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Duke of Edinburgh's Award
Bronze - Route Cards
Route Planning
For the assessment, groups should choose the purpose before planning the route. It is no good doing a route then deciding to have churches as a purpose and finding that the route doesn't pass any. It takes two lessons to complete a days route and route card. If there is not enough time in the programme groups may have to work on the route at home if there is shortage of time.
Walking along roads is to be avoided wherever possible. Try to keep to PUBLIC footpaths (red on 1:50,000, green on 1:25,000).
There should be 3 checkpoints per full day, with either 1 or 2 checkpoints for fractions of a day. These should be as close to roads as possible with CP2 (lunch) actually on a road. Allow 10 minutes rest at CP1 and CP3, and 20 minutes rest at CP2 (lunch). This should be shown on the route card.
Plan routes carefully. There should be no unnecessary up and downs. The minimum distance must be reached, check the distance carefully. If the route is too short, start again. It looks very sloppy to see a dog-leg or a big loop to make up distance. However, if the there is loop in the route, there must be a checkpoint at the outer edge of the loop to make sure they do walk the loop.
1. When choosing a campsite in wild country, look for shelter and water;
2. Climb early in the day. If there are 2 climbs, the second should be straight after lunch;
3. When groups are on high ground, they should stay up as long as possible;
4. Tracings of the route should be sent to the wild country panel 4 to 5 months before assessment whenever possible, as they might come back with some amendments. Completed routes and route cards, equipment lists (group and individual) and menus to be submitted 2 months before assessment for final approval.
Route Cards
A route card is a comprehensive description of the route that groups will take on successive days. From it you can tell the starting and finishing points, distances covered, heights climbed, times taken as well as a description of features passed on route.
A route card has a number of purposes.
1.It allows the group;
i. to envisage the route to be taken before the actual expedition, ie. distance to be walked and height climbed, and prepare for it; and,
ii. a quick reference guide during the expedition, telling them if they are on time, what features they should be passing and what they can expect from different sections of the route etc..
2. It allows the supervisors;
i. to know if the groups are covering the correct distances in a sensible amount of time;
ii. to know where the group should be at all times and meet them at the checkpoints; and,
iii. to know if a group is late and take the appropriate actions.
Naismiths Rule is the rule for estimating the times it takes to walk in hilly or mountainous areas. Generally groups will walk at 3 km/hr (50 m/min) and climb at 300 m/hr (5 m/min). If these speeds are found inappropriate during practice walks, ie. the groups are walking too fast or too slow, then the groups should work out how fast they are actually walking and use those times in future walks.
The expedition is a TIMED walk, it is VERY important that groups arrive within 15 minutes of the time shown on the route card. Arriving too early is as bad as very arriving late. Groups can and will be failed for not coming in on time.
At Bronze level, each line of the route card should be a description of the route between successive checkpoints.
At Silver and Gold level, each line of the route card should be a description of the route between each junction requiring a change of direction. Checkpoints should be clearly distinguished from just changes in direction.
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