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Reports of camps held at venues in the British Isles
World Jamboree 2003, Thailand 
The 20th World Scout Jamboree took place between the 27th December 2002 and the 7th January 2003, in Thailand. There were more than 20,000 Scouts and Leaders there from all over the world, but only one intrepid Scouter from East Belfast. Here, he recounts what he did in Thailand as a member of the International Service Team….
“I was involved in supervising a Community Action Day at a primary school about 60km north of the Jamboree site. The International Team, consisting of two young Thais, a French Guide leader and me, provided the link between the teaching staff of the school and the Explorer Scouts who spent a day working at the school. Each day we were visited by between 50 and 80 Scouts and Leaders, usually from a wide range of countries. There were inevitably some linguistic barriers among the staff, the International Team and the Explorer Scouts. However, with a little patience these rarely posed too many difficulties, except in the case of Japanese scouts who had absolutely no spoken English, and Indonesian scouts who always caused me trouble.
“At the school, the Explorers were involved in a number of projects, including gardening, painting walls, and resurfacing a volleyball court. The Explorers did most of the work, but the school children helped where they could, and local builders gave a lead where necessary. Sometimes the Thai building techniques had me a little worried or confused.
“In addition to the work, the staff at the School gave the Scouts the opportunity to play with the Thai children and to learn something of Thai culture. Each lunchtime, the older schoolboys and the more active scouts took part in football matches. On my first day, the teams must have included Singaporeans, Australians, Thais, Germans and Bangladeshis, all having great fun playing together. The younger schoolchildren usually adopted Scouts (or Service Team Members) and played “piggy-in-the-middle” with them. We also had the opportunity to eat the authentic Thai food which the children had for school dinners. The children were more than happy to swap this for the Scouts’ “western” packed lunches. The staff at the school also organised demonstrations of Thai culture, including music, sweet-making, dancing and traditional games. However, their repeated attempts at teaching me Thai dancing met with little success, and prompted much joking from the teachers.
“As a member of staff, there were a few moments where I noticed that things did not run completely to plan. Every morning, it was difficult to check everyone onto the coaches and liase with the police escorts, when there were another 40 teams in the same position. There were also problems with making sure that there was enough water for all the Scouts working in the heat of the Thai day, when the drivers hid the water in different places on the buses. It was also a challenge at times to make sure that all the Scouts (especially Belgians who insisted that I spoke to them in Dutch) were kept amused for the duration of the day. This was achieved by some tactful liason with the teachers, trying to remember the concept of “face”. This was not easy for your average straight-talking Ulsterman.
“Despite the fact that some of the Scouts had early reservations about being used as “slave labour”, and that some of them were too “cool” to play musical chairs with the school children, the Community Action Day was a at all the sites where the activity was run.
“I will not forget the Thai children’s smiles, their shouts of “phîi William!” when I appeared every morning, and their attempts to get me to play with them despite the language barrier. I think that I am now expert in playing piggy-in-the-middle and musical chairs.
“I will also not forget the Thai food, which I was given for free at the school. On our first day, we were introduced to a range of foods, some of which were rather spicy (to say the least), and were taught a very important sentence “a-han Thai alloi”: Thai food is delicious!”
William Gowdy, 4th
99th Group's 50th Anniversary Camp, Holland 2002
Sunday 4 August: We started our day travelling by train to Amsterdam Central Station. We toured the Damrak and then had lunch in a department store. After lunch we explored the back-streets of Amsterdam accidentally stumbling onto the explicit "red-light" district. Later we split into groups and went hunting for souvenirs. We all met back at Dam Square where we saw some mimics performing. Later that afternoon all thirty of us had an interesting trip around the canals. We went back to the centre where we got pizza slices in the pouring rain. During this time some rebellious scouts took shelter in the arms of some teaser babes unknown to the Leaders. Half an hour into the rain we decided to head back to the station to catch our train home.
Wednesday 7 August: A day at the Amsterdam Arena
Thursday 8 August : Our trip to Scheveningen: We left on Thursday morning to travel to The Hague. Our group were going to hire bicycles but unfortunately they were all out. So we got the tram to the seaside and had lunch. We spent most of the day on the pier as there were amusements etc. all there. 5 of us went on the "Sky-ride" which was a ball cage which was flying in the air. Our leader Alex went twice and got a free t- shirt! We split into two groups and half went to a pizza place and the others had a Chinese banquet. We got home quite late, had supper and went to bed.
Alex, CSL 99th Pack
33rd Venture Unit visit to Switzerland July 2000
33rd Unit spent the first two weeks of July at Kandersteg International Scout Centre in the Swiss Mountains. During this time we climbed Hockenhorn (10,000 ft) – despite the sore feet afterwards it was well worthwhile as we raised £600 for the Children’s Hospice in the process. A big thank you to Sid the camp manager and to our activities instructor, Radu, who previously worked at Crawfordsburn (‘94-‘96).
