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Sandbag Reminiscences of Alan Agar Sandbag
A Little Trip Up Cader
We had only been in the army about a week when we were told on the Sunday that we were going on a little trip to climb Cader. That morning we were issued our rations of what I don't have to explain, not to the vets of Tonfanau anyway. We were briefed by Lt. Turner (I think that was is name) and got on the transport that took us to the base of Cader, whereupon we all trundled off up the first section toward the big lake. Once there we had a long break and scoffed our meagre rations. The next section was different as the weather was changing very quickly becoming misty and cold and as we were only dressed in our denims and shirts we were feeling it. We eventually reached the top but by then you could hardly see in front of you, so we were told we had better find a quick way down. Well we did, right down this rather sheer drop on the other side of the summit. This being a bit hazardous to say the least due to the fact that there were no foothold whatever due to slate coming away. So we were forced to make our way carefully back to the top. By then there was only two of us and although we looked for the others we could not find them. We made a decision to find our own way back down but could not find the way we had come up.
By now it was getting late and got really late by the time we eventually got down. Needless to say we were very cold, tired and lost, no map or compass, no shelter. I did have something though, two cheese sandwiches, which we both ate with ravish. After we rested and thought things over we carried on aimlessly but eventually it paid off and we saw a light in the far distance which we eagerly made for. We arrived at our light which turned out to be a little farmhouse. I knocked at the door and was given assistance. We eventually got back to Tonfanau very late at night, had no idea what time it was, where we were shuffled up to the cookhouse and given some hot tea and soup and just casually told, "Alright you two, get a move on, you're still on parade in the morning." Needless to say later on in life I thought we had been very lucky for seeing that light.
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