Wild Country Areas: Overview

General

1. In Germany, for doing a Gold practise or a Gold final expedition by foot, by bicycle or on horseback, teams have to use one of the specified Wild Country Areas (“Wildnisgebiete"). They are situated preferably in sparsely populated regions of German uplands. Mobile phone reception is only partially possible. You can find more details on page 48 of the German Award Handbook (volume 2). The system is aimed to help teams and ensure standards.

2. For every Wild Country Area there is at least:

1. A website (accessible through the quoted link) with a bulk of public information;

2. A list of secure campsites (mostly owned by farmers) in the German Award’s Intranet.

3. A team of Wild Country Assessors certified for this specific area.

3. The expedition season in Wild Country areas starts at the beginning of May and ends at the end of September. Even in this period sub-zero-temperatures and snow can’t be ruled out. Exemptions are only allowed for Other Adventurous Projects. The Assessor will check that adequate provisions exist.

4. Tarps are allowed just for

1. High-performance groups

2. Other Adventurous Projects.

5. Like all ventures on the Gold level or abroad, practice expeditions and expeditions in Wild Country Areas have to be registered in good time in the National Award Office (cf. specific guidelines). Before doing an expedition abroad, the group has to do one practice expedition in Germany in an environment in which the conditions abroad will be met as closely as possible. This practice expedition also has to be registered.

6. Teams doing expedition ventures in Wild Country Areas or abroad need

1. The level of general expedition skills as shown in the Expedition Guide;

2. The required level of skills related to the mode of travel;

3. An Expedition Safety Card.

Areas

• Black Forest

• Northern Black Forest*)

• Central Black Forest*)

• Southern Black Forest

• Eifel*)

• Fichtelgebirge*)

• Harz

• Highlands (Scotland)**)

• Mecklenburg Lake District***)****)

• Oberallgäu**)****)

• Odenwald****)

• Swabian Jura*)****)

• Thuringian Forest*)

• Vosges Mountains (France)*).

*) Test area.

**) Also a DofE Wild Country Area.

***) Bikes only.

****) Website in German