A place less than two hundred kilometres off Kourou town, French Guayana, is the area for equatorial jungle training centre (CEFE) established in 1987. Training there takes place in very challenging conditions of nine hundred hectares of dense forest. Soldiers live two weeks in the jungle full of traps such as thick vegetation, limited visibility, incredible humidity, occasional rain, insect raids, poisonous creatures that include snakes, frogs, spiders or caterpillars. They have to learn how to exploit natural resources to survive – eat edible plants, set traps, build a shelter, make fire, detect threats and administer first aid in jungle orienteering.
University of Defence students of rangers specialisation, sergeants Petr Homola and Jiri Sedlak, have gained some experience in the challenging survival course from 9 to 30 March this year. Arrived in France, they spent the first few days there together with the French École Militaire Interarmes officers and NCO school to learn the basic skills and facts of the course. Then, their group flew to French Guyana for the training course on Saturday, 12 March. The group included ninety-two students and graduates of the school, four of whom were females. They were divided into four platoons for the training led by French Foreign Legion instructors.
Both of our students faced challenging actions during the endless marching through the forest, going for several obstacle courses in water, in mud or in treetops. For the interview they revealed that during the hardest part of the training that lasted four days and three nights they drank water taken from a muddy stream and ate what they picked or hunted in jungle. "All we had received was a machete, a compass, a whistle, a lighter, repellent, salt and water treatment tablets. We managed to catch very little so we lived on various fruits,“ said both of them after their return. They caught only monkeys. Petr Homola’s platoon one and Jiri Sedlak’s platoon two. However, those suffer from a disease there and could not be eaten, therefore were traded for rice. A monkey equals a kilo of rice. But, try to eat yourself fill in a group of twenty having just that! They also put up with a rayfish and crabs boiled in salt water. What a soup! Well, nothing comes amiss to a hungry stomach, because they found it quite tasty. Also fruits of similar taste to our potatoes or palm tree tops reminding turnip helped to satisfy.
They trekked through the jungle, cut their way with the machete, navigated on boats, built shelters for sleeping or storing equipment, passed across the prepared obstacle courses. "The worst thing was forcing the way half body inserted in the muddy ooze. Then you are grateful for rain that was by the way a constant escort, for washing all the dirt away," remembers Petr Homola. In addition, there were mosquitoes threatening with malaria or gnats causing tissue necrosis, or caterpillars of frogs some kinds of which may be fatally poisonous. Therefore, preventive inoculation is necessary.
Their separation into different platoons preventing them from chatting with one another made the training even harder for them. It was very difficult to their psyche. All of the instructions were given in French leaving them dependent on their mates’ English translation.
"We have come to the realisation that a team can survive in the jungle but for an individual it would be very much more difficult, maybe even fatal," said his opinion Petr Homola continuing: "I also realised that you are much stronger than you think you are if in stress. And, when I go for a nature walk here I can feel like in safe heaven." Jiri Sedlak has learnt more respect to nature moving his psychological sensation. He is more resistant now. Both of them agree it was a priceless experience. Today, their chances to survive under extreme conditions are much higher.
Text: Mgr. Zdeňka Dubová