Peak District Trip Number 3: Outdoor First Aid

I was surprisingly awake Saturday when I left the hostel around 7am. My body was probably still assessing the environment for danger. Still got myself a Costa and hurried through the empty shopping area. I like walking around in early hours when everything is asleep and peaceful, resting before the Saturday shopping mayhem.

A-roads and the M1 were equally empty with no trace of yesterday's buzz. I was pushing my car over winding country lanes with a grin on my face, before I had even finished my coffee. Again I marvelled at the simple beauty of the Peak District.
A few rolling green hills, some fields, some trees and a good number of small villages built of limestone houses. That's it. And all you think is "Awwwww....!"

Arriving way ahead of schedule in Youlgreave I took my time sorting my gear and things, before I headed to the Scout Hut for my Outdoor First Aid course.

We were a small group of 7 plus the instructor with various backgrounds (One was an engineer working for the F1 team Force India, how cool is that???), but all needed an outdoor related First Aid qualification.
The course was very intense in terms of density of information and skills to be learned and the instructor did a darn good job. He had just a few slides, most of the time we we're discussing how and why we do what we do and possible situations or even exceptions. Of course we practised scenarios a lot and went through the procedure a first aider has to remember when coming to a casualty time and again until no one needed to think about what to do any more.

Day 1 ended with a small multiple choice test which everyone got a 100% pass score on. Yeah. Took me just 15 mins to drive to Bakewell, where I had a B&B. I had found it on Google Maps, looking for an affordable and available one two months ago. Had booked it but never heard from her again and couldn't find the email and thought, that's it. It's gone. So I had booked a slot on a campsite.
Friday morning she had sent me an email, asking what time I'll be arriving. AH! Ok, so B&B then. Haha.
After last night's "unrest" I was more than happy for some peace and a good bed. I got both. What a sweet and lovely B&B!!! Had my own small single room, so cosy and Janette was just the perfect host.
Walked around Bakewell in the afternoon sun. Too bad, shops had just closed. I fell in love with this little gem of a town straight away despite its touristy-ness. So many handicraft shops, some outdoor shops and a good deal of pubs. Cool!

Bakewell, hard to put its loveliness onto a picture

Didn't do much back in my room. I was too lazy to go out for a drink. Read a bit and chatted on facebook.

Sunday morning after a nice breakfast, I was back at the course again. After learning the most important and vital procedures yesterday, we now concentrated on breaks, cuts, wounds and minor injuries and did a couple of scenarios outside in the afternoon in the pouring rain until we we're cold and miserable, haha.

Happy and with my head full of new knowledge and skills I set off for Bristol, surprised it only took me three hours! Wow.

It's a good feeling, knowing what to do now with a casualty although lots of questions remain concerning incidents in remote areas, circling more around organizing a group and how to make sure the rest of the group is taken care of too. But I think everyone has to make the necessary decisions right then as every situation is different and dependent on so many factors, that it is impossible to cover all of it in scenarios.

Hopefully, I'll never be needed as a first aider. But if I do, I'm now confident to do the right thing and spring into action straight away if something happens to someone, be it outdoors, a car accident or any other situation where someone needs help.