Page 22 - Demo

20We were turfed out of the back of a truck at about midnight in pouring rain with about 8 miles to the first RDV. Because of our high level of fitness, Mike and I decided we should go hell for leather to be at the RDV point before it opened and to lie up near it until it was manned. That way, we reckoned, we would outrun the Army who would not be looking that far in front of what they would think was our likely progress.It began to go wrong very soon when we found that Shoggy and the Maltese lad could not keep up the pace and even we found it very difficult to run in waist-high grass and bushes which were sodden with rain and quickly ensured our boots and clothing also became saturated. We ploughed on, seeing on the map that we should shortly cross a small river. Sure enough, it soon appeared as expected, shining in the moonlight. Despite being soaking wet, for some reason we decided not to wade across but to go downstream to find a bridge. After half an hour, no bridge appeared. We re-traced our steps and went another half hour in the other direction. Still no bloody bridge. So we changed tactic and decided to wade across. I opted to go first and to take a running jump in the hope that I would fill only one boot with even more water. I took a long run and flew more than half way across before my lead foot entered the water. Except it did not enter water %u2013 it jarred heavily on what I immediately realized was a narrow, tarmac road, soaking wet and glistening in the moonlight. We had wasted about 90 minutes and lots of energy, looking for a bridge across a non-river and our plan to move fast was thwarted. We were soon caught by some squaddies who over-stepped their brief and confiscated both our map and our compass instead of either/or (possibly taking advantage of an opportunity to get one over a Sandhurst Cadet) so we became hopelessly lost %u2013 but that is another story.David Forsyth