TWO groups of teenagers who went missing on Dartmoor on Saturday evening have been located safe and well by rescue teams and the police.
The Dartmoor Rescue Team were alerted after the 14-year-old ATC cadets failed to turn up at their arranged meeting point at Willsworthy by 6pm on Saturday.
The two teams of four, from Newquay and Gillingham, were in practice for the Ten Tors expedition next month and had set off on a 10km trek from Conies Down Tor to Lynch Tor and on to Willsworthy.
Controller for the Tavistock section of the Dartmoor Rescue Group, Bud Francis, said five foot teams, a dog team and a team of fell runners were deployed to locate the boys.
'The weather was wet, windy and moderately cold — a typical Dartmoor night,' said Mr Francis. 'We decided to conduct the search on Saturday night rather than leave it to the morning — there had been some contact from the boys so we knew they were OK but they had basically gone off their route,' he said.
One group was found in the early hours of Sunday morning at Fur Tor and the second group, who had to use a reserve tent after their first one was ripped up in the wind, was found at 10am by the police helicopter in the Walkham Valley.
Both teams had followed their training routine and camped down for the night and cooked themselves a meal.
'There was no physical problems and once the first team had been checked out and given their exact location they completed the remainder of their trek,' added Mr Francis.
He said Ten Tors brought in a huge amount of work for the rescue group and getting lost on the moor was all part of the learning process for the young men and women: 'This is the sense of adventure that the moor provides,' he said. 'People can make errors very easily.'
Mr Francis said that there was a Ten Tors invigilator on the moor last weekend, which illustrated the level of management which went into the event.