The REME Lodge, Bergheim Leib, was very well appointed: good board and lodging facilities, a volleyball court and a well stocked bar with "wobblies" beer being a particularly favourite thirst quencher after a hard days training on the mountains.

The group was broken down into three teams for the different adventure training activities: Hill Walking, Rock Climbing and Kayaking. The first part of the expedition involved two days of Hill Walking (an activity much more intense than the name implies) under the instruction of the unstoppable Mountain Leader Sgt Daz Brown who burnt 6000 calories a day taking the teams into the melting snow covered peaks. Nebelhorn at 2214m was the firm favourite, a five hour climb starting from just over 850m through some difficult approaches.

Cfn Ollie Noakes, the experienced mountain and rock climber, took the climbing party to Fussen on the Austrian border for two days to tackle some interesting climbs of varying ability in the second stage of the exercise. This was a very good team and confidence building activity, with the abseil allowing some members of the group to conquer their initial fear of heights and building up an all round faith in ones ability on the rockface.

The final Kayaking stage of the expedition was conducted at Alpsee on the lake under the instruction of 2Lt Ruth Woodward. Kayaking is definitely much easier than it looks, even on a lake, but Ruth managed to guide everyone in the group into attaining the standard of a 1 Star British Canoe Union qualification!

It was not all work though. The Colonel and Adjutant arrived on Saturday and 31 Signal Regt joined up with 1 RHA LAD, also staying at the REME Lodge, for a barbeque, quiz, games and a social on the Saturday night. Unfortunately we narrowly lost the Volleyball but made up for it by cleaning up in the quiz, a fair trade off! The final day was dedicated to taking a bit of the local culture in with a fieldtrip to Mad King Ludwig’s beautiful Neuschwanstein Castle nestled in the valley in Fussen – known to most of the group affectionately as the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Castle where the original movie was filmed. An excellent way to end a very fulfilling and satisfying week.

Special thanks must be made to all of the instrutors for Daz, Ruth and Ollie for inspiring the group to push the limits in their training; the admin staff Mick and Mick for providing transport and ensuring everyone as issued with kit; and especially to group leader Captain Helen Currie for organising all the unseen administration and planning behind the expedition. It would be difficult for anyone to have come back without having achieved some king of personal fulfilment, and there will definitely be no difficulty filling places on the next adventure training expedition.

Sig Adam Pratt