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

Okay – another “late” post!  Ah well – we’re busy!!!!

Sunday was a good – relaxed – day!  Well appreciated.

A lot of people got up quite early (pre 7am – aren’t you impressed?) to say goodbye to friends from Carrigaline as they headed home.   Carrigaline being SO FAR from Douglas, that it’s likely that they’ll never see each other again <sarcasm alert>

So… after that we went to Mass.  A really nice priest & congregation went out of their way to welcome us in the church in Gorseinon.

From this, we headed back to site & in 3 groups people went up the climbing tower – and abseiled back down.  Some people are really excellent at this – and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

At 6:47 on Sunday evening, (get the time?) we had a genuinely emotional ceremony.  Our “Discovery Scouts” are nomore.  They picked this time to “close” their section, and reopent as the Douglas Venture Scouts.  It was simple, but nice, they burnt a “Discovery Scout” sign, and unveiled a Douglas Venture Scout flag – all created relatively on the spot…  As new Venture Scouts, they then made their Scout Promise to invest themselves into this new section.

After this, we had an early dinner as people wanted to watch “some match or other” on the tele.  This was arranged.  I can’t be sure, but I don’t think it was the Munster Final.  Suffice to say we were all very sympathetic towards our “Dutch descended” members.  <not!>

Some people also got to ring home last night.  <If you’re waiting for a call – honestly, we’re trying to encourage all to ring!  If they’re not, assume they’re having a great time – everyone seems to be>

After that, after the obligatory hot chocolate, everyone went to bed for a long and sound nights sleep……

OR DID THEY??

On my last day on Camp 2010 it’s been decided that I should post today’s blog, so here it goes…..

Not looking forward to the trip home but I’m sure Sarah-Jane and I will manage the journey together. I hear from home that the weather is shocking but here, yet again, it’s been another nice day. Highs of 24 and you’d know it!!

Last night we entertained a local scout group with a BBQ for about 60 people with plenty of meat, salads and fizzy pop. They subsequently entertained us with a campfire were our scouts and scouters learned some new songs for the future.

Today:
Our Rovers headed off at the crack of dawn (well 8.30am, & when you’re 18-20 that is the crack of dawn) and made a day trip to Cardiff for themselves.
Our Discovery Scouts along with a local scout troup from a nearby town headed off to a beach for the afternoon and had one hell of a time. Activities included building sand castles, taking a dip in the sea, badminton and other beach adventures.
Our Explorer Scouts headed back into Swansea and took a tour around the National Waterfront Museum followed by an inter-patrol bowling competition – the bowling was in a bowling alley and not in the museum as you may think!

All very positive reports for all three groups.

Dinner and the clean up is not long over for the evening and we’ve just had a rain shower. The first rounders game of camp 2010 is about to take place so must head down and ensure fair play!

As Sarah Jane and I head off about 11pm we’d like to thank all our fellow leaders and more importantly all the scouts for making this an excellent week.

Pictures of today’s activities will follow soon (I haven’t done the course on posting them yet!)

Conor Crowley & Sarah-Jane Nation

Guest Post from David and Kevin:

Today started off wet and continued wet. After a quick breakfast and inspection people decided to show off their jumping skills in a game of Three Sticks. Won by Danny!

After that the Explorers and Discovery Scouts headed down towards the forest for a fun filled day of activities, all which involved the river and getting wet. This included a river crossing base, chess board activities and a water balloon base, all of which happened as the Rovers decided to build a dam, longing for the days they were Beavers (bad pun by Kev).

After the Discovery bases had finished we all took part in the leaders bases which were a lot more wet and muddier. These involved a spider web, sisel trail and some puzzles.

Right now we are sitting in one of the leaders cars typing the blog, awaiting some scouts from Swansea to come to our BBQ. The plan is to have a joint BBQ and campfire with them tonight and perhaps an activitiy or two tomorrow.

Personal Message to my Mommy: Happy Birthday from David and Daniel (and Kevin) :-)

Guest Post: PL’s Kevin and David

It started with a lie in. After a quick shower everyone was excited to heard towards civilisation as we headed towards Swansea city.

People enjoied shopping around for a bit a clothes and food before a quick lunch. After lunch we went to the LC which was totally awesome. There were slides, water, waves and a pool.

We then headed back to Silvercross where we spent some time doing archery and air rifle shooting.

We had to suffer through the 5 minutes of doing “the Enda” as one of the leaders Stephen had to head back to Ireland. After a quick campfire and mourning we went to bed. Some of the Rovers stayed up and played with the Camera!

Well, a small bit later a morning had today.

Morning was spent with desert island challenges – where patrols are in a limited space, with limited materials, and given projects to do (light a fire, make a kite etc etc) all without leaving their area.

After lunch, we tackled Spiderland.  Lets just say people today were filthier than they’ve possibly ever been!!!!

More Soon – (always hopefully!!!!)

Well we’re still here!

Some small techie gremlins have delayed our postings a bit – but they should hopefully be sorted now…

Enjoyable day Tuesday – visited the “Big Pit” – a now closed coal mine.  Saw the whole thing, mine shafts, stables, lamps the lot!  Even the hardened cynic’s seemed to enjoy it.

The evening was spent with a fair an enjoyable game of soccer between leaders & Scouts.  Modesty prevents me from saying who won  ;-)

That’s about it.  Will hopefully post again soon – gremlins allowing!!

Well, we’re here at last!!

A nice journey had by all last night – the Julia did not dissapoint!  Comfortable cabins were had by all & we arrived in Swansea at about 9a.m. this morning.

We arrived on site by about 10, and since then we’ve been getting used to what Siver Cross has to offer, setting up the various tents and sites, building gadgets – and making new friends!!

People are generally tired so a fairly early night will be had tonight.  Tomorrow is another day – spent mostly away from site – but more about that later…..

E.

If you were not up early enough this morning, not listening to the radio or not listening to the right station, our Group Secretary, the legendary, Conor Crowley got us a shout out on National Radio!
Listen here:
[wpaudio url=”https://douglasscouts.ie/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/request_wma.mp3″ text=”2FM Request” autoplay=”0″]

I’ve also put in a countdown till camp is over timer on the left :-( But look at how long till camp starts!! :-D

Woop woop!

Hey everyone! Hope you’re all packed and ready to go! As I was clearing the memory card for the camera I came across a few pictures from the 3rd pre-camp meeting. So I decided to put them up before we head off.

So that’s it!

See everyone tomorrow in Ringaskiddy!!!! Let the fun begin!!!!

Vickie

Well, if you’re interested, we’ve put a weather link on this page.

If you look down at the bottom right of the page there’s a Scout Links section – and one of them is “SWANSEA WEATHER”.

Of course, alternatively, you could just click HERE.