 hour bug and some firm discipline on hygiene and we're all clear of it now:

Friday was pretty challenging; it rained all night and into the morning, people were ill and tired. However, Dave Hathaway and Lesley Adams led 4 members of the Silver group up to Prinz Luitpold Haus, the others rested for the day to get over their sickness. Their trip up was in the rain and fog, but they were there by mid-afternoon. Steve Swann and Marcellus Roberts took the Gold group on their second day climbing and Tony Tuite and Tracey Rockall took the Bronze group on their second day canoeing - a trip down the River Iller.

The weather improved over the weekend and it's now gloriously sunny. The groups have had a rest day which has included a bit of sport - waterskiing or the rodelbahn or a super swimming pool near here. They've bought their food (we were caught out yesterday though - the shops don't open on a Sunday) and the Gold and Silver groups have headed off to the hills on their qualifying expeditions. Bronze leaves tomorrow.

The Bronze group went out this morning on their 2-day expedition, Silver group is on Day 2 out of 3 and all is going well so far. However, sadly one of the Gold group members had to withdraw from the expedition due to a recurrence of the stomach bug. We're therefore not able to complete that trip with less than the minimum number. The other 3 members of the Gold group have joined the Silver group and are able to salvage something, but for Cianan O'Dowd, it means that he'll have to undertake a qualifying expedition another time.

The Falkenlager is remarkably empty with just the adult staff who are spending their time monitoring the groups remotely by arranging RVs and visiting their campsites.

By way of summary, in addition to having an excellent time in the Allgäu, we achieved the following qualifications:

6 cadets achieved a DofE Silver expedition.
13 cadets achieved a DofE Bronze expedition.
12 cadets achieved an APC 3* expedition (subject to confirmation).
7 cadets achieved an APC 2* expedition (subject to confirmation).
14 cadets achieved a British Canoe Union 1* open canoe qualification.

Watch this space for next years expedition...