Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Back after a 2 week absence

Collapse
This topic is closed.
X
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Back after a 2 week absence

    Hey guys, I didn't really post that I was going to be away for two weeks, because I'm not well known enough for it to have an effect, but I thought I might share some of my experiences during that time. For the first week, I was in Spain with my college, I won't go into much detail, but there were many good and bad points about it. The second week I was doing my Gold Duke of Edinburgh's award expedition with my Air Training Corps (Royal Air Force Cadets) squadron. I thought I might share an account I wrote for another message board with you guys.

    For those who don't know much about the DofE expeditions it basically entails a small team living in wild country for a period of four days and travelling a huge amount of distance. You have to be self sufficient and carry 4 days worth of clothes, food survival equipment and your tents with you. My team started off with the five of us, here's the account:

    ***

    Day 1 on top of our first mountain, my team of 5 got caught in a blizzard of hail and snow, we sought shelter behind the wall of an old ruin. Already we were in deep trouble, one of my group couldn’t walk more than 50 metres without collapsing to the ground in pain due to the fact he had torn his tendons, another member was entering into hypothermic shock. The visibility levels were poor and we couldn’t see more than 10 metres in front of us. It was getting colder and we toyed with the idea of phoning mountain rescue, except officially we aren't allowed cell phones on Duke of Edinburgh Award expeditions and the only two people with phones had either no credit or no battery. Things were looking very bleak, until in the distance we heard voices, we quickly sent a scout over to investigate, after 10 minutes, which seemed like an eternity, he returned with a group of hikers trapped in the snow as well. Unlike us, they weren’t carrying a weeks worth of food, clothes and equipment, and they were able to take our injured members ruck sacks, and together we managed to navigate our way off the mountain.

    At the same time however, there were two other teams lost elsewhere in the mountains. On our way down, we ran into another one of those teams, they were in equally bad shape, but they joined up with us in our descent. Things took another turn for the worse though, in amongst the confusion our groups got separated, my team managed to return to base, the hikers also escaped the mountain, but the other cadet team got standard, we were at the bottom before we realised. Immediately a rescue party was sent up to try and find the other team. Upon their arrival the group was found in a state of exhaustion, the entire team in survival bags, entering into shock. Thankfully they were brought down without any major injury, and they were housed indoors over night.

    Day 2.

    The hypothermic member of our team is fully recovered, the member with injured legs decides to continue on.

    We continued on our expedition, travelling through wild country, everything save the clothes I was now currently wearing absolutely drenched, and weighing down my rucksack incredibly.. Within the first half hour of our journey we encountered our first problem of day 2, a deep, fast flowing river that SHOULD have been crossable, except the torrential rain had meant that it was much more hazardous than it should have been. After several failed attempts at crossing it, (which I might add some of them were very comical) we had to take a 3 kilometre detour to find a bridge. Continuing on, we had a fairly alright day, except the previously injured members condition worsened, and we had to detour to locate the only house nearby and utilise their phone to arrange an evac for him. The member remained and the now group of four pressed on. We met another impossible river and had to make another 3Km journey to find a safe crossable point. The day was running on, we'd been walking since 9am and it was approaching 7:30pm, we weren’t far from the area we'd chosen to camp in, just one thing stood in our way. A mountain with an incredible gradient. No higher than the one on day 1, but a much steeper climb. Slowly we pressed on, urging ourselves up the mountain, every ounce of energy drained from our bodies, it was pure torture. I could feel myself going dizzy, the air was freezing cold, and we were loosing light rapidly, 9pm came, and we were still climbing. My only top layers were a jumper and T shirt due to the rest being soaked, and slowly I could feel myself becoming ill.

    At roughly 9:15 we reached the top, the sense of victory was incredible, but it wasn’t over yet, we had to get over it. Camping out on the mountain overnight would have been a very bad move, and we couldn’t have turned back. And I was feeling a lot worse. As we continued to descend, I began to loose my footing more and more regularly, I began to wretch frequently, feeling as if I was going to throw up any moment, the exhaustion and cold were getting to me. It felt like the world was spinning, but I just knew that I had to get to the bottom of the mountain, otherwise I was screwed.

    After what seemed like an eternity we made it to the bottom, and continued for about another km to find a place to camp where we had a stream nearby for water, we still had to cook that evening. By more luck than judgment, we stumbled across another team's camp who had taken another route, acting quickly, they stripped my rucksack off me and through me into a sleeping bag in one of their already set up tents, they packed 3 people into the tent with me to keep me warm and began cooking me a meal, without their help I would have become dangerously ill that night. All this happened at 10pm.

    Day 3.

    Things were much easier from here on, I was fully recovered and ready to press on. We bid farewell to the other team who now had to tackle the mountain we had beaten the previous day. We continued on. If I'm honest, day 3 was very easy by comparison, no major hardships, except one member of our team was constantly complaining about his ankle and kept stopping, promising that he would remain and not continue. Bull****, pardon my French. There was no way we were leaving him, after a good few strong words, we pressed on as a team, and we reached our next camping area by 3pm, a welcome contrast to the other 2 days. We were now actually on a campsite, rather than wild country, the worst of our exhibition over, and as such had access to an actual toilet and sink. It felt like a 5 star hotel to me. That day I went to sleep at 7:30pm and slept till 7:00 am the next day.

