In the middle of a wood in the dark, the aim
was for the Chindits to get their cards into the
safe zone without being caught by the NCOs.
This had to be carried out as quietly as
possible, but it was practically impossible with
all the leaves and twigs. There were various
methods; some people, like Katy Preece, just
sprinted in, whereas Charlie Webb and others
were very slow and crawled. But the top
method had to be Sophie Marshall's and Mimi
Willmott's screaming! This was laughed about
later when we found out that Matt Enright
jumped on them with his balaclava on!
The second 24-hour exercise was very misty
and rainy, and we found ourselves further away
from base camp. The target for this exercise
was to defend our camp whilst attacking
another section's camp. It all went well until
an unexpected pair of cows interrupted
proceedings ... anyone would have thought we
lived in a city and had never seen a cow in our
lives before, especially Rob Geraghty, our
Marine NCO, who was first up the tree!
During the last evening we all sat in the main
tent and had a barbecue feast and final debrief.
It started with Mr Shaw's challenging quiz and
went on to our mini-section plays; these were
mainly aimed at poking fun at the NCOs.
When their turn came to present their own
sketches, they included Taiki showing off his
moves on the dance floor. The night finished
with the announcement of the winning section
and the blue team were presented with their
enormous winning bag of sweets!
The whole week wouldn't have been as
successful without Mr and Mrs Cole. Mrs Cole's
hot chocolate and cooking was very comforting,
and without Mr Cole nothing would have
happened! The other teachers, NCOs, and OAs
Matt Cole and Chris Pearson made the week
phenomenal! Never mind the rain and the mud,
the week was enormous fun. Thanks to all the
organisers - can we do it again sometime?
Aluredian
25