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Brian Hodges - Aberdovey, Wales, 1971
well its christmas day 2009 and i just remembered that letter from the outward bound trust!reading a few stories on the web site as made me tell mine,,,,, the old memory is starting to forget bits now days,but i would be about 16 around about 1971 and just started working for Imperal tobacco (Players) Nottingham, for sure i made my way down to Devon on the arriving at Newton Abbott station and being met by a guy in a Land Rover! now i look back it was a bit like a episode from the prisoner not knowing where i was being taken, and soon to be come a number. i supose this was the start of it all going wrong for me,,, i should have been driving, and even at 16 i needed answers to every thing there and then.
the next day i found my self in a team i think call Raleigh not very inventive coming from Nottingham.
who do i remember ? sure there was a lad called Kim, and fat lad, and a young lad that was in the army. what did i most enjoy ? all of it i think even the up and run down to the river for that early morning dip.canoeing in the pool before we set off for our big adventure down the river dart out to sea and landing on some beach, pot holeing (think i remember that john fisk someone spoke about) magets cral seems to ring a bell. abseiling off some vierduct,rock climbing, and that excalent assult course at the HQ.
what was all this leading to ? yes ! over land ! the 3 day trek across Dartmoor,
remember being dropped off packs on our backs maps out off we set, camping out 2 nites, one nite we set up on some ones lawn ! its been some 30 odd years since my outward , i have been back to Ashburton many times when i have been in the area, the swimming pool in which we trained for canoeing is now filled in, the big house is used for weddings etc, and the grounds are a caravan site, the river is still as cold,i re did the bridge jump some years ago,my wife said she would devorce me if i jumped i did and she didn't, and the assult course as gone due to health and safety i would say.
to sum up 4 fantastic weeks, any other Ashburton lads still alive ?????????????
the next day i found my self in a team i think call Raleigh not very inventive coming from Nottingham.
who do i remember ? sure there was a lad called Kim, and fat lad, and a young lad that was in the army. what did i most enjoy ? all of it i think even the up and run down to the river for that early morning dip.canoeing in the pool before we set off for our big adventure down the river dart out to sea and landing on some beach, pot holeing (think i remember that john fisk someone spoke about) magets cral seems to ring a bell. abseiling off some vierduct,rock climbing, and that excalent assult course at the HQ.
what was all this leading to ? yes ! over land ! the 3 day trek across Dartmoor,
remember being dropped off packs on our backs maps out off we set, camping out 2 nites, one nite we set up on some ones lawn ! its been some 30 odd years since my outward , i have been back to Ashburton many times when i have been in the area, the swimming pool in which we trained for canoeing is now filled in, the big house is used for weddings etc, and the grounds are a caravan site, the river is still as cold,i re did the bridge jump some years ago,my wife said she would devorce me if i jumped i did and she didn't, and the assult course as gone due to health and safety i would say.
to sum up 4 fantastic weeks, any other Ashburton lads still alive ?????????????