After an emotional farewell to my family, the Platoon headed down south to Southampton. It was a long coach journey and a very quiet one, as most of the lads were deep in thought, as I was. With all the emotions and memories of friends and family in the back of our minds and the thought and anticipation of what we were about to endure, we were in our own little world for those few hours.

We finally arrived at the Base of the 17th Port & Maritime Royal Logistic Corps, where the rest of our company reside and set ourselves up for several hours in the gymnasium. While we had chance we rang our loved ones and said our farewells, however with around 30 bored soldiers sitting together in a hall, it wasn’t long before the lads got up to their antics. They took it upon themselves to have a game of dodge ball with large medicine balls; I will let you guess how that game ended.