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Le soleil français et la chaleur

optimiste556

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Good day to you all.

Quick question for any legionnaires that came from the UK or any places with a cold climate like Scandinavia or the Balkans or Russia or Canada etc.

How did you guys cope with the heat, it's around 25 degrees Celsius in the UK where I am and I find it hard to do endurance exercises so I can't really imagine what it would be like at Aubagne.
It may be due to a lack of conditioning or whatever but I'm worried that the heat will affect my performance in the physical tests and may make me seem lazy or weak to the recruiters.
So any tips to keep cool or to manage yourself or anything? Hoping to go in July while this ‘recruitment surge’ is still on.
Enjoy your day and thank you for any advice.
 

dusaboss

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Man, try to get used to hotter climate. 25 °C is real not so hot. I did my 7 km run today and it was 35 °C in my home town.

Wow man, that was a challenge for me. It's started to get dizzy. :). It wasn't that trouble of hotness, but sun really hits you in the head if you don't have some hat. (It was 3-4 pm). And this is still not hottest part of the year here (very similar climate to south France).

What worries me is Africa and Guiana. Heat there gets whole another level. ;)
 

Joseph Cosgrove

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Don't worry, you will get aclimatized to the heat. Just the same as Africans get used to the winters in France.
 

SnafuSmite

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Man, try to get used to hotter climate. 25 °C is real not so hot. I did my 7 km run today and it was 35 °C in my home town.

Wow man, that was a challenge for me. It's started to get dizzy. :). It wasn't that trouble of hotness, but sun really hits you in the head if you don't have some hat. (It was 3-4 pm). And this is still not hottest part of the year here (very similar climate to south France).

What worries me is Africa and Guiana. Heat there gets whole another level. ;)

The humidity in Guiana must be a killer.
 

SnafuSmite

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Don't worry, you will get aclimatized to the heat. Just the same as Africans get used to the winters in France.

Where I live the coldest we'll get in winter is about 9°C depending if the winds blowing or there's some drizzle it'll be cooler.
 

mark wake

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Where I live the coldest we'll get in winter is about 9°C depending if the winds blowing or there's some drizzle it'll be cooler.

The more extreme the weather the better! Hot or cold! It hardens the soul and body! Just remember there will be times when food or water won't always be available. That's when you dig deep within. De merde toi! As we say in the legion!
 

mammikoura

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The only way to actually cope with the effects is to give your body time to adjust. For the most part, your body gets used to a new climate in about 2 weeks, of course depending on how big the change is.

If you're worried about it then go two weeks earlier and let your body get used to it while enjoying the south of France. But in reality you should be good, let's face it: selection is not physically demanding.
 

Joseph Cosgrove

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The humidity in Guiana must be a killer.

SnafuSmite, the humidity in Guiana doesn't kill. I went there from France in February. France was freezing (castel) and Guyane was roasting. The first thing you do is pass yet another physical at the infirmery. The next day you draw your jungle kit. The day after that you all pile into a truck, visit the farm/zoo and then start four days of learning how to live and survive in the jungle.

What I can tell you is that living and surviving in the jungle is not done in a classroom. You are walking through the jungle for most of the day and then shown how to put up your hammock, make a fire and cook. The next day it's the same routine except how to make a fire during the riany season, i.e. all the wood is wet. Also how to build a lean-to shelter. The day after that is how to do a river crossing with a cord rope which you will have taken turns in carrying. The last day, how to put up basic traps. Remembering that each 'day' is spent marching.

You get back to camp exhausted but used to the humidity. Of course there is more to learn about living in the jungle then can be taught in 4 days but in a combat company there's no need to worry. After four months - which was the old company tournant (reinforcement) duration- you'll know how to fish, set traps for animals and humans and navigate.

The last part may seem obvious to someone who has never been in the jungle, but when you have no repare to take a bearing (back bearing) from and having to rely on a nylon line (topofil) to know how far you have come, it's not that easy. Oh yes there are SatNavs nowadays but they are fine when they work.

After two years in a combat company well...
 
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176607Mick

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The humidity in Guiana must be a killer.

