Good teamwork and community spirit in the Exmoor Challenge

The hottest bank holiday weekend on record meant that this year’s Exmoor Challenge was even more challenging than usual.

After an enjoyable evening at school following Mrs Spilsbury’s delicious pizza recipe and a final kit check, we made our way up to the start line at Dulverton School on Saturday morning. Twelve children from Year 8 followed a 16.5 mile route across varied terrain, reaching eight checkpoints within allocated times and completed a quiz en route. Walking in groups of 4, armed only with a map, compass and rations in backpacks, all of the children completed the course in 5½ hours, and most of them were still smiling by the end of it! In the blazing sun, it was so much harder to keep to the timings and keep spirits up, but our children managed it with gusto.

Once the scores were in, we had some fantastic results this year:

Our girls team came in 4th in a field of 28

The boys team came in 3rd in a field of 26

The mixed team came 2nd in a field of 54

It was brilliant to see such good teamwork and community spirit along the walk, with children encouraging each other, carrying each other’s bags and even collecting litter as they went around. A fantastic achievement from all involved and a most enjoyable weekend. Thank you also to Mrs Spilsbury, Mr Shaw and Mrs Birch for accompanying and supporting on the day.
Mr Birch.

Click here to see the photographs in our Flickr album