Dennis Broadhurst
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Dennis Broadhurst - Eskdale, The Lake District, 1969

Hello, I attended the Outward Bound course at Eskdale in November 1969 course E197. I was in Shackleton patrol. I can remember we had junior firemen, police cadets, apprentices and an AA cadet. We came together on arrival and we had to become friends quickly. Once we had introduced ourselves to each other we then worked very hard at working together as a group and how to rely on your friends to help in situations which you were not too sure about.

Although I cannot recall names of people from my patrol, I have recently been on holiday in the Lake District just outside Ravenglass. This brought back some happy memories of the four weeks at Eskdale. I went back to the centre and spoke to some staff members who very kindly let me browse the year books until I found a photo of my patrol with a write up saying how we came together and how we achieved our goals over the time we there.

I can recall having a cold shower every morning which woke us up rather rapidly. I was an apprentice from Southampton and this was four weeks away from work with pay, not realising what I or my colleagues who attended the same course with me were letting ourselves in for. However I learnt a lot about myself and how to actually be a member of a team to get things done. I am proud to have done the course and would advise anybody thinking about doing one to go for it,the experience is fantastic.