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29th July 2008

Campsite Capers

Wood smoke filled the evening air at the end of a hot summer’s day as 14 Air Cadets cooked their evening meal on an open fire as part of a “Back to Basics” weekend in Ampthill Park, Bedfordshire. 

The Cadets from 134 (Bedford) Squadron, many of them new recruits to the unit, were taking part in a training weekend designed to teach them basic camp craft skills.

Tents were discarded and working in pairs the Cadets used branches and ferns to create bivouacs under which they would sleep out for the evening. Sweets, chocolate bars and fizzy drinks were replaced with cabbage, potatoes, carrots, stock cubes and mackerel which they were required to gut and bone as the basis of their evening meal.

Mackerel dinner!

Living outside without the benefit of their normal creature comforts the Cadets had to work together as a team, communicate with each other and allocate tasks in and around their campsites to ensure their shelters were constructed and the evening meal was prepared and cooked.

Following a night under the stars the Cadets awoke and consumed a sumptuous breakfast of oats, again something that they had to prepare on an open fire. Having cleaned and scrubbed their cooking pans the Cadets went on to practice building shelters often referred to as ‘bashers’ using military issue poncho’s.

Fortunately the weather was kind to the Cadets and the integrity of their bivouacs was not tested under inclement conditions. 

During the weekend, training was delivered by Flt Lt Mark Robinson, the Squadron’s Commanding Officer and Instructor Cadet Sergeant Michael Every. 

Flt Lt Robinson said "The weekend gave each cadet a chance to develop some basic survival skills. They learnt that it is not as easy as it looks on TV and are now are equipped with knowledge and have a better understanding of what it would take to survive"