    Day 4

    The last day of exhibition. My ankle had swollen, and I couldn’t fit it into my boots with the compulsory 2 pairs of socks to protect from blisters. As such, one pair had to come off, a risky business. But necessary. Our route progressed through wild country later in the day, though closer to population than day 1 and 2. The guy who had complained about his ankle had now shut up, after realising we weren’t prepared to take any of his crap when his ankle wasn’t that bad. My ankle on the other hand, was in a lot of pain, but I said nothing. Not much else to say, a fairly uneventful day, we continued on, spirits wearing down, everyone exhausted and just wanting to get home. We finally met our ride back to civilisation on the outskirts of a forest at 5pm.

    There were several funny events during the entire journey, including coming across a bus stop on day 3 which said "No busses serve this stop" then there was every other team member falling nearly waste deep into the marshes because they weren’t patient enough to go round...


    Expedition 1 complete.

    Next up: Iceland later in the year
    Last edited by Flyboy; 23 July 2005, 11:20 AM.


    "Five Rounds Rapid"

    sigpic


    #2
    welcome back
    gumboYaYa: you are all beautiful, your words and openness are what make that shine. don't forget how much talent love and beauty you all have.
    so for now, peace love love love more love and happy, and thank you, thank you, thank you
    love Torri

    Comment


      #3
      Hey bennett, is your squadron in pudsey?

      sigpic
      Gate City - My humorous Stargate site made when I was young, enjoy!
      Previously known as False hope who was previously known as McKay's girl

      Comment


        #4
        No, I have absolutely no idea where Pudsey is :-p, I'm not allowed to give out the name of my specific squadron, some military bull designed to protect cadet units... but my squadron is in Essex Wing

        Why do you ask?


        "Five Rounds Rapid"

        sigpic

        Comment


          #5
          I go to an ATC too, and there's a guy called Bennett there, but he's a cadet. I was just making sure you're not him

          sigpic
          Gate City - My humorous Stargate site made when I was young, enjoy!
          Previously known as False hope who was previously known as McKay's girl

          Comment


            #6
            You're kidding me!!!!! How cool!
            I'm going to add you to msn if you dont mind. Laways nice to meet another ATC cadet.


            "Five Rounds Rapid"

            sigpic

            Comment


              #7
              You're kidding me!!!!! How cool!
              I'm going to add you to msn if you dont mind. Laways nice to meet another ATC cadet.


              "Five Rounds Rapid"

              sigpic

              Comment


                #8
                Welcome back, glad you're actually still here to tell that tale

                I did Duke of Edinborough, but my expedition was nowhere near that eventful....or difficult
                ....I should have stuck with Army Cadets....i might have dealt better that way....actually, that was my mums fault....

                But, yes, Welcome Back!

                --Tan

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by scaryperson
                  Welcome back, glad you're actually still here to tell that tale

                  I did Duke of Edinborough, but my expedition was nowhere near that eventful....or difficult
                  ....I should have stuck with Army Cadets....i might have dealt better that way....actually, that was my mums fault....

                  But, yes, Welcome Back!

                  --Tan
                  *gasps* you're an army cadet!! dont let my friends find out lol! You lot are hated down here at the Air Cadets!

                  sigpic
                  Gate City - My humorous Stargate site made when I was young, enjoy!
                  Previously known as False hope who was previously known as McKay's girl

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by Flying Officer Bennett
                    You're kidding me!!!!! How cool!
                    I'm going to add you to msn if you dont mind. Laways nice to meet another ATC cadet.
                    Originally posted by Flying Officer Bennett
                    You're kidding me!!!!! How cool!
                    I'm going to add you to msn if you dont mind. Laways nice to meet another ATC cadet.
                    Deja Vu...

                    Anyways, welcome back, and very cool.

                    ~Berry

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Originally posted by McKay's girl
                      *gasps* you're an army cadet!! dont let my friends find out lol! You lot are hated down here at the Air Cadets!
                      1- WAS an army cadet
                      2- What's so wrong with them? I never had anything but respect for the Air cadets during my span as Army Cadet, why the rivalry?


                      --Tan

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Standard inter-service rivalry.

                        The army cadets hate the air cadets.
                        The air cadets hate the army cadets.
                        Everybody hates the sea cadets.

                        No seriously, I use the term hate. Personally I respect the Army Cadet Force whole heartedly, but many of them do have a dislike for the Air Training Corps.


                        "Five Rounds Rapid"

                        sigpic

                        Comment


                          #13
                          lol, well, don't hate me Flying Officer Bennett, or you McKay's Girl.....I'm not an Army Cadet anymore

                          --Tan

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Originally posted by Flying Officer Bennett
                            Standard inter-service rivalry.

                            The army cadets hate the air cadets.
                            The air cadets hate the army cadets.
                            Everybody hates the sea cadets.

                            Well as I recall from my days in the RAF (and still currently married to it) nothing changes:

                            The RAF dislike the Army
                            The Army dislike the RAF
                            Both dislike/don't really care about the Navy

                            I know this is generalising but it's all down to a healthy dollop of inter-service rivalry, which usually goes out the window when needs must.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Originally posted by scaryperson
                              lol, well, don't hate me Flying Officer Bennett, or you McKay's Girl.....I'm not an Army Cadet anymore

                              --Tan
                              Dont worry, you're the coolest army cadet i've met. its just the army cadets at our place are terrible, make us do their cleaning up

                              sigpic
                              Gate City - My humorous Stargate site made when I was young, enjoy!
                              Previously known as False hope who was previously known as McKay's girl

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X