W Company

SSI Becky Matthewson and SI Damien Tinlin of Broomhill Detachment have just returned from a weekend of fresh air and stunning scenery, cycling the highways and byways of Upper Weardale.

But far from touring the local hostelries, they were there for the serious business of learning how to lead cadets cycling through the rural wilderness.

Their new leisure cycling qualification will enable them to take groups of up to ten cadets on mountain bike rides.

During the course they learnt how to maintain the bikes and deal with incidents that arose en-route. They'll have to opportunity to put their new skills into practice very shortly, with mountain biking (er, I mean "leisure cycling") featuring in the Annual Camp programme.

Whoever said riding a bike was as easy as riding a bike were obviously mistaken!