Page 225 - Demo

221(JSMEL) in Scotland. The centre was at Tulloch I think. It was a really fun course. It was an all ranks course and we slept in a large dormitory. I was by far the most senior person there but it all worked on a first name basis. We covered navigation, rope work, and so forth. Some days we practised out in the hills but the course ended with a 3 day expedition. The weather was so good that I and the chap I was partnered with, only took our flysheet rather than the whole tent. Several of the course members were RN Petty Officers who had come back from the Falklands. That had made them realise that they wanted more out of the RN and leading expeditions in some of the places they would visit seemed a good idea. Each night we had a lecture or talk from one of the staff and on the first night the staff member said that sometimes they would give us a lift to the pub in the 3 ton lorry. At the end of the lecture, someone asked if we could go to the pub now? The lecturer said we could but generally a course only went once during the 9 days or so of the course. We all looked at each other and said let%u2019s go. We went every night. I had my minivan and so could take some people in that. I was given a restricted JSMEL which I think restricted me to leading expeditions in the UK in summer. The next year I did a winter JESMEL course which was equally good fun. Navigating across the Cairngorms in a total white out, you did not know if your feet were going to land on snow as you walked or go over the edge of a cliff. We spent a couple of nights in snow holes. During the day we went on a navigation exercise and laid out ropes in a big cross so that we would be able to find our snow hole again. We went along the Glencoe ridge and then made control slide down using ice axes to brake. While great fun it was potentially dangerous and a few months later, one of our young trainers died on the Cairngorms while assessing a candidate when the weather got much worse than forecast. The next year I upgraded my summer qualification so that I could now lead expeditions worldwide.