Friday 29 th April saw five cadets and one member of staff travel from the Sqn’s headquarters in Harborne, to the Capel Curig Army Training Centre in North Wales for a weekend of adventurous training. Whilst the majority of the country was watching the Royal Wedding, the bank holiday day off meant that the cadets could travel earlier than normal to the Snowdonia National Park.

The 485 sqn cadets and staff had been kindly invited by Flt Lt Brendan O’Neill, OC 487 (Kingstanding and Perry Barr) Sqn to attend the weekend. 487 Sqn travelled to Capel Curig to take part in a Bronze Duke of Edinburgh’s award weekend and all the organization and paperwork had been completed by Plt Off Sarah Cotton, the Adjt. at 487 Sqn.

As a result of the early start, Fg Off Simon Jennings who accompanied the cadets to Capel Curig was able to get in some much needed map and compass training with the cadets. Reminders about grid references and taking bearings along with looking at the orientation of maps were all to bear fruit over the weekend. Later on Friday evening, the cadets were taught about pace counting and they were all able to count their own personal number of steps over a set 100m distance.

Following breakfast on Saturday morning, the cadets were given their route for the day. Along with Fg Off Jennings and CI Nicky Gallivan from 487 Sqn, they started out from the training centre and walked on footpaths to the village of Capel Curig. The cadets were able to put into practice all that they had learnt the previous day, particularly pace counting, which helped them arrive at a tricky crossing of footpaths deep in the woods near Capel. Following a short break, the cadets were soon on their way to their destination point, Llyn Ogwen. On the way to Ogwen, Fg Off Jennings was able to help out a group of walkers who were looking to climb the Tryfan mountain, without a map, (they were given a spare map that the cadet group had)!

On the Sunday, the cadets were transported to Llyn Crafnant, and it was their task to walk back to the Capel Curig training centre. Again, some careful map reading was needed, but all the cadets performed really well.

Fg Off Simon Jennings commented “Firstly, I would like to thank both Flt Lt O’Neill and Plt Off Cotton for inviting us to attend the weekend. It was extremely well led and organised by the officers from 487 Sqn. Both the cadets and I have really enjoyed the walking, and I know that the cadets have learnt some valuable lessons in terms of map and compass work. We go forward into the rest of the year with plans for our own DofE weekends and these particular cadets will have the upper edge when it comes to the tests ahead”.