Army Cadet Force Exchange Canada 2014

Army Cadet Force Exchange Canada 2014- Argonaut Camp
ACSTC (New Brunswick)
by Max Phillips
This summer, I was lucky enough to be chosen to go on the Cadet Exchange Programme for six
weeks to attend the Expedition Instructor course at Camp Argonaut in Canada. There were twelve
cadets chosen from across the UK and we met first at the Cadet Training Centre in Frimley. The next
day, despite Hurricane Arthur, we set off (only about 8 hours late) for Halifax. In Halifax, our small 18
seater plane was forced to land back at Halifax after 15 minutes of flying to avoid the huge winds.
Eventually, we arrived at the Canadian Forces Base in Gagetown, New Brunswick.
We were organised into companies and platoons – we were assigned to Bravo Company, and spent
the first few days training in both kayaking and canoeing at the water site as well as doing a first aid
course. At the main camp, we all completed fitness tests and a number of team building exercises,
mainly, learning a lot of chants!
At the start of the second week, we headed out on the 18 day expedition, the main challenge of the
course, in our platoons. It was split into three sections; hike, canoe and kayak.  I hiked for five days
on the Fundy Foot Trail for 45km as the crow flies, but the steep hills added at least another 10km.
The Canadian landscape was amazing, miles of untouched nature.  We pitched camp every night in a
different place – sometimes deep in the forest and other times right on the beach. Camp fires with
food (mainly marshmallows) and football and even meeting some rednecks on the beach made for
great fun.  On the fourth day, we walked upstream through the river to the Eye of the Needle.
 where high cliffs of approximately 40m loomed on each side of us, closing in on each other to leave
a gap of 1m.  It was an amazing sight.
The canoeing cycle was next and we went down the St Croix River. This whole section was very
relaxed and a lot of fun, most days we would arrive at our BIV site early and drop off our kit before
going into battles of capture the flag and last man standing, which involved a lot of both sinking and
hijacking each other! Another main part of the canoeing that I enjoyed was the wildlife, I managed
to see turtles, hawks, bald eagles and even a moose! The final day of Canoeing was through a rough
storm and huge waves, but my British friend James and I, managed to power on to be the first ones
to land at our pick up site, a very satisfying yet exhausting feat.
After enjoying our rest day at a huge dam and learning a shortened and modified version of the
Haka, we went straight on to the kayaking part of the expedition, which was quite tiring after 5 days
of canoeing. We kayaked down the (coincidentally named) St. John’s River.  It’s a wide river and it
was quite calm but the windy conditions on the penultimate day made the kayaking more exciting
and great fun, but far more exhausting. We travelled around 110km on kayaks.
Our return to camp was very dramatic, the entire camp was out and watching whilst all 3 platoons
from Expedition instructor were reunited and had to march back into camp whilst chanting until we
lost our voices! All the other cadets on camp lined the road, cheering us. But after we returned, it
was back to work, getting on with our washing and sorting the expedition kit.
It was surprising just how quickly time passed.  After the expedition we only had about 2 weeks left.
 The solo expedition was planned for shortly after the 18th day but it was postponed due to tornado
warnings.   A tornado did touchdown in the nearby town of Fredericton, but  luckily no damage was
caused apart from a power cut that lasted around two and a half days.  The postponement of the
solo meant that other activities were organised for us at short notice.
After filling the next few days with bike repairing, lesson teaching and the Monday Movie- and
although it was only the second one that we had seen as we’d been away on expedition most of the
time it was great fun as it ended with a solid 30 minute chanting war between Bravo (us) and Alpha
(the other senior company in camp). We went out for our 24hour Solos, We were given the
morning to prepare and were dropped off at the solo sites by mid-day.  The instructors checked our
kit as we weren’t allowed to bring anything other than rations, a water bottle and our notebooks
and pencils. We were then placed 100m apart along a road.  Even our watches were taken from us
and I spent what I thought was about four hours building my shelter and other things like a “throne”
to sit on!  I kept building and building, until I got bored and ate my dinner ration, which was
ratatouille, the most hated ration by far. However, the mosquitoes were horrendous and got
everywhere. So once I had eaten I climbed up to the top of the tree line (about 20 meters!) just to
keep them off me, I found a comfy spot where I fell asleep, which probably wasn’t the best idea…
But I woke up the constant honking of the officers’ truck which was the signal to get out of the
woods ASAP. Slightly panicked and still drowsy, I scrambled down the tree and out through the thick
forest until I reached the road. This was when we were told that there had been so many sightings
by different cadets of a mother bear with her cubs that we were told it was too dangerous to stay
out. Feeling disappointed, all the cadets headed back to the clearing that was our meeting site. We
were driven back to camp and had to be confined to our barracks because of a storm that would
have made the solos quite interesting to say the least…
After the solos we did more activities, one of which was OJT which unfortunately the Brits in my
platoon missed as we had gone on a 4 day “Rest and Recovery” holiday in Prince Edward Island
where we were cultured and explored many shops, as well as enjoying comfy hotel beds for the first
time in 5 weeks, better than both camping and the barracks beds by far. Our trip took us across New
Brunswick – a distance of 300 miles. We saw the Confederation Bridge which is 13 km long and
connects the Prince Edward Island to the mainland.  The first thing we did on our arrival was to see
the Acadian (French Canadian) birth place, with Acadians performing a native dance. We also did
other activities such as laser tag, a water park, a fair, a tour of Charlottetown and other historical
places across the island. It was very interesting to see and learn about the Canadian culture.
When we got back we abseiled from a 50 ft. tower on base! First we had to learn all the knots which
took most of the morning. This required trust as much as skill as I had to tie my partner onto both
the safety rope and the rope that he used to abseil with.
After that we had a day of games which was cancelled half way through due to the weather, so we
spent most of the day inside. By then, we only had two days before I flew back to the UK, most of
which my platoon spend teaching the rest of the company the Haka so that we could all do it on final
parade. This, of course, ended up being cancelled due to another storm!
From then on it was mainly goodbyes to all my Canadian friends until we too headed home. This
summer has been one that I shall never forget. The people I have met were incredible, both for their
diversity and friendliness, and the experiences and teaching I have received have not only been
character changing but also extremely useful, things I will undoubtedly go on to use for the rest of
my life. I would really like to thank Miss Rawlings for making me aware of this course and all her help
in getting me on to this amazing adventure.
A few of the thousands of photos…