March 2008 TTN 06 Hello all Saturday started like any other hike on Dartmoor, all the teams got away early and it wasn’t even raining! Most teams made it to the first and second checkpoint okay, although one team was struggling early on and the rain had set in for the day. A couple of you had to come off early and in the end an entire team came off. At midday the MET office issued a severe weather warning and all the teams were beginning to fall behind schedule. The weather had deteriorated; there was poor visibility, heavy rains and high winds. At this point we decided it was best to abandon the days walking and arrange for all the teams to return to our start point, Meldon Hall. It took a little time to contact all the teams and some were some way from roads so would not be off the moor for sometime. One team had a more serious problem, as one of the walkers was unable to continue. They decided they would setup their tents and get in their sleeping bags, they let me know where they were and we decided it best to get Dartmoor Rescue involved. Shortly after midday I called Dartmoor rescue. The emergency services were struggling to cope; they had received quite a few calls in a short space of time and were finding it difficult to coordinate their efforts. I was in contact with the police, Dartmoor rescue and the RAF and over the next 4 hours we worked to get help to our team. During this time everyone was working hard to get all the other teams off the moor, we had people in all the right places and in most cases it was just a waiting game while the teams made it to the various evacuation points. We did have a couple more injuries in other teams but nothing too serious (those who sustained the injuries may disagree with me here!!) and after a few hours all the other teams were back at Meldon Hall. At 15.30 the RAF managed to reach the team in their tents and airlifted the scout who couldn’t continue along with one of the adults with the team to Okehampton camp. The scout was checked over and was returned a short while later to Meldon Hall. The rest of the team started to walk off the moor, we met them halfway and they were quickly back at Meldon Hall. It wasn’t quite the weekend we had planned but you never know what Dartmoor is going to throw at you; we’ve been unlucky to encounter 2 consecutive weekends of bad weather. I was really impressed with the teams; everyone remained positive and worked together when it really counted. We’d like to congratulate every walker for seeing the walks through in difficult circumstances. I didn’t see any downhearted faces back at Meldon Hall. If you can smile through that and the previous weekend then the event weekend should only be kinder and less demanding. A huge thanks to all of you. Also a huge thanks to all the adults for playing their roles with absolute professionalism and the level of flexibility that makes us such a strong team. We have adults who do things without being asked. And lastly our thanks to Mrs Heard of Meldon Hall who responded without question to our request to return and use it as a base in order to recover and sort ourselves out. If you’d like to pass on some thanks, feedback or suggestions then click here and I’ll make sure it gets to the right people. Until next time, Lost property
If any of the above is yours please contact Mike. Missing kit
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