I am lucky enough to be selected to go on a trip to South Africa in October half term with 8 other girls from my school. We are going to Johannesburg to help with Sparrow School which is a school teaching children from 11-18 with learning difficulties. Whilst we are there we are going to help run activities and lessons for the children which I hope is going to be fun for them.

The school mainly runs of donations so therefore we are all individually raising £200 to donate to the school. On the 3rd of September 2 friends and I decided to do a 10 mile walk to fundraise the money along the Didcot Ridgeway. What we thought would be a picturesque and pleasurable walk turned into an endless walk of rain - meaning we may as well have swam the 10 miles as it chucked it down for the entire 5 hours. This meant that we were sodden and miserable eating our jam sandwiches and soggy crisps. But the time went quickly and we used our (rather poor) D of E navigation skills when we got a bit lost off the Ridgeway. We finally reached the end of the ridgeway after dreaming about hot chocolate and hot baths at 5pm after looking very miserable!! And the wet train ride back home made a very uncomfortable journey home and a finish to a successful day.

Before we deserted the maps and went from instinct

At the end of the Ridgeway walk looking very pleased to finish and leave the rain behind us.