Alicia Sykes's Blog

The view from the (very very windy) top

This weekend a group of us went up to North Wales on Friday evening to go climbing and trekking. We split into two groups so that one group would climb on the first day and walk on the second and visa versa for the second group. Unfortunately for our group the weather was too bad for us to climb outside on Saturday, so we went to the Indy climbing wall in Llanfairpwllgwyngyll (full place name is: llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch - that's crazily long! )

Our Route

Longest place name in Europe

By the lake at the Devils Kitchen

On the second day, Sunday we went walking and climbed Tryfan, we only had half a day to do this, and we covered some serious contours, and a 700m climb.

This was also the first adventurous training trip that I had organised, I was so worried that something would go wrong, but other than a few people dropping out last minute (probably after they'd seen the forecast), everything went very smoothly.

Army Vs Navy was held on Satarday the 3rd of May, it was an amazing day and Twickenham stadium was full to capacity with 85,000 people. The final score was Army 30: Navy 17, although at half time Navy has the lead.

Imber Village, Salisbury Plain

The annual Easter camp (Ex. Hydra) was held last week, from Thursday to Sunday, it included some night patrols, OBUA followed by 2 days of MOD-2 exam.

On Thursday night our company was dropped 5km from Imber village on Salisbury Plain at 23:45hrs. We split into our sections and each patrolled to Imber Village where we reccied one of the other company's of our unit, which was a good laugh because their skills and drills were terrible when they thought there was no one watching, the guys on stag were using white light and talking, so it wasn't hard to find them!Wish we could have contacted them!!




The next day (which was about 2 1/2 hours later), we did a good full day of OBUA  (operations in built up areas), it was mainly lessons and practising in the morning, followed by a 2 hour attack in the afternoon.

We then headed back to camp to get our warning order for the Saturdays MOD-2 mock, we also did a lecturette that evening also for MOD 2.

Preparing our models for MOD-2 Exam

The rest of the weekend was filled with battle estimates, giving orders, tests and more, and I am very glad to say that I passed MOD-2 (and 16% pay rise - yay!!)

AB Coy - After MOD-2

This weekend we were on an exercise practising platoon attacks and planning and leading platoon attacks, it was at Hankley Common, which is near Tilford in Frensham.

Mock Village in the Distance

While we were there there were several large film sets in various locations around the training area, some were mock villages from the 17th century, other locations just had rows of tour buses and catering services. This was for the production of a new Macbeth staring Marion Cotillard and Michael Fassbender.

All this made patrolling and tabbing around the training area very exciting!

The Log Race

Just got back from Ex. Lightening Strike with the Royal Signals at Blandford Camp, where there were 20 UOTC and DTUS teams competing in a series of stands and a final race. It was a great opportunity to see what the different units within the Signals do.

One of the more memorable stands was  the 216 Parachute Signal Squadron - the log run. For our team this was a bit more of a challenge as there were only 6 of us, as opposed to the other teams that had 10.

The Final Race

  There was a final race with a series of challenges, including dismantling and reassembling an SA80, sending messages with flags, downing part of a ration pack (no joke), and a lot of running. 

Top of the Col'de Izard

Exercise Spartan Hike is the British Army regional nordic skiing championships held in French Alps.

Our training consisted of 2 and a half weeks on Ex. Blue Nordic Steel before Christmas followed by a further week after Christmas before the competitions started. The competitions consisted of an individual classic, relay classic, individual biathalon, relay biathalon and a military patrol race.

The whole thing was an amazing experience, we all learnt to nordic ski - both classic and skate, learnt how to maintain our skis, including waxing them everyday, we all became really good friends, and not to mention super fit!!

Marathon De Bessans

While we were out there me and 2 others also competed in the Bessans International Marathon, which was good fun too, that devil is their mascot, at the end of the race there was mild whine, or van chou - always good ;)

Girls Team

Me on the biathalon race

Read more on the AWSA website: http://www.awsa.org.uk/ex-spartan-hike/