RAOC Gazette - page 249
Image details
| Corps | RAOC |
|---|---|
| Material type | Journals |
| Book page | |
| Chapter head | |
| Chapter key | |
| Chapter number | |
| Full title | RAOC Gazette |
| Page number | |
| Publication date | 1981 |
| Real page | |
| Colour | No |
| Grey | No |
| Early date | 1981 |
| Late date | 1981 |
| Transcription |
FROM RECKLINGHAUSEN TO R O S S E L K N I P E R S-..VEN MEN left FVD Recklinghausen recently for a ten day special expedition at the BOBC in Norway. In charge was Sergeant Mick Spencer, and the lucky individuals were Corporal Shuck, Lance Corporals Wilson and Hamblin, Privates Corbett, Dunn and Murphy. After a three hour journey by train to Hannover, followed by a ten hour coach journey up through Denmark to Hirshals, we boarded a ferry for the four hour crossing to Kristiansand in Norway. We docked at 0800 hours; a short journey by f dford brought us to our final destination the BOBC Centre L. lsefjaer. After lunch, followed a briefing which informed us in at we were going on a sea canoeing expedition. (What happened to the trekking?), We drew all our kit for the journey plus rations for five days, we then underwent a swimming test in freezing water where Private Murphy found out, to his cost, that it is not safe to dive into water that is only a foot deep. After the ducking we were taught capsizing drills, which can be quite funny particularly tn two man canoes with one man leaning one way and the other 'he other way. After sort of mastering this, we had to work out ow we were going to fit all our kit into three two man sea .anoes. We thought this was difficult but Private Corbett our canoeing expert and Sergeant Desmond RA our instructor from the centre had the problem of fitting their kit into one man canoes! To our amazement at 1530 hours the same day we left the centre and canoed the short distance to a small island about one kilometre away where we camped the night ready for the start of our expedition, the following day. We left the island the next day nice and early and arrived at a place called Bents sland here we stopped for lunch after which we made for our rst check point. This was an orphanage on an Island called Skrogeroya which we reached at 1530 hours after paddling seventeen kilometres. Privates Murphy and Dunn sharing the same canoe and trying to paddle and steer individually must have covered at least twenty kilometres zig-zagging through the water. Whilst the rest set up camp for the night, Sergeant Spencer, Corporal Shuck, Lance Corporal Hamblin, Private Dunn and our instructor canoed the short distance into the town of Lillesand or their bread and potatoes. After purchasing a cup of coffee a nearly one pound a cup we realised that being in Norway wasn't cheap! Arriving back at the camp we were pleasantly surprised to find that Lance Corporal Hamblin was our cooking expert because he astonished us with what he could do with ' compo.' After a good nights sleep we set off at 0900 hours on the longest leg of our journey, which took us to Grimstad, mostly in open sea. It didn't help when the weather changed nearly 'aIf way there. It started raining and the sea got a little loppy. It brightened up around 1230 hours, so we rafted jgether in the open sea and had a small snack we had prepared before we had set out that morning. We arrived at Grimstad at 1500 hours and after a look around the town and we had taken a few photographs we set off for our camp site which was called Rosselkniper about thirty minutes canoeing away. Here we had a most welcome shower and a Lance Corporal Hamblin special dinner. We were all ready for bed very early being just a little tired after our journey of about twenty six kilometres. We left early next morning and headed for our next stop hich was the town of Arendal. We had only been in the sea ^bout two and a half hours when the weather got rough and the instructor suggested, because of the danger of being swamped, we dock straight away, so we made for a place called Fevik where we stayed the night. After pitching our tents the weather brightened up and at about fifteen hundred hours our instructor, who had some rock climbing equipment with him suggested that this would be a good time to use it. After finding a suitable rockface Corporal Steve Shuck showed us all how easy it was to abseil, but was upset that he didn't go down fast enough. After a little gentle persuasion Privates Murph Murphy and Steve Dunn ab- seiled for the first time, after that we couldn't keep them off the rope. Late afternoon saw us with an audience of the local campers, Next morning we left for Arendal the sun was shining which always brought a smile from Freddie Wilson, who was deter- mined to get a tan! Most of the journey was by sea with the last three kilometres through Fjords which afforded views of some magnificent scenery. We arrived at Arendal after about fourteen kilometres, this was the half way point of our journey. Here we were to turn around and set off back to Isefjaer. Next day, which was Sunday, was the worst, so far as the weather was concerned, with high winds and rain all day. We decided to stay under canvas and postpone the return journey until the next day. The following morning saw us, just before leaving, stocked up with 'compo * replenished by the BOBC Land Rover which had been pre-arranged before we left the centre. After making more room in the canoes for the extra load we set off heading * for Grimstad. Here we stopped at Fevik for lunch and then, taking a different route from the outward run back to Grimstad about eighteen kilometres further on. After camping the night, the weather again turned against us, so we couldn't start our journey until sixteen hundred hours. We canoed through a force three into winds of up to thirty miles per hour sometimes gusting up to forty miles per hour making the going very hard and strenuous. It took us three hours to cover the short distance of eight kilometres. We eventually camped at a place called Aneuk. We left again in bad weather heading for Skrogeroya the orphanage island. It was only a short distance but it took us two and a half hours due to high winds and waves. We were most welcome now of the wind and waterproof trousers we had been issued with. On arrival at the orphanage we found the place deserted and we had to canoe the short distance to Lillesand for fresh water. The next day we were faced with the final leg of the return journey, which was mostly inland canoeing. In fine weather we arrived at the island by the BOBC Centre after four and a half hours paddling, this was to be our last night under canvas and the end of the expedition came upon us as we canoed the last one kilometre into Isefjaer, the next morning. After handing in our equipment, the rest of the day was spent souvenir hunting and sightseeing in Kristiansand before leaving for Germany. We left at 0145 hours and arrived back at Recklinghausen at 2105 hours. An excellent experience which was enjoyed by all. SAFE TRANSIT FOR some time we have been considering the use of envelopes to despatch individual copies of THE GAZETTE, instead of postal wrappers which tend to create considerable problems of mutila- tion in transit. Envelopes are expensive and increase the overall weight but as the new larger GAZETTE breaches the one hundred gram postal limit it has been decided to make the change to envelopes as soon as our present stack of wrappers runs out. — 207 — |
| Book number | R0250 |