Shall continue where I left off last week with regards to my last ever SAF field camp (:

Had a fitful sleep on Friday night at the training shed where we were gathered after building our PW cage and completing its associated contacts to weather out the Cat 1 storm after I managed to misplace a five piece antenna rod on the hasty retrograde to Hotel Quebec.

We moved off again at 4am. This time to a low lying area welcoming us with all the rain it had accumulated in the form of knee-deep mud. Just the simple act of getting to our site from the tonner can make us with one with Mother Nature as we soon got whole feet submerged in the sludge.

The MG pit was 80 per cent done already due to the previous group not having enough time to dismantle it (thanks to Cat 1) and we just had to touch up on it. The tentage itself was also waiting for us when we arrived. Thus the only real task we had was to dig the five shellscrapes or so around the area. The only problem was that the ground was all cement and rock a few centimeters below the surface. Hence we spent more time producing sparks and splashing water in the half dug hole onto everyone than actual digging.

Then the bees woke up as night slowly became day. And those bees had nothing else better to do than to fly all around us. Some smart sgt suggested we smoke them out with the grenade.. but it only managed to agitate them even further. After a few people got stung the commanders quickly evacuated us when the tonner arrived. Bees.. like to make that irritating buzzing sound when they swarm all over you.

So that was practically our last outfield experience, being chased away from the area by a horde of yellow-and-black flying objects that can't seem to die (except when they sting you). Fun indeed.. Heard the Sispec people training around that area suffered a few stings as well. =/

Hm.. then again, we ain't gonna have field camp any more ((:
Maybe that's the only positive we can take out of the whole thing. And that's probably the reason why all the spec trainees were so enthusiastic throughout.

And that afternoon would be the last time we'll see of them for quite some time - they're going back to Pasir Laba for combined arms term. In some ways we were glad, not only for them but also because there would be a shorter queue at the cookhouse, lesser people cramming the mess etc.

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