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John Anderson - Aberdovey, Wales, 1957
A most memorable moment...
I attended an Outward Bound course at the tender age of 17 in Aberdovey in March 1957 and although many parts of the course were hard, particularly the cold shower at 6.00am each morning, I have very good memories of my 4 weeks there and I am sure those 4 weeks helped me in life during my service in the Metropolitan Police.
Despite being a sea school we also formed part of a mountain rescue team for the area whilst we were there. As I had previously climbed in Snowdonia, I was selected as part of the team led by a Pilot Officer Jones.
Towards the end of the course the school was contacted by a local farmer, whose sheep dog had fallen down crevices on Cadir Idris. Nobody could reach the dog, so the RSPCA were going to shoot him to avoid further suffering; he had been trapped for several days and as a last attempt to save him the farmer had contacted the school.
We were sent out, and after a difficult climb to where the dog was trapped, I was able to put him into a rucksack and the rest of the team hauled him up to safety. Needless to say the farmer was very grateful for our efforts, I believe we all received awards from the RSPCA for our work.
(John kindly posted us this story and we have uploaded it to the website with his permission.)
I attended an Outward Bound course at the tender age of 17 in Aberdovey in March 1957 and although many parts of the course were hard, particularly the cold shower at 6.00am each morning, I have very good memories of my 4 weeks there and I am sure those 4 weeks helped me in life during my service in the Metropolitan Police.
Despite being a sea school we also formed part of a mountain rescue team for the area whilst we were there. As I had previously climbed in Snowdonia, I was selected as part of the team led by a Pilot Officer Jones.
Towards the end of the course the school was contacted by a local farmer, whose sheep dog had fallen down crevices on Cadir Idris. Nobody could reach the dog, so the RSPCA were going to shoot him to avoid further suffering; he had been trapped for several days and as a last attempt to save him the farmer had contacted the school.
We were sent out, and after a difficult climb to where the dog was trapped, I was able to put him into a rucksack and the rest of the team hauled him up to safety. Needless to say the farmer was very grateful for our efforts, I believe we all received awards from the RSPCA for our work.
(John kindly posted us this story and we have uploaded it to the website with his permission.)