Ian McLachlan, VSL
On Saturday 1st July, 7 excited Venture Scouts left the comforts of home to the surprising comforts of Switzerland. Imagine 7 Venture Scouts all in uniform walking to the plane, flying to London and then catching the coach for the long journey. We were kept amused by our coach drivers and one young Scottish Cub. Excitement was somewhat dampened by the time we got there as we were all so tired. But I was excited as it was 2nd July , my 18th birthday. By the time dinner came round everyone was starving. After dinner, I was surprised with a birthday cake and cards and some presents from home (thanks guys!). Then we went out. The next day we started our gruelling challenges (joke!). We walked up to the lake. It was quite tiring. Once we got there you could not see two feet in front of you because of the low clouds. On 4th July, we went white water rafting. This was one of the funniest days as we missed the train. We got on the wrong train and then ran to catch the right one but when we got to the right platform we were in time to watch it pull away. So we got the next train and then went white water rafting – it was really good. But cold! You get such a buzz when you do it! Climbing Hockenhorn, we really saw the beauty of Switzerland. We got up early, had breakfast and then went to meet our guide, Rudu. We hiked over all sorts of terrain, some quite hard and steep. We got to the hut and stayed there until morning. We hiked down again. It was really hot and the scenery was beautiful. We also did a snow and ice course- it was very cold. We wore crampons to enable us to walk on the glacier and some of us climbed with ice axes and absailed down a crevice. All in all, it was one of the best holidays I’ve ever been on. Everything we did was well planned by our Leaders, Ian and Michelle. Thank you for a great time!!
Erin Clark, 33rd Unit
4th Scouts and Venture Scouts in Kandersteg
4th Group have just returned from 2 weeks in Kandersteg- Sid (the camp site manager-one of our exports) sends his regards to all in Belfast! It was an interesting experience- not everybody gets snowed on twice during their summer camp! The camp site and staff are excellent- even if the weather isn't (and it usually is good, despite our experience) but we will never use the tour operator (who advertise widely in Scouting, etc) again. Highlight of the camp for the ventures was the two-day snow and ice course- climbing using ice-axes and crampons and reaching an altitude of over 3000m- a nice relaxing second day started at 4.30a.m.and the hike finished at 5.30p.m - with another two hours travel back to site.
Malcolm, GSL 4th
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33rd Venture Scout Unit
A party of eight from 33rd Venture Scout Unit left Belfast on 27th June for two weeks battling their wits against the odds in the outback of Maine (New England). Our itinerary for the trip included climbing Mount Katahdin, canoeing, whitewater rafting and to have everyone working together as one team- this was to take place in Maine High Adventure Area Matagamon Camp just on the outskirts of Baxter State Park approx 300 miles north of Boston.
The camp organises the entire programme for the stay and is flexible to our requirements and needs. A few more pursuits which can be done are cliff jumping, fishing, bushwacking, living off the land, samoa boating (navigating heavy whitewater in a 2 person inflatable boat) and floatplane travel.
I am pleased to say all aims were met with no casualities!
I’ll let the venture scouts tell their stories….
On 1st July, we rose at 5.30am with the intention of climbing Mount Katahdin, the highest mountain in the State of Maine. It is one mile high, in a State where 90% of land is covered by trees. It is very appealing to the eye, rising high above the tree line.
There were eight people in our group plus two guides- Adam and Erin. We were fortunate to have two guides due to an earlier mishap by Erin when she injured herself during some very steep and very cold water slides. It was decided that we would ascend Katahdin by the Abol trail- this was the shortest route to the top, yet the toughest and most challenging as it was an almost vertical wall of a rock slide.
We left our Abol camp site at 6.00am and set out on our adventure. Morale was good at the beginning but as the day gragged on, the climb became much steeper and harder, the iodine water warmer and even more disgusting, the clouds formed overhead and with the wind obviously picking up with altitude, morale began to decline. By the time we stopped for lunch, Michelle was quite unwell and it was decided that it would be unfair to make her continue, despite her protests. So Adam took the girls and John down the mountain, whilst Erin (our guide), Ian, Christian and myself continued.
It was obviously fairly exhausting but as we made the climb from the lunch spot to the summit (approx ¾ mile ascent) the adrenaline began to kick in and we actually inscreased our speed, jumping from boulder to boulder. We were right up in the clouds now, it was very cold and damp, yet we were hot and sweaty. When we finally reached the top, it turned out to be an emotional affair- we met people from Scotland, France, New Zealand and some from Memphis- we decided not to ask how Elvis was doing! Due to the low cloud visibility was only about 50ft but one could only imagine how beautiful the view must be on a clear day- lakes, trees and rivers as far as the eye can see.
I must admit that Katahdin was what I enjoyed most about the whole trip. Climbing a one mile high mountain with sheer drops either side of the summit known as the knifes-edge, the ‘crack’ among us really helped on our ascent, but particularly on the descent, just the four of us on this huge mountain and an unbelievable journey back to camp. It made me feel very close to the other three- we could sympathise with each other’s aches and pains but smile together with pride..we did it!
Wayne Achison
We spent three days canoeing with Matagamon High Adventure from 2nd July. We started off from telos Lake Ranger Station and as we were loading the canoes a bald eagle circled overhead. We rowed across the lake in the morning to Telos Dam, below the dam the river was a fast flow and class two rapids. We portaged the dam and then had our first taste of whitewater which everyone enjoyed. After the river entered Webster Lake it took us a short time to find our camp for the night.
