Thursday to Sunday up in Windermere, in the beautiful sunshine. The long weekend was split up in to two courses running alongside each other. One of the courses was to give members of Staff an experience of mountain leading, and the other was a multi activity course to give Staff and Staff Cadets an experience of the different types of adventure training you can do in the Air Cadet Organisation.
The Directing Staff all set off early to the course to make sure everything was ready and to do some planning of routes for the Mountain Leaders Course. However as they had some time spare they decided to do a small little bike ride before the rest of the course arrived in the evening. Flight Lieutenant Gaskell said “I really enjoy mountain biking and especially long rides. I’m looking forward to doing it again.”
When the Staff arrived they all went for a meal to allow everyone to get to know each other, it was also an opportunity for the multi-activity course to decide what activities they wanted to do across the weekend. It was then off to bed ready for the following days activities.
The Multi Activity Course started with outdoor climbing, which was a first for most on the course. Everyone had a go at both climbing and belaying, and nearly everyone got to the top of at least one of the routes. In the afternoon, once the sun had calmed down we all went out on the mountain bikes, learning some basic skills before heading out for a short bike ride, up hills, down dirt tracks and over streams.
The second day started off with some water sports, both kayaking and canoeing. They learnt some basic skills like how to go in a straight line, which proved harder for the canoes as the they had to work together to steer. After a while on the water they stopped for an all-important café break, before switching over and trying the other boat out. Some of the staff then decided it was a good idea to jump into the water, which was a little cold to say the least.
After eating dinner, a lovely pasta bake, not a ration pack! The multi-activity course set off on an hour walk (climb) up a mountain to meet, that was meet, the mountain leader group to wild camp by a lake overnight.
Meanwhile, the mountain leader group spent the day walking and popped over a few mountains in the Langdale valley before skirting round Angle Tarn to their campsite and a well-deserved dinner and sunset. Flight Lieutenant Bissell commented that “There’s nowhere I’d rather be on a night like this!”
Overall, the weekend was a success and the attendees have left the course invigorated and ready for some more adventure training action!