BEHIND THE SCENES AT GATWICK AIRPORT - British Airways ...

Setting up the campsite wasn't easy since the changebetween day to night was extremely quick! Also, duringthe times we were setting up our hammocks, theheavens opened up and it began to rain like it had neverrained before! We were told that there would only be a5% chance of seeing a snake, and to our luck wemanaged to see three! What were the odds of that?Manpreet also saw a giant centipede, which we laterrealised was very dangerous! I ended up throwing up andcollapsing on a steep climb uphill; however, I managedto recover after a short while.The food was 'bearable,' in my opinion, however, sincewe were all so tired and hungry we could eat absolutelyanything! So everything tasted great! One night I hadaccidently left biscuits in my pocket and the following Iwas welcomed with a large troop of ants over mytrousers...hundreds if not thousands!!!Everyone gave 200% on the final day knowing therewere only three bridges to cross until the end. Everyonekept that in mind which motivated them as they keptlooking out for a bridge.After I struggled to cross the final bridge, I was greetedwith cold drinks a nice lie down under the shade. Wethen progressed onto one of the activities we all lookedforward to: White Water Rafting. We got changed intoour swimming trunks, put on our life floats, strapped onour helmets and grabbed a paddle each. We were thenplaced into random rafting boats in groups of six alongwith one instructor. We faced calm water, wonderfulrapids and water fights with the other boats. And somepoints we grouped up together to drench a chosen boat.Some instructors even decided to throw cadets off justfor a laugh!That night, we went back to the Adventure Centre andI was so glad to be back to somewhere I would rathercall 'home' for now. Later on, we were briefed on ourcommunity project for the next day which was a two dayprocess. The task involved refurbishing a huge bridgewhich the local villagers, including school children use tocross the river on a daily basis.The next day, we woke up bright and early, enjoyed alovely breakfast before heading out into the scorchinghot sun. Manpreet and I had several jobs that day, butout main job was being a transporter. This involvedcarrying large pieces of wood over to the bridge wherethe other cadets would arrange and nail them onto thebridge. In the heat, this wasn't easy. After the woodtransporting was complete, we the cleared up one end ofthe bridge from all rubbish and old wood so that itwould look neat for the opening ceremony. With thehelp of the local villagers, the bridge had beencompleted and was ready to be opened to the public thevery next afternoon. We stood, waiting for his arrival in acadet manner and once he arrived he gave his speechand provided us with certificates, which was thenfollowed by the cutting of the red ribbon.I was pleased to take part in a remembrance parade toremember the Sandakan Death Marches where 470prisoners of war were forced to march thought thejungle until they eventually died. Air Cadet reefs werelaid in remembrance of those who died for us. Lest WeForget.The next stage of the expedition was the nervouslyanticipatedclimb of Mount Kinabalu. The 4095m(13,435ft) beast of a mountain is not completed easilyand requires two full days of climbing at high altitude.The team all completed the first day well. It was tough,but everyone got up to the Laban Rata mountain hut at3200m high. After dinner, we all went to bed ready forthe summit ascent at 02:00 the next morning. The nextday, with our head torches on, we plodded on further uptowards Low’s Peak - the summit of Mt. Kinabalu.Finally hitting the top in time for sunrise, we arrived togreat open views of N.E. Borneo. The final push to thesummit was incredibly hard since oxygen levels were solow, however, all apart from six people couldn't make itto the top due to altitude sickness. I suffered from severechest pains however I couldn't let this stop me fromreaching the peak so I didn't tell anyone. However, laterAirways magazine October/November 2010 43