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

Well folks, I arrived here last Sunday to a great atmosphere and some welcoming smiles. As Group Leader it’s so great to see the Scout and Venture Camp programmes in full swing following all the months of preparation by the leadership teams and the Camp Chiefs Nick Swanton & Enda Downey. Internet access isn’t the greatest here but I’ve managed to grab some where I am and said I’d blog about day 10.

It was an earlier than usual start on a Monday morning as everyone got up and within a short while, showered, packed for a day trip and had breakfast. Down to the local tube station to catch one into Camden Town station and take a wander round the famous Camden Market. Some great bargains to be had if anyone wanted them. Niamh Fullam and I took part in an interesting pastime and had a foot massage, but it involved fish nibbling at your toes!!!!

From there it was back onto the tube and into Oxford Circus station and a short walk to the wealthy Regent St and home of Hamleys Toy Store. The Scouts, Leaders and Ventures lost themselves in this place and I’ve no doubt pressies were bought for you all in there!

Lunch followed on Oxford Circus and then a short tube trip to Knightsbridge and into the famous Harrods Department Store, trust me, no pressies bought in here!!

After an excellent day in London a feast was cooked by the Scouts and Ventures themselves and following some late games onsite they all headed to bed after supper.

Shortly after midnight the Ventures tents were opened up again and they were all asked to gather their sleeping bags, warm clothes, raingear and bivvy bag and were handed toilet roll, biscuits and a water supply, bundled into the waiting mini bus and dropped off to a secret location… We wait to see what has happened??

As we have said on Facebook and Twitter, it isn’t as easy as previous years with the way the activities are going on, internet access and time in the day to fit in putting up and editing a blog post for each day. We try our best and will get around to as much updates as possible. Photos will follow so please be paitient. No, we haven’t stopped blogging, no, the blog isn’t broken and and yes, everyone is alive and happy!

Updates to follow in the coming days :-)

Scouts by Cian:
Today we woke up at around 8 and had in my opinion the best breakfast yet. We had 2 cereal bars and orange juice. I ate 1 and sold the other to Kealan for 70p. It was the best breakfast because I made 70p. Anyway me (Cian), Jack and James cleaned up as the others sat down and watched.

Everybody was excited (except 6^th) because Conor Crowley was on his way from France. After we cleaned up Enda brought us to Tenpin (it’s a bowling place). Anyway Luke won the bowling, Stephen came second and I (Cian) came 3^rd. On the way back to site we were tired until Enda pulled into KFC. We all got fattened up and went back to site be we had to be quiet because the Ventures were asleep, but we were all excited as Conor was there.

For the rest of the day we just done the normal thing. Bye for now. Cian.

Ventures by Gavin:

It finally turned 00:01 meaning that most of us (not Jack, Danny and Eric!) had been up about 15 hours. After stumbling out of the Disco just before a good song came on and then running back repeatedly, we decided we needed to do more activities to keep ourselves going. After realising nothing worth queuing was still open, we went on the Dodgems again. We spent most of the ride trying to steal Jacks glasses!

As most activities began, like night zorbing, laser mission, pancake and woggle making, we returned to the grubber again to stack up on snacks to keep us going. At 2 o’clock we went to make pancakes which funnily enough were swimming in oil but really delicious. Some of us made woggles out of string which were really cool. Once again, we made our way back to the grubber, getting more tired as the night went on. With a bit of a struggle we dragged ourselves to the Quick which is a place that looks onto a reservoir and watched the sun rise. We met up with our friend Banana (his name is Dave but he was in a banana costume).

On our third trip to the grubber, one by one people began to drop their heads. Only three remained…

Ciara, Gavan and Cormac spent four hours strolling around the site looking for stuff to watch or do to keep us awake.

Nine o’clock finally came around and three of us went to the closing ceremony. They played the pizza hut song for about the fifth time at it.

Everyone who participated started to take down their tents and the three survivors joined the rest of the ventures to some well deserved sleep!

At about one o’clock, Conor Crowley the Group Leader arrived and woke the Ventures but they were having none of that. The Ventures rose throughout the afternoon with the latest getting up at 5:30, just in time for dinner (or breakfast!)

Scout Blog by Luke:

We woke up earlier than usual. We had breakfast and travelled by Endas magic bus to Duxford Air Museum. We boarded the Concorde and various other planes. We saw an air show and got lunch from the overpriced chip vans. We then went around the hanger with tanks and other military vehicles and went to the gift shop and then we left for the Scout Hall that we were spending the night in.

We arrived at the Den and got settled in while Enda got us pizza for dinner. We waited for an hour or so for Enda to return during this time we explored the area. We were called for dinner and had pizza and garlic bread. This was one of the nicest dinners so far along with KFC and Subway. After this we were invited to a campfire with the Beavers that were onsite with us. The campfire was small and it finished fast.