When you get off the air conditioned plane in Guyane the heat and humidity feels like you have been facepalmed with a huge hot wet wall. But as Joe says, within a few days or so, you become acclimatised. Sort of..:)
 
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176607Mick

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When you get off the air conditioned plane in Guyane the heat and humidity feels like you have been facepalmed with a huge hot wet wall. But as Joe says, within a few days or so, you become acclimatised. Sort of..:)

And when I landed i did so with a broken ankle due to playing volleyball at FDN two days before we left...
 
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176607Mick

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How long did you broken ankle keep you out of action?

As far as I remember about 6 weeks. But that didn't mean I spent endless days in the infirmary. Cpl de semaine for a month. Bastards
 

SnafuSmite

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As far as I remember about 6 weeks. But that didn't mean I spent endless days in the infirmary. Cpl de semaine for a month. Bastards

Ankle injuries are not fun, I once had mine on the wrong end of a scrum machine. I was pretty accident prone in my younger days.....
 
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176607Mick

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Ankle injuries are not fun, I once had mine on the wrong end of a scrum machine. I was pretty accident prone in my younger days.....

I played for the Legion at inside centre. Those were good days based at Aubagne for my last year. All I did was play Rugby and worked in the selection area beating up EV's happy days
 

SnafuSmite

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I played for the Legion at inside centre. Those were good days based at Aubagne for my last year. All I did was play Rugby and worked in the selection area beating up EV's happy days

Fantastic sport, played outside flank and lock for a short while, fittest I've ever been in my entire life, our coach was an old South African parabat, and boy did he love fitness training, I think he embraced the "troep" mentality, team runs with logs, running up embankments with tires. Boy were we a cracker team that year.
 
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176607Mick

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Fantastic sport, played outside flank and lock for a short while, fittest I've ever been in my entire life, our coach was an old South African parabat, and boy did he love fitness training, I think he embraced the "troep" mentality, team runs with logs, running up embankments with tires. Boy were we a cracker team that year.

After I left the legion I lived in South Wales and played for Neath via a feeder club mumbles and Swansea university. That year 95 we reached the final at Twickenham but lost 30-31. Our reward was a tour to Stellenboch university. Great days. Cracking Braai every night and good hard Rugby.
 
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176607Mick

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After I left the legion I lived in South Wales and played for Neath via a feeder club mumbles and Swansea university. That year 95 we reached the final at Twickenham but lost 30-31. Our reward was a tour to Stellenboch university. Great days. Cracking Braai every night and good hard Rugby.

And who can forget the battle of the Gnoll. Neath v South Africa..ouch..punch up in the South Wales rain and mud..
 

SnafuSmite

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After I left the legion I lived in South Wales and played for Neath via a feeder club mumbles and Swansea university. That year 95 we reached the final at Twickenham but lost 30-31. Our reward was a tour to Stellenboch university. Great days. Cracking Braai every night and good hard Rugby.

Mick you've really been around. On a nostalgic note a good game of rugga, some chops and wors on the braai with a nice cold castle, one of life's simple pleasures. Screw Michelin stars and funky fusion cooking, I'll take a braai any day, I'm sure there's enough Saffas in the FFL that have educated their brethren on the art of a braai. Where there's a saffa and meat, a braai will be nearby.
 
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176607Mick

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Well, I only knew 1 guy from SA. He has only just left after about a million years in the Legion. I work in East Africa in Security with 19 boers and a few Brits. Have done since leaving the Army. So, my braai experience is via Rugby and Working in shit holes from Iraq, Afghanistan and all over Africa. Pup, some steak and wors washed down with a few sherberts seems to be my weekend diet these days
 
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Self very keen on rugger. Played for my school and Kent Colts. Never really heavy enough for senior rugby albeit a very wiry scrum half who successfully avoided wing forwards........sometimes !

As for the Boers and South Africans ace guys. Many joined the RM Cdos during WW2. In 1953 we adopted with their permission the old Boer trekking song as our Commando March. Sarie Marais. We were taught to sing it albeit the Corps does not do chants.

An amusing fact the slow march was Early one Morning. Due to the words the lads called it the Whore's Lament.

RIP my fantastic oppo Erasmus Jacobson killed in an ambush. Watching my 6 in an incident he shouted at me ' Charlie Mak der Man Durt.' An interesting year with 9000 reported incidents of IEDs'. One in 8 were genuine the others used to disrupt life or lure Police or the Emergency Services into ambush.
 
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