Multi, 'Ventura Nowshera', Ariege, Midi Pyrenees, May 2011, ID 1125

Gloucestershire ACF

After 2 years of study, the culmination of the National Diploma in Public Services course is a 12 day trip to the Pyrenees in the south of France. For all of the students, who are also cadets with Gloucestershire Army Cadet Force, this is an opportunity for them to complete their final assessments in adventurous training for their college course as well as undertake their qualifying expedition for the Duke of Edinburgh Silver Award.

This year saw 27 students/cadets make the 2-day long trip by minibus and ferry to Lac de Montbel in the Ariege region of southern France. Once on site, they set up camp on the shores of the lake for the next 9 nights and started final preparations for the activities they were to participate in. The 8 days in country were structured by a training programme that included 3 days on expedition for Duke of Edinburgh, 2 days of kayaking, 1 day of mountain biking, 1 day of canyoning and a day comprised of rock climbing and a visit to a local spa for rest and relaxation. The Duke of Edinburgh expedition took in a roughly circular route that headed out from the lake and into the foothills of the Pyrenees. The highest point on the route was the Chateau Montsegur a Catharist stronghold dating back to the middle ages, sat atop of the pog (the local term for the mountain) of Montsegur, 1200m above sea level. The six student/cadet groups all undertook different projects around the route including looking at the local flora and fauna, exploring places of worship in the area, and identifying how the action of water has influenced the landscape and local settlements. One group created a Travel Stick by wrapping different coloured string around a stick to symbolise the different types of terrain they travelled through, with objects of interest (such as feathers) entwined into the string at points relating to the journey.

The kayaking was conducted in two different locations. The first day was held in the lake and was useful for the students/cadets to brush up on their skills that they had been learning with the college in the Forest of Dean in the months running up to the trip. The second day saw them taking a river expedition on the local Ariege river which involved some white water kayaking on Grade 2 rapids. This was an activity that was very popular with the students/cadets as white water kayaking is not something they usually get to attempt in the UK and despite a few harmless capsizes, everyone completed the route.

Mountain biking was another activity that the students/cadets had been practicing in the UK prior to the trip and involved a 30km expedition that took them from high up in the mountains back to the lake. The canyoning day was the most popular day of the trip for both the students/cadets and the staff and involved a morning of abseil training in the local Marc valley followed by a half day trip down a nearby canyon. This included several abseils (one down a waterfall!), a zip line across one of the raging torrents and several death-defying jumps into the rock pools of which one was nearly 8m in height! Even the most nervous student/cadet attempted the canyon and all of them made it to the bottom in one piece and with the adrenaline pumping!!

The final day of the training programme saw the students/cadets spend the morning rock climbing on a slab situated on a disused railway line a few kilometres from base camp. This enabled them to practise skills they had developed during their training in the Forest of Dean in March and April. They then had the opportunity to rest in the spa at Ax-Les-Thermes, a spa town high in the Pyrenees near the border with Andorra. After several hard and gruelling days of activities and assessment, this was an opportunity taken up by all and most of the staff also managed to find an excuse to be on the minibuses for the trip into the mountains. And back in the minibuses they all were again the next day as the long 2-day trip back to Gloucestershire was begun.

There were a number of personal triumphs throughout the trip. Cadet Corporal Nikki Davis overcame two phobias – a fear of snakes and a fear of heights. During the kayaking day on the lake, Cpl Davis was confronted by a snake that managed to mount her kayak and settle itself on her spray deck. Rather than panic and potentially capsize, Cpl Davis had the presence of mind to paddle the kayak away from the rest of the group before depositing the rather surprised reptile into a nearby cove. By all accounts, no snakes were harmed in the making of this expedition. Two days later, Cpl Davis overcame her other fear during the canyoning trip. The abseil training in the morning provided Nikki with her toughest challenge as she had to demonstrate at least one successful abseil if she was to be allowed into the canyon in the afternoon. Despite being terrified of heights, she eventually made it down the wall with the constant supervision of the canyoning instructor, Adrie Dekker. Not being an individual who rests on her laurels, she headed straight back up the rock face to complete a second abseil, this time unaided and in a much quicker time. This demonstration of courage was an inspiration to the rest of the team and Cpl Davis was able to negotiate the canyon that afternoon with the rest of the group with few outward signs of fear during the descent. Overall the trip was a great success with 24 of the 27 students successfully completing the Duke of Edinburgh Expedition and all of them completing the rest of the activities.

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