The younger Beavers then went to bed but the older ones stayed up to play man hunt with us. Me, Cian and Kealan put our balaclavas and gas masks on, which we frightened beavers with as they passed by. We then went back to the Hall where we had two packets of Walkers crisps each and we went to bed.

Venture Blog by David:

Gilwell 24 Day 1. We got up today at 7ish and had breakfast. The opening ceremony for Gilwell 24 started at half-8 in the morning, it was really just dancing and stuff, very not exciting. Thankfully though everything that followed that was amazing. We started with Parkour, which ended up being very tiring and sore, but totally worth it. Honestly everything else that followed is kind of a blur, all mashed up into one time.

We did:

• Abseiling
• Rock-it Ball
• Fun Fair
• Circus Stuff (on fire)
• Slippery Slope
• Scuba Diving
• Mountain Boarding
• Slack-Lines
• Obstacle course
• Cinema
• Food
• Global Zone
• Technology Zone
• Disco

and that was all before mid-night. The Scuba diving was insane, except it was done in a metre high pool, but I’d still defiantly recommend it. The Cinema movies were fairly awesome; Harry Potter 7 and Cool Runnings were the first ones to be on. I think the last thing we did that day was the Disco, for a Scout disco it was class.

Also Happy Birthday to my Mom Una. I don’t want to say how old she is, but 50 is a big number.

Guest Post by Ross:

After a day of rainfall and a lot of coursing at our past selves for thinking “What I wouldn’t give for some Irish weather to escape the heat”, the sun unapologetically reared its blazing self proud on Friday morning. However in true course, it rained….. Again…

It however cleared up for a nice afternoon lunch and light shopping for the Scouts who were taken around Covent Garden for a couple of hours by Rovers before meeting again at the Science Museum for a seriously amazing flurry of well, “funducation”. There were exhibits and interactive displays, models of rockets and other incredible methods of travel. There was even a way to experience what it was like to do simple tasks on the Moon. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed this.

After a nicely warm tube and bus journey back to site the Scouts were given massively filling and delicious mince meat and spuds, cooked by our every own Enda. Gilwell 24 started later that evening for the Ventures, as for the Scouts they went to sleep fairly fast after a long and interesting day.

Oh Danny boy, the leaders, the leaders are calling From glen to glen, and down the Branchet Field.

A dreary, wet morning prompted the wearing of rain jackets and hoodies, no strangers to rain, the onsite activities still went ahead for Douglas Scouts and Ventures. While the Scouts headed off for the hi-jinks of Crate Stacking the Ventures followed their instructor Manny, from Ghana to the perilous Medium Ropes.

We tightened on the hip-harness, shrugged on the chest-harnesses and clipped on helmets. As the heavy rain continued to fall, on by one, each Venture climbed up a ladder leaning against a tree then continued up the metal steps embedded in the tree itself. High above the heads of the other Scouts was our challenge: a thick pole suspended between two trees, 15feet/5metres above the ground. The pole was wrapped with a rope to provide better grip for feet.

After climbing up the tree, the challenger had to step out onto the log and walk across it – Knees-knocking, arms-balancing, stomach churning.

Daunting?? Not at all, some danced the Gloop Gloop song, others carried a helmet in either hand. All took a step into thin air, knowing that they were safely supported by ropes and the other Ventures below.

Danny went A.W.O.L. when fetching his kneckerchief and some leaders walked all over Gilwell to help him catch up with the other Ventures. Luckily he found the group himself in time for the activity.

Meanwhile the Scouts were Crate Stacking. Safely harnessed to an overhead wire, they had to stack crates as high as they could while stand upon the stack itself. No easy task. Luke, James and Cian Barry succeeded in creating the highest tower of a whopping 13 crates!

After lunch, the Ventures and Scouts were paired off and they took part in a massive orienteering course that covered the whole of Gilwell Park. Orienteering requires not only speed, but map-reading skills and stamina. Winners yet to be announced… watch this space.

The Scouts all enjoyed a game of Tip the Can later that evening. After a mainly wet day, I was looking forward to going home after a full week of camping. Home to fresh clothes, a comfortable bed, a cushy couch and my wonderful fiancé. However it was not to be.

After a constant barrage of “light-weight”, “ah sure you’ll stay”, “go on, go on” etc I caved when Ross challenged me to a card game where my plane ticket was laid on as a bet. I lost. With a wailing and gnashing of teeth, I made the phone call home to Neil to say I would not be home for another week. Fortunately, the engagement appears to be still on.

