Table for 5 please...

Fire & Cooking and Climb (20-21 April)

(Left) Mosta Valley, (Right) Wied ix-Xaqqa

Last Saturday the Unit met up for another night in the field, though this time the objective wasn't so much training based as the last couple of activities. This time the Unit prepared a 4 course meal deep in Mosta Valley. The menu consisted of bruschetta, followed by lasagne, cube roll steak with roast potatoes, and finally a carrot, orange and walnut cake.

(Left) Tom and Cremona preparing the salsa for the lasagne, (Right) Tom layering the lasagne

The members constructed two fires; a mud oven for the bruschetta, lasagne, potatoes and cake, and a simple open fire on which they grilled the steaks and cooked up the sauce for the lasagne. By the end of the night (or actually early morning) you can imagine the guys were pretty stuffed and knackered - I wouldn't have minded another bite of cake but that's just me! After putting out the fires and clearing the site we moved on to construct our bivouacs for the night and got a well deserved couple of hours of rest before the climb in the morning.

(Left) The Unit with the mudoven, (Right) The carrot, orange and walnut cake

A chilly night and a couple of snooze buttons later, the Unit woke up to the picturesque view of the lush valley, though there wasn't much time to sit about. By 0830 the bivouacs where struck, the site was swept and all the ventures and their equipment were at the top of the valley ready to rendez-vous with Debono.

(Left) One of the bivouacs, (Right) Unit photo at the top of the valley

During the climb the members got the chance to start testing out their climbing abilities, since in the future we're going to be doing a lot (...and I do mean A LOT) of climbing with the completion of our indoor climbing wall. Unfortunately towards the end of the morning we were joined by some unruly abseilers who got a bit in the way, so we decided to call it a day and head to Rabat for La Classica (post-climb refreshments) to close off the activity.

(Left) Zack belaying during the climb, (Right) Abela making his way up to 'The Problem'

Next on the SVS calender is a climb with the rest of the leaders of the group this Saturday, then NAVEX III on the 12th. Untill then, just want to give a shout out to Abela who finished the Malta Half Marathon this morning - kudos man.

(Left) Cremona taking his new shoes for a spin, (Right) Chris almost at the top

Mo$es