A photo taken 50 years ago shows intrepid Colfe’s pupils taking on the challenge of walking 250 miles along the Pennine Way – their first major adventure for Outdoor Pursuits. 
L to R: Dave Gardner, Adams (6), Reason (7) and Mr Sant (14) [Help us fill in the blanks! - Ed.]
The photo, which was circulated for the first time after the Old Colfeians’ 2014 Reunion Dinner, shows a group of 18 boys from Colfe’s Grammar School, aged between 16 and 18, getting ready to drive to the Scottish Borders and start a three-week walk to Derbyshire. The event was captured in an article for the Kentish Mercury on 21st August 1964.
Head of Games at the time, Mr David Gardner, who retired in 2002, said “This photo was sent to me by one of the lads and is special to me as it was the group I took on my first major trip for Outdoor Pursuits which didn’t become an official programme until the 1980s when we were independent.
“The trip from Kirk Yetholm, on the Scottish Borders, 'downhill' to Edale in Derbyshire, was a major challenge for city grammar school lads, many of whom had not been much outside London in those days.
“The walking group consisted of two other teachers, one of whom, Colin Winter, is now in his nineties. We walked 15 miles a day, carrying rucksacks and mainly camping and cooking our own food. The boys were very intrepid – I remember waking up and looking out of the tent to find thick frosts on the ground in mid August – but mainly we managed almost three weeks in the mountains without a single drop of rain and in constant sunshine.
“The boys who took part still talk about it, so I know they must have enjoyed it and gained much from the experience.”
Peter Adams was 16 at the time and finishing his last year at Colfe’s. The 66 year old remembers it was a great experience “The walk has stayed with me as one of the highlights of my life. During the walk we had a competition to see who could survive the longest without a blister; I had treated my feet with surgical spirit and won as I had no blisters! Since Colfe’s I have had a very varied life and I can definitely put my incredible and exiting life journey down, in no small part, to my experiences and time at the school.”