Cadets rise to challenge

Cadets take part in the Ten Tors 2003 adventure expedition in England.

NO. 3 Wing Australian Air Force Cadets (AAFC) have collected silver and bronze medals in Ten Tors 2003, one of the largest adventure expeditions in Europe.

The 14 cadets – accompanied by four staff – from Nos 316 and 308 Squadron were the first teams from the Southern Hemisphere to compete in the event. Split into two teams, they had to march distances of either 56km or 72km over two days and visit 10 Tors in set times.

The Tors, small granite mountains that rise to more than 900m, dot Dartmoor, the national park in the southwest of England where Ten Tors is held annually.

43 (Wessex) Brigade organises the event, which began in 1960 as a training course for young soldiers.

This year 400 teams and 2400 competitors took part.

The AAFC members raised more than $4000 each to pay for the trip and completed two years’ training in leadership, team building, navigation and long distance marching.

The conditions they experienced – extremes of cold and wet and a lack of major features on the moors – were vastly different to that faced during training on large properties on northwest NSW and on the ranges at Singleton Army Base.

The teams had to carry every­thing they would need, plus mandatory items of equipment.

The courses were issued the night before the event. Teams then had to plan their routes, allow for weather problems, calculate how far they could travel each day, where they would camp overnight and how to avoid out of bounds areas as Dartmoor has been an artillery range since Napoleon’s time.

Frequent hard rain showers and high winds made the night a misery. At 9.45am the news came in that a team was coming down the last Tor and it crossed the finish line just before 10am. Surprisingly it was the 72km team. The 56km team crossed the finish at 4.36pm, beating the 5pm deadline, flying their Aussie flags and singing the team song We Are Australian.

As this was the first involvement by the AAFC, they were not eligible to contest the gold event, however they will look to do so in the future.

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