Following last year's fantastic weekend at Tallington Lakes , and popular demand from the cadets, 163 and 8F Squadrons joined forces to make the 2011 weekend bigger and better.

A total of 30 cadets , 15 from each Squadron, set off last Friday for an adventurous weekend. A few months of bag-packing and fundraising had preceded the weekend and it was finally about to pay off.

After setting up camp on the Friday night, and a briefing of the weekend, the cadets had some time to familiarise themselves with the site and prepare for the Saturday.

On Saturday morning the activities commenced on the lake. The cadets split into two groups enjoying kayaking and sailing, windsurfing and raft building. There was plenty of wind to enjoy the sailing although it proved to be tough windsurfing weather. The raft building bought many smiles as some of the rafts barely lasted a few metres into the water and the better ones were sabotaged! Unfortunately, Flt Lt Rayner opted out of this activity this year. After lunch, in our Lagoonside camping area, (the terrace bar area for the staff), the cadets switched activities. As they got underway, so did some of the staff, renting jetskis on another area of the lake. WO Gates was crowned the winner although Sgt Mason was hampered by WO Sinfield as a passenger! They then tried their hand, well stamina, at water - zorbing – very unsuccessfully to the amusement of a growing crowd.

Following a welcomed shower and some dry clothes, the dry slope entertained half of the cadets and staff in the early evening sunshine. An hour's tobogganing and adrenalin tubing flew by as the cadets were challenged by the instructors to travel down forwards, backwards, in snakes and to attempt 360 degree turns on the slopes. The other group undertook some teambuilding activities, including the spider's web and a waters challenge.

The remainder of the evening was very sociable as the staff treated the cadets to a BBQ. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't so kind prompting most of the cadets to head to the indoor table tennis area.

The sky was bright again on Sunday and the temperature was hot as the cadets tackled the climbing wall and underwent an hour's ski instruction the slope. For many this proved that skiing wasn't as easy as they thought and that the climbing wall was much more challenging than they had anticipated, with only a handful of cadets managing to reach the top.

The day concluded with inter-squadron trains, back on the dry slope with 163 proving triumphant!

The whole weekend was very successful and Tallington Lakes proved to be an excellent venue for an activities weekend. The cadets socialised and interacted brilliantly and it was a pleasure to be in the company of a group of cadets who all embraced each activity with such enthusiasm and a great sense of fun. The Tallington instructors were very complimentary of the whole group – Roll on 2012!

More Images of our Weekend at Tallington Lakes