Douglas & St. FinBarresScout Group – 2nd 6th 47th 93rd Cork

And now for some more stories of our adventures on Camp 2016

Monday July 11th

Monday morning came and it was time to pack up and depart our house, Borluut; it was perfect for our needs for the last 10 days and will be missed. Packing took most of the morning; getting 38 youth members and 14 adults sorted along with their gear wasn’t the easiest of tasks.

By lunchtime we were almost ready; we had our final dinner at the house and a major clean up operation went into action. We left our house tidy and as clean as the day we arrived. JEKA agreed!

That afternoon we departed and we decided to finish our time in Austria by taking one more mad ride on the Wally Blitz Mountain Coaster and then headed to Freischwimmbad Bach/Elbigenalp, a great outdoor pool and slide. That evening it was time to board the bus for one of our long journeys… but none of the youth members were sure exactly where!

After about 4 hours we stopped off Ulm, Germany, for our sandwiches and refreshments. Indiana Jones was the film of choice during the first part of the journey. After a break of about an hour it was back out onto the A8 of the Autobahn & Fr. Ted episodes were lined up on the DVD player in the bus.

Everyone settled in for a night on board Mannings Coaches and the surprise that was to come

Tuesday July 12th

By about 2am we stopped again to stretch the legs and have a loo break in a services in Siegburg, Germany; There were still some excited people on board but most did sleep for a few hours.

At 6am as there was silence on the bus (almost everyone was asleep) we had made good time through the night and had arrived in The Netherlands. With the curtains drawn most people hadn’t realised it but we were sitting the empty car-park of our surprise destination – we let them sleep some more…

We woke everyone on the bus around 8am for breakfast on board and welcomed everyone to Walibi-Holland; a theme park in Biddinghuizen, The Netherlands. Attractions inside included the Speed of Sound, El Condor, Xpress, Goliath and Robin Hood roller coasters!!! It was going to be an exciting day!!!!

What a day it was – the Scouts, Venture Scouts and Scouters all went in their own groups and spent from 9:45am until almost 4pm in the park. Taking part in what was on offer, the roller coasters, the attractions, the games, the restaurants and the souvenir shops.

After we got back on the bus we had a less than 2hr drive to our final location. The town of Breda. Everyone was wrecked but happy. We checked into our hotel (yes…. we were in a hotel) and once we got dinner out of the way it was relax and sleep time as the 2nd last night of camp 2016 began.

Wednesday July 13th

After we had breakfast and checked out of the hotel the final journey on mainland Europe started as we headed to the Hook Of Holland. With all bags packed we as Scouters waited for the ‘I can’t find my uniform’ stories; it was our pleasure to say there wasn’t any! Off we went and headed for the port.

By about midday we were sitting in the Stena Ferry Terminal in Holland having our lunch, passports in hand and were ready to walk onto the boat and head to Harwich.

The ferry to Harwich did leave later than planned and when we disembarked at nearly 9pm that night we hit the road straight away to try to make our connecting ferry in Holyhead.

All the parents now know we got delayed due to the late disembarkation and got stuck in major roadwork detours but eventually we did arrive home safe and sound on Thursday July 14th

…. Thank You ….

A massive thank you to everyone who had a part in Camp 2016;