Guest Post by Ciara from the Ciara Patrol:

Sore feet! That was the main thing us scouts and ventures had today. We left site around ten o’clock and the two venture patrols got dropped to a different place but were told to hike to the same town. After Enda left us at a place called Lee Valley Camp-site we were directed briefly to the town Enfield and off we went. It was a good hour and a quarter until we reached a Enfield and took a wrong turn! Luckily we bumped into some of the leaders when we turned back. We got in contact with the other patrol to meet up and it turned out they were much further in the town than we were so on we hiked for another twenty minutes or so. Inside Enfield we met the other patrol at McDonalds. Some of us were hungry so we went to buy some food, the others went to a park to relax.

We agreed to shop around for about two hours until we had to leave again so everybody got the chance to buy something nice if they wished. In the main shopping centre there was a clock projected onto the floor, it looked really cool.

The hike back was a lot more difficult. Everybody was getting tired and our feet really began to hurt. Unfortunately, we took another wrong turn on our way back and it stalled us for about three quarters of an hour! A passing woman helped us find our way back and instead of using a busy road she leaded us to a path the led right into our camp-site. We arrived back on site at seven o’clock after leaving Enfield at quarter to four! A long but in the end rewarding day for everyone.

On Tuesday we woke to a very sunny and hot day which meant we were all up very early because it was too hot in the tents. Morning started with breakfast and tent inspection all went very well, next it was time for the morning activity which was archery scouts got to do it indoors while ventures where outdoors. It was really enjoyable and everyone was really good at it we even had a competition between the scouts and the winning team got out of doing the lunch time washing up.

When we arrived back on site Niamh had lovingly prepared soup and bread for us which we all enjoyed. The weather for the afternoon was cooler and perfect for our afternoon activity which was a desert island challenge. We mixed the scouts and ventures together they were given a list of items to get and meet back in 5 minutes. They went to their circles that we made as the desert island. They were given their tasks and told they could not exit the circle for 1 hour one of the tasks was very interesting they had to boil water in a plastic bag they had to make out of greaseproof paper most of the groups managed to do it after a few attempts. We had finished the challenge and had tided up and we got our first bit of rain of the week it was only a small shower but it was nice to clear the air. Tonight the scouts cooked for themselves on the open fires and made a very good meal of pasta bolognese. to finish the evening we did some games and talk about the next day which was going to be patrol hike day.

21 years and 15 spent in the scout association from Beavers to Rovers, what a wonderful journey. I David O’Donoghue, turned 21 today on a beautiful day where we headed to London as a group.

As about 9am we began to leave site to walk to Chingford to catch a bus to Loughton where we took the Tube to London, and I must admit that the sheer size of London blew us away when we emerged from the underground at about half 11 on a glorious Monday morning where the heat was slightly overwhelming.

After getting settled, we proceeded to a bus stop where we received a long bus tour when a detailed historical description of the various landmarks. Unfortunately, the voice of the tour guide on the bus was dull and lacked any real interest.

Afterwards, a less than mannerly guide took us on a river tour, where he same repetitive jokes were greeted with awkward silences – but I’m not judging anyone. When everybody was truly dying of hunger, the entire group was treated to a satisfactory meal in KFC in London City Centre, in the vaults of the Tower of London.

After returning to site, the scouts tucked into a meal of hotdogs and spaghetti hoops, the Rovers surprised me by taking me out for a Chinese in Chingford – Ross, Vickie, Stephen, Sarah and I had an enjoyable evening and when we returned, the other leaders provided a birthday cake and a witty card which I thoroughly appreciated.

Undoubtedly it was an amazing feeling to spend my 21st birthday in London with a fantastic group of Scouts – an unforgettable day!

We awoke at the crack of dawn as the Ventures all decided that they needed to be up early to have a shower. There was however only 2 showers available to use at one time, so were still not sure why they were waking up all up so early!

After breakfast and some work to finish a few other things on site we all headed off to do some of Gilwells activities. The Venturers did a “3G Swing” and the Scouts went Rock Climbing. The 3G swing involved two Scouts at a time sitting in little swings while the rest of the group had to pull them up. Once they reached the top the two in the seats pulled a little rope and free fell down. It resulted in quite a few girly screams!

Sarah wanted a “red day” and wanted beans on toast, so that’s what we had for lunch. It went down a treat.

In the afternoon the Scouts and Venturers swapped activities and after went swimming in the heated outdoor swimming pool on site! It was a nice and warm 32 degrees!

We had a BBQ for dinner to match the weather we were having. Long may it last. At the moment everyone is in bed as we are up early in the morning to head into London for the day sightseeing and the other touristy things you do there. So since everyone has left me along in the grub tent, I’m going to say good night!

P.S. Peter, we asked the instructor about the difficult wall during the rock climbing and he said they are all easy and there are no difficult ones. We are looking forward to the possibility of crate stacking higher than 3 crates.