Here they are, the desperate teenagers with backpacks. It's the Duke of Edinburgh's season | Adrian Chiles

Beyond the horizon they come, recognizable even from miles away. About half a dozen of them, they walk wearily, shapeless. Individually as in groups, they do not walk in a straight line. Random, desperate, beaming with uncertainty and reluctance, the approach of the DofE-ers.

The Duke of Edinburgh's plan is, without a doubt, a good thing. Young people, usually in what we called sixth grade, work for bronze, silver and gold medals doing things that help the community and the environment. They also need to get in shape and develop new skills. And then there are the expeditions they have to undertake.

My eldest daughter's odyssey got off to a bad start when the team member in charge of navigation forgot the card. She had a job. There was a frantic call home – cell phones weren't allowed – and a fax machine at a post office in Wiltshire soon went away. The expedition is over and the bronze medals are bagged. My daughter blindly swore she wouldn't mind the silver medal - "too heavy backpack" - and she kept her word. She didn't.

It is significant that if you see a group of young people walking together with bags on their backs, it will only ever be because they "do DofE". I don't have any data to back this up, but I walk a lot and every time I encounter such a group I ask, with cheerful sympathy, "DofE?" They growl in affirmation. less pissed off manage a nod and, occasionally, a smile The group I met on the Wales Coast Path last week looked like they really wanted to push me and my good spirits off the edge of the cliff .

I live for the day when I ask the question and someone answers me, without a sarcastic look, like, "DofE? What is this?" is? Oh no, we walk and camp for fun because we love it."

Adrian Chiles is a broadcaster, writer and columnist for The Guardian