Royal Navy recruits from HMS Raleigh are using the Rame Peninsula as a location to learn basic navigation skills ahead of their training on Dartmoor.

The overnight exercise, known as Daring Leap, occurs in week four of the recruits’ 10-week course.

Based at Pier Cellars, a former pilchard harbour, near Cawsand, which is owned by the Royal Navy, the recruits work in teams of 10.

They must complete a nine kilometre walk, navigating to 10 points around the peninsula, while carrying their kit in bergens on their back.

Daring Leap is the first of three extended exercises that the recruits take part in during their training to test their skills and understanding of the principles they have been taught.

Lieutenant Jim Butler, one of HMS Raleigh’s divisional training officers, said: ’I think this exercise is great for us as instructors.

’The Petty Officer instructors get to see them regularly, gelling as a team, but for us that don’t see them so closely, it’s great to see how they are interacting with each other and how their team-work is going.

’It also gives us a chance to get to know them and gives them the chance to get to know us outside of the structured divisional environment.’

The recruits’ navigation skills are tested further during Exercise Hidden Dragon on Dartmoor. There they conduct a 20-kilometre exercise across the moorland. They also get a chance to live in field conditions, spending the night in tents and cooking their own food from rations pack.