Saint Martins Plain Camp craft and Navigation Weekend

As an Air Cadet unit we are able to book training areas owned by the Ministry of Defence. With that in mind we booked a place known as "Area C" of Saint Martins Plain, near Folkestone to do some training on Map Reading and general camp craft skills. Needless to say we all had lots of fun and got a few photos:

"Camp Photo" - every camp has to have a camp photo and this was no exception. We took this at the end of the weekend so I guess that means we all survived.

"The Training Area" - Area C can be described with one simple word - "hilly". That's one reason why we chose it. The valley floor was flat enough to camp on yet a little protected from the wind. Perhaps not that protected as some cadets found out. Hills also mean good views and the clear sunny day let us see as far as Dungeness (about 15 miles) from the hill tops.

"Lunch" - First order of the day was to pitch the tents which some found easier than others. CI Root had a fancy tent that pitched in less than 5 minutes (of which 4 were spent trying to push tent pegs into the almost rock hard earth), others who shall remain nameless brought a brand new tent along with them to discover they couldn't figure out how to put it up. We all agreed it was "most likely that the manufacturer had put two tent poles in the pack that were the wrong size". Not to be defeated so easily, unnamed tried one last time and broke one of the tent poles. Fortunately we had a spare tent which was put up quick enough for everyone to settle down and learn how to cook on a variety of camp stoves.

"Washing up" - Lesson over and food consumed, it was time to wash up. This is what happens when you add too much detergent to the sponge

"Tent pegs are better than stones, even if they are hard to put in" - some of the cadets learnt that even though the ground is hard, it is still worth putting the tent pegs in and not relying on some nearby stones to hold your tent down. It was just as well they had left their bags inside the tent which stopped it being blown down the valley by the strong winds - we already had lodgers in our spare tent!

"The essential camp fire" - Having spent some time practicing our navigation skills and comparing Naismith's rule of thumb to our experiences it was time to cook dinner before our night navigation exercise. After dinner there was time to build a small camp fire before darkness fell. It would act as a beacon in the dark of night as well as give us somewhere warm to gather at the end.

"Officer Gnome" - It also gave us somewhere to roast marshmallows and laugh at CI Root tasting camp fire cooked marshmallows for the first time. Navigation at night is much the same as navigation during the day except you have to rely on different land marks. For example, the radio mast is still useful as it has warning lights on it, but it is hard to see some of the hills, lakes and bridges that are normally useful.