5 Battalion, A Coy

Got up, packed everything away. Packs, echelon bags and walking wounded were put on the vehicle. Some decided to carry their packs. Cleggs, who'd already put his pack in, decided that he'd take it off again, and got roared at by Lt Love. The Lt can be quite intimidating when he so chooses.

We walked, all the way from Area 8 Nightloc, along the road, back to a location close to the water point. Some 9 - 11 km. Took a few hours. Fair pace, good walking companions, load not too heavy. Quite a good walk. I don't mind physical challenges, so long as they are actually do-able.
For most of that, I walked near the middle of A Coy, yelling and 'marching' with the guys. (Actually, most of us weren't in step, since we were still technically in the bush so we're allowed to March Easy. Although March Easy is still supposed to be in step, just no arm swinging. OK, so we just couldn't be bothered to walk in time. -_-;;; What?! You try swinging your arms with a full set of webbing on! -_-; ) Half/three-quarters of the way there, they made me walk up the front. I'd been walking with Zugai before, he offered once to take my stuff. At that time, I'd been tiring some, I suppose he noticed it. "No, you'll not bloody take my stuff!" I growled, determined to do the walk relying on my own strength. There was quiet around me for some time after that. I don't know what he thought about it. He said later that he wasn't offended, so I guess it's okay.
At times, I was getting tired enough to sleep on my feet. Those times, I slapped myself awake. I'm sure my face was so red no one would have noticed the difference anyway.
There was a point where two officers from C Coy reached us. They had packs on. Slogett yelled something like, "These two have walked all the way from the back of the battalion to the front - they've walked at twice your speed, with packs on! A company, will you allow these from C company to overtake you?! Don't let them pass you, bloody oath!" That got the entire company stirred up. Some people at the front of A Coy started yelling, and soon all of A Coy was yelling, "Double time!" and running. We ran for some 5 minutes before getting to the bridge. Strangely enough, it was actually easier running than walking. It certainly stirs the blood to hear an entire company - 10 in each section, 3 sections per platoon, 3 platoons to a company, so about 90 people - roaring with what sounds like violent bloodthirst and running, almost chaotically, down the road.
Also smelt the stink of some... 5? 10? dead kangaroos, and gave the finger to the people on the buses (Tier 2 survival?) that went past. I want a photo! There can't be that many pictures of an entire company giving the finger to the people on a half-full bus! Apparently, those buses were for us. In hindsight... I don't care. I'm glad we had to walk.

When we finally got to our new nightloc, we sat, Slogett suggested that we stretch or he'd "be laughing tomorrow morning when [we cadets] all got up whimpering like babies". I leaned on Zugai's and Martin's day packs (they were both still attached to Zugai's webbing, which was attached to him; he'd taken Martin's day pack that morning because Martin decided that he'd carry his large pack), stretched, and suspected I had blisters. It certainly hurt to walk, but I didn't want to see, and Pte Villa-Landa advised me to keep my boots on, so I didn't check. Later when I changed my socks, I didn't see any sign of blisters, and when I woke up the next morning, the only injuries I had were bruises on the outside of my thighs from sleeping on my torch and mobile phone all night (they were in my top pockets).
Some guys attempted hotbox a cylinder of matches, but the electrical tape turned it into a smoke grenade.
Set up my hoochie, was told that it was too close to the male lines, so I moved it. Actually used my entrenching tool and dug a shallow trench, as the clouds looked pretty dark. Later, a group of girls from B Coy set up an even larger hoochie in the same spot, but they said that they'd gotten permission from the officers to do so. I felt a little rorted, but only a little; I found a better place not too long afterwards anyway. Later, I saw Biele yelling at the guys, who were from 1 Platoon. I heard that he'd made them move their hoochies in the dark. Then I was rather annoyed at the unfairness of it all. A Coy 1 Platoon's Sgt had been told to place his platoon harbour there, and then those girls, there were only 5 or 6 of them, were the reason for the entire platoon, 30 people, having to move and re-setup their hoochies in the dark.
Got hot food for dinner. Actually, it was just the Chicken and Pasta from the 5 man ratpacks, cooked (over a gas stove, lol!) by Cleggs. But it was food that I didn't have to cook for myself, and on those fresh hamburger buns, it tasted damn good.
Looked for Zugai, but I didn't find him. Found out later he'd been walking with Martin, a boy from his unit but allocated to a different company. I did find a mixed group playing 'Truth, Dare, Double dare, Torture, Touch, Kiss or Promise'. They dared one of the girls to kiss a guy. He told truth and said he'd enjoyed it. Then they dared another girl to kiss a tree. She did, and came back saying in a rather disgruntled tone, "There, I made out with a tree. Are you happy?!" One dare was to cut down a nearby hoochie, but the group decided that was too slack.
Ended up talking with Nimm (sp?) and Buckley (I think it was The Rock... it sounded like him...) in their hoochie about calculus. (Yes, calculus, of all things ^_^;;; )
A short while later we heard a loud bang. Us three all thought it was probably someone blowing up cheese. The officers, though, were mindful of the fact that we were still on a range. Charlton told me later that the blowing up of cans sounded just like the round of a particular firearm going off (or was it just a random explosive? I forget...). So all of A Coy was called out and formed up. It was Podboj, blowing up a can of diced peaches. What a waste. It's even more stupid than blowing up cheese - diced peaches have syrup, and that syrup gets quite hot. Cans of fruit have more chance of exploding sideways rather than up too.
As a result, all of A Coy was sent to bed, and picket was set up. Poor Zugai got sentry in graveyard hours - 0100 to 0200 - for the 3rd time in a row. (1st time was on 5 July, when I got 2200 - 0000 with Selby, who had blisters from patrolling , so I did all but 10 minutes of the roaming picket along. 2nd time was 6-7 July, when he got swapped from 1st shift with Gray, who'd walked into a tree and got poked in the eye with a branch. That time, it was so cold that Zugai unzipped the bottom of his sleeping bag and walked around in it.) Charlton threatened to come and slash our hoochies if we did something; I don't remember what, I reckon it was either blow up another can or forget to get up for picket. Since hoochie slashing had happened at the last annual, White said, "You get kicked out of cadets for that, sir." Charlton then roared, "Who was that!?" and Biele called, "Give him double graveyard picket!" 1 Platoon weren't allocated picket, because they'd done sentry. It just so happened that we were short one person (it was staggered pickets, 1hr each). So White got something like 0000 - 0200. Served him right too.

Spent some time SMSing Net147 and copying out the messages onto paper before going to sleep. It felt good to be sleeping alone, warmed by his replies. I am precious to him, and he loves me, as I love him. ""Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil," he prays as he holds her close to him, his warmth surrounding her. The forest is my refuge; you are safe."