Eight well-travelled, and now well trained, soldiers of the Bermuda Regiment spent last night on home soil after a 34-day trip that took them to the mountains of Morocco.

The Bermudian contingent posed as an insurgent enemy in an exercise with the Royal Gibraltar Regiment near Marrakech which included 72-hour, non-stop combat action and a large scale manoeuvre — fighting darkness and sleep deprivation.

“We got much more out of this than we expected,” said Sgt. Harry Hunt the group’s commander. “We learned a lot.”

The men arrived in Morocco onboard a C-130 Hercules transport plane, were drilled with SA80 assault rifles and dodged the continuous threat of scorpions. Troops criss-crossed the High Atlas Mountain region during the exercise in all-terrain vehicles and hovered over it in Chinook and Puma helicopters, outfitted in full desert combat gear.

Maj. Stephen Caton, who followed developments from Bermuda, says most of the soldiers on the trip faced first-time experiences in difficult conditions, so it was no surprise when some of them said they missed home.

“I know it’s difficult, but it builds character,” he said with a smile. “They may not all agree, but I believe it does.”

Sgt. Hunt echoed that sentiment to The Royal Gazette <$>in a London stopover: “All eight of us (miss home). I’ve been away for a long time before. But there’s just something about a military trip.”

This is the second such rendezvous in North Africa for Bermuda’s troops after the two regiments began a relationship in 2000.

On each trip there was some time for rest and relaxation, but not much, as the men faced daunting travel logistics getting back and forth from Morocco with stops in Gibraltar, Marrakech, Tangier, and the United Kingdom.

The Bermuda Contingent was made up of:

<*Sgt. Harry Hunt

Cpl. Joseph Hayward

Cpl. Ira Philip

Cpl. Alastair Jack

Cpl. Waleed Lightbourne

L/Cpl. Ajahni Bascome

Pte. Charles Caesar

Pte. Urian Dickerson