During the last week of October 2016 65 Air Cadets and 23 members of staff from Norfolk & Suffolk Wing Air Training Corps mounted an Adventure Training expedition to Rothiemurchas Lodge, Aviemore in the heart of the Cairngorm Mountains overlooking Loch Morlich. The expedition provided life enhancing opportunities for young men and women from various units throughout Norfolk and Suffolk.
During the week-long expedition, all the cadets and staff took part in adventure training activities including Hill walking, White water rafting, Mountain biking and Zip lining. By participating in these challenging activities they developed better levels of fortitude, robustness, teamwork, initiative and leadership skills.
Fortunate with the weather the cadets were able to take on some of the more challenging summits in the Cairngorm Mountain range including Ben Macdui and Sgor Gaoith.
Cadet Corporal Law of 1109 (Thetford) Squadron said “The week-long adventure training camp was an incredibly enjoyable experience, testing our ability to conquer our fears, especially during the zip lining across many different levels and heights. We enjoyed many hill walks with incredible views across the Scottish terrain and the visit to Fort George was very educational. For me, the most memorable moment of the camp was white water rafting and experiencing cliff jumps, both being some of the best things I have ever done”.
Squadron Leader Nick Castle, the Officer in charge of the camp said “I was really impressed with the enthusiasm of all the cadets and staff over the week. Adventure training pushes us outside of our comfort zones in a controlled environment and it was great to see some of the individual achievements during the week. It is also very different and can be challenging in itself for the cadets to live in such a large group for a week. The team work, respect and how they looked out for each other was superb”.
Our thanks to the Ulysses Trust and the RAF Charitable Trust for their invaluable support to the expedition.
