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Thursday 7 November 2013

RAF Akrotiri October 2013 Camp Report

By Sgt Karl Verspyck

I was lucky enough to be offered a place on the Autumn Camp to Akrotiri in Cyprus. I started my journey at York Station where I met the other 5 cadets from my wing. We met up with the whole 46 cadets at Heathrow for our flight out to Cyprus. We arrived at the base late at night and we were all tired so we went to bed for an early start in the morning. 


Friday: We all got ready in DPM’s for our camp photo before we set off on an exercise to familiarise ourselves with the base. RAF Akrotiri is massive, especially when you have to walk around it in the 28 degree sun! The afternoon was spent at the beach relaxing and getting to know the other cadets on the camp. We had a small history lesson in the evening on the history of the island.

Saturday: We got up early and headed to the north of the island in anticipation because of what we had learnt the night before about the conflict between the North and South of the island. When we did get across the UN Buffer zone and into the Turkish part of Cyprus we headed to a castle on a mountain for some amazing views! We then headed into a coastal town and had dinner at a restaurant by the sea.

Sunday: We had a great day in a waterpark about 2 hours away from the base. It was great fun and nice to get cooled off in the water.

Monday: We spent the morning doing command tasks which was interesting and certainly gave me some ideas to bring back to this squadron. We headed off to a local shopping centre in the afternoon before retiring to our rooms at night.

Tuesday: In the morning we headed to some of the sectors that this base has. We started at the Bomb Disposal unit which was interesting to see the kinds of things that they are dealing with on the island and also out in Afghanistan. We then went to a top secret part of the base which I’m afraid I cannot publish on here!


Wednesday: On Wednesday we travelled to the UN Buffer zone again, but this time we visited the abandoned Nicosia Airport. It was strange to see how much was still intact after over 30 years of it being unused.

Thursday: This was probably the most enjoyable day of the trip with us travelling to a local army base in Episkopi to do some shooting. We then went banana boating back in Akrotiri before we spent the evening on a cruise around Paphos bay. We had a BBQ on board and jumped off the boat in to the warm Mediterranean. A truly great way to end a great day!

Friday: This was our final day in Cyprus and we headed into the Troodos mountains to a lovely local village and then to Troodos camp for lunch. We had our last meal on the beach at Akrotiri where we had a BBQ and gave out paper plate awards.

It was great to visit such an active RAF base at the forefront of the conflicts we are involved in today. This camp has been the best thing I have done with cadets so far and I would recommend this or any other overseas camp to every single cadet. You get to meet some great people, great staff and have so much fun at the same time, doing activities you can’t do in England.



  


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