One of the main activities for the cadets and it covers camping, hillwalking, leadership, and night exercises.

The squadron organises several local camps often at Johns Lee Wood. Here we can easily get to safe Bradgate Park area which lends itself to map reading training and developing the skills needed to navigate successfully on Duke of Edinburgh Award Expeditions

 

 

Winter camps are held at a camping barn near Edale. Here we can have the relative luxury of a warm dry place to eat and sleep yet giving easy acess to some challenging walks in the Peak District. This camp is always held just before Christmas and the CO cooks a full Christmas Dinner which is followed by party games.
Not always good weather

                

but the dinner and games make up for it. The following slide show  shows some of the Edale social scene.

 

Another popular trip is to Lathkill Dale during the summer. Some spectacular views and one year even the sight of a calf being born.

  

Camping skills are honed at Bruntingthorpe in readiness for our camping and walking trip to the Derbyshire Dales in August.

Night exercisies are held on local farmland (with permission of course) and involve escape and evasion type exercises in the dim and dark nights of spring and autumn.

Leadership exercises are held on the Squadron to help sharpen skills in readiness for the annual Wing Field Day.

Also available through Wing organised events are weeks at the ATC National Training Centres at Llanbedr in Wales and Windermere. Here much more demanding walking and adventure training activities are organised.
The Wing also organises a 'green camp' at an army training base. Here for a full week a wide variety of adventure training type activities are laid on.

Cadets and staff have taken part in both Nijmegen and Ijzer Road Marches with Wing teams. Nijmegen is a 4 day 100 mile march while the Ijzer is slightly shorter with only 80 miles being covered over 4 days, some of it cross country.

 

 

 A cross country section of the Ijzer march

 

 

 

The ATC also organises skiing activiites but it must be noted that competition for these places is very fierce and places are very restricted.