We are delighted to announce that at 0520 this morning, the advance party arrived at Calais, with the main party joining later at 1000.

Once we had all met up and shared stories of the journey, the advance party departed for the Hotel Ibis in Dieppe, where we would be staying, while the main party headed off to Dunkirk to view the beach famous for the mass evacuations in May and June 1940.

Brigadier Charles Grant, who has kinldy agreed to travel with us as a subject matter expert, set the scene expertly, explaining the build up to war, the Phoney War and the Blitzkrieg by the Germans that ultimately led to the need to carry out such a large scale evacuation.

After giving the cadets the opportunity to walk the beach to gain a sense of the scale of the operation, we moved down the beach a little to pay our respects at the Dunkirk Memorial.

After this, it was time to head to the hotel for some much needed showers and rest after, in some cases, 36 hours of travelling.  A lovely meal was had by all and, at the time of writing, most cadets and adults are now sound asleep looking forward to tomorrows adventures.

All cadets and CFAV attending St Valery are to assemble at Gordon Barracks no later than 1530 on Monday 10 October 2011.

Dress for travelling will be civilian clothing.

All personnel are limited to

• One suitcase/ rucksack - to contain changes of clothes, passport, EHIC, any medication and most toiletries.  This will not be available to personnel until we arrive at the hotel in Dieppe on Tuesday night.
• One carry on bag - containing basic toiletries, such as toothpaste/ brush and "wet wipes" or similar.  Also any snack and entertainment items, bearing in mind the ACF has no responsibility for any items that are lost/ damaged on the trip.

To support the cadets during this month's Battlefield Study to St Valery, a sub website has been set up at http://www.2highlandersacf.org.uk/stval2011/

Cadets, parents and other interested parties can check this website to see what we are up to during the trip.

The upcoming Championships are on Saturday 22 October.

Trials for the   Five-a -side Football ( boys & girls) are being held on Saturday 8 October at Gordon Barracks . Please see SSI Jones/ SSI Devlin or SI Christie NOW if you want your name put forward.

Cadets - All cadets can enter for the Cross Country Championships so please put your name down for this event.

We need male & female adults - please try and support the cadets for these important Championships.

Major E A Mason

Sports Officer