In the lead up to the 2015 Spring Camp all the Royal Marines cadets that were attending had kit checks to ensure that they had the right equipment and documents before leaving for camp on Friday 29th May. After loading Bergan’s and stores in the van, the 9 cadets and 3 staff set off by minibus for Bramley training area.
The bus made good time and arrived in day light where cadets and staff booked in and picked up our rations, before the cadets joined their respective training troops. We had cadets on the introduction to field craft training, map work / navigation for the intermediates, and advance field craft for the seniors. The staff had responsibilities such as teaching map work, field craft and assessing the field craft module for staff. The cadets new to field craft spent the 1st night in the large shed.
On what was a dry Saturday, the cadets new to the field spent their second night biving up out in the field with their training team. The map readers spent the day looking lost (not really) on the training area, honing their skills in the use of map to ground and finding check points. The more experienced cadets spent the day undertaking briefings and recce of other units using the training area for advanced.
Sadly on the Saturday evening it rained but the cadets new to the field were all snug in their sleeping bags in their bivis. The map readers could be found wandering around the training area trying to figure out how not to get lost in the dark. They used their torches to great effect letting everyone know where they were! Meanwhile, the senior cadets could be found undertaking more recces of troops on the ground without being seen or caught. The adult staff, after a long day decided they needed some serious sustenance and a covert delivery of Pizza to HQ was greatly received by all the staff!
On Sunday the training was completed and it was soon time to pack up the kit and head for home. Sadly the cadets weren’t able to make the customary food stop on the way home (at McDonalds or Burger King), but fear not the cadets did not go hungry. On arrival back to the unit and after unpacking all the wet kit, the cadets were greeted by the largest Pizza known to man and soon tucked in!
All the cadets had a great weekend, thoroughly enjoyed the training they were involved in and cannot wait to go to Summer Camp.
