Rob Kinder

Rob Kinder

I am 28, originally from Cheltenham and currently in London working as a commercial solicitor.  Ever since I was aware that my great-grandfather was a geologist on Scott's Last Expedition the story of Captain Scott has been a huge passion of mine.  It has also given me the itchiest of itchy feet, taking me on trips to Greenland, Nepal, the Yukon and, in a slightly different spirit of exploration, driving a Morris Minor from London to Mongolia.  As the focal point for all of the Scott Centenary celebrations, I am very excited to be involved with the ISCE 2012.

April 2011: The challenge: take ten strangers and mould them into a tight team in 72 hours.  At HMS Raleigh we experienced some of the more testing aspects of the Royal Navy recruits course.  From back-to-basics vomit inducing physical training, life raft and sea rescue drills, dizzying high ropes exercises to toiling away in the bowels of a sinking ship simulator, the days were unrelenting. The result was actually staggering. We emerged a little tired and bruised but as an incredibly tight unit. Most importantly we were still laughing at the end, and had been all the way through.

Rob Kinder intro from ISCE 2012 on Vimeo.

Dartmoor Training Weekend (July, 2011)

From previous excursions, I had always thought Dartmoor one of those places that is either too hot or too cold.  Sometimes it leaves you sun-stroked and gasping for the next stream, at other times shivering in your sleeping bag all night.  And that is just in summer.  The moor Gods must have been in a hearty mood this weekend because they laid on some very hospitable weather and opted not to throw any rain at us.

Nevertheless, to make sure that we didn’t mistake this training weekend with the monthly meeting

of the Ramblers Association, Anthony set us a grueling target of many tors over two tough days of walking with heavy bags. Whether anyone can remember how many tors we bagged is doubtful but it was certainly less than the number of midge bites on Ali’s forehead by Sunday morning. Tents being very “last season” on Dartmoor, we were issued with ponchos, poles and bungees to make shelter.  There followed an array of grand design homes, some that barely fitted their occupants (Rob) and some that may have even been two storey (Chris).    

By the end of the weekend we had covered 60 or 70 kilometers, some had put up with excruciating blisters and we all felt the physical effects of the outing. Lucky then that the ISCE provided us with some free pizza to fill our empty stomachs and Captain Scott beer to ease our aching shoulders.