Fish and chips at the seaside: Gurkha recruits go on curious but crucial training exercise
Basic Training for most people joining the British Army does not include a day out at the seaside.
But for the 323 recruits joining the Brigade of Gurkhas this year, a trip to the coast is a crucial moment in their transformation from civilian to soldier.
That's because Phase One and Two training for Gurkhas is different.
Same Army, different training method
The brigade has a self-contained training company based at Infantry Training Centre, Catterick.
It provides its own instructors drawn from across the seven Gurkha cap badges, and the recruits themselves stay together in their platoons for the entire nine months of training.
None of this is the case for recruits to any other part of the Army.
Similarly, they are the only recruits to undergo a specific programme aimed at easing their integration into the Army, and into a country thousands of miles away from their homes in the mountains of Nepal.
It's called CELT, standing for Culture & English Language Training.
A walkabout in Whitby
BFBS Forces News joined half of this year's recruits to the Gurkhas for a key CELT exercise in Whitby, on the North Yorkshire coast, and saw first-hand the progress the young men have already made in the three months since they arrived in the UK.
The day was an opportunity both to learn more about UK culture and heritage and to put into practice some of the skills the men have been learning from their Catterick-based civilian teachers.
"In this CELT exercise I have learned many things," said Trainee Rifleman Junal Rana. "Many things such as crossing the road and road safety rules, and I also know how to communicate with other people."
Some of the other skills the soldiers have been learning as part of the CELT course may seem strange to those well used to life in the UK.
But having the opportunity to practise things like using debit cards, negotiating pedestrian crossings or ordering fish and chips – all things previously alien to the recruits – proves vital for these young adults.
Life's a beach – for a day at least
But perhaps the highlight of the exercise was the chance to spend time on the beach.
It was, for all of them, the first time in their lives they had seen the sea. And many were overcome with joy as they jumped over waves, capturing videos and pictures to share with loved ones back home.
We spoke to Trainee Rifleman Ashish Ale Magar just moments after his time on the beach, who told us: "It's been really nice. I was with my teacher as well as my friends. And it was my first time to see the ocean.
"I also tried for the first time fish and chips and seafood. It was quite interesting for me."
The "basic" period of the recruits' training will shortly conclude.
All of the men, regardless of whether they hope to become engineers, clerks or infantrymen, will then move into Phase Two, which will see them continue infantry-specific training and eventually become fully fledged Gurkhas.
But they will never forget their first time on the beach at the seaside in Whitby.
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