On the second day we tackled the rapids on the Webster Brook. Indian Carry was the largest of all the rapids and also proved the most dangerous (class three rapid). This got its name as the Indians used to portage their canoes along these rapids. Log Jam was another rapid through which our instructors took the canoes down for us to save time. We had to portage for a mile with all equipment and canoes along Grand Pitch Falls which is grade six. This river led to Grand Matagamon Lake where we were camping. That night a bear entered the campsite, most people thought it was Wayne’s snoring but in the morning we found the evidence…footprints! Our final day of canoeing was along the lake which was hampered by head on winds- everyone was happy to see the Matagamon base.
Fiona Boyd and Erin Clark
We travelled to Big Eddy’d campsite on Sunday. Big Eddy’s is a campsite on the outskirts of Baxter State Park and we were rafting with Downeast Whitewater Rafting Company on the Penobscot River.
We began our rafting some way down the river. This meant we started with slightly smaller rapids (class two and three). The river proved a very popular area for fly fishermen trying to catch salmon and for seeing wildlife- we spotted an osprey and moose. We also had some lovely views of Mount Katahdin which we climbed a few days earlier. After lunch we travelled to the dam for the BIG rapids- these were class four and five. This was the most exciting and the scariest part. The rafting really proved to be a highly exciting experience with a lot of screaming and clutching to ropes.
Although a few of us (including ourselves) were apprehensive regarding this part of the trip after our experiences canoeing, it proved to be the most enjoyable and exciting part so far. This was added to by the fact that we were all in the same raft and had an exceptional guide called Tom who knew how to relax everyone, ensuring we all had a good time.
The remainder of the trip was spent at a small camp outside Old Orchard Beach where we rested our tired and sore bodies in the good company of Susan (camp ranger) and her husband.
Michelle McIlveen and Claire Archibald
Many thanks to all the people who helped make this trip a success. If anyone is interested or wants further details on the Maine High Adventure Camp please contact me.
Ian McLachlan (VSL, 33rd Belfast)
(or how we invaded the Netherlands)
8.00am on a bright, sunny Saturday morning saw the mass exodus of 46 men, women and children leave the McMordie Scout Hall. Destination- an unsuspecting Holland. With the precision of a well planned military operation the human snake found its way on to the waiting coach on the first leg of the journey and set the precedent for the next 10 days. The party ranged in age from 3 years to the claim by our oldest that he was ‘over 21!’, and each man, woman and child had enough kit to last them for the duration of our camp. We also had little Cameron Mosgrove’s buggy which proved more useful (and cheaper) than any pack horse. I only hope no lasting damage was caused by the weight it carried (and no, I don’t mean Cameron’s Dad, Wesley!).
We arrived safely in Schipol airport and claimed our luggage- at least most of us did. A certain Mr.Douglas Black was missing one rucsac so we had to wait while all the necessary forms were filled in and he was assured that the errant piece of luggage would find its way to him as soon as possible. He was comforted by the fact that Pamela, Janet and Liz all offered him the use of their spare clothing should he find himself without a change of clothes for a day or two. The human snake then left the confines of the airport, following the intrepid explorer, Mr.Diamond, and into the railway station for the next leg of our journey. When the double decker train for Rotterdam arrived, we managed to successfully get all bodies and gear on board without too much hassle, much to the amusement (or bemusement) of our fellow passengers.
On arrival at Rotterdam, we had to find the best/cheapest way to complete our journey to the camp site and after several minutes, the Chief Negotiator returned with the news that a bus would be leaving shortly. The 10th’s invasion of the local public transport system had begun! All bodies and gear successfully boarded the bendy bus which then proceeded to pack as many commuters as possible in as well.
A 15 minute hike from the bus stop saw us arrive, a rather dishevelled and exhausted motley crew at what would be our home for the next 10 days.
After depositing our luggage and claiming our bunks, the ‘catering staff’ set about preparing a meal for the hungry hoards. However, their first few attempts underestimated the appetites and left some still hungry. Thank goodness for McDonalds nearby. While this meal was being prepared a taxi arrived with Mr.Black’s missing rucsac so we were spared the sight of him in Pamela’s shorts, Liz’s T-shirt and Janet’s _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _!
As usual not too much sleeping was done that first night- except by the most senior of our number. This one-time Akela (and ADC) having been ousted from the dorm by his ‘friends’ who claimed he snored too loudly (as if John Corry would snore!!- Ed.) found a comfortable cool corner of the room downstairs and was the one person who slept well every night- much to the disgust of those who had thrown him out!
There followed a very full programme of events for the next week with visits to Madurodam, Scheveingen beach, Amsterdam (where the Cubs went to Madame Toussard’s and had their photo taken with a very waxy Arnie Swarznegger, and the Venture Scouts went exploring other, more interesting? parts of the capital), Duiniell Fun Park and Rotterdam. These trips were interspersed with visits to the local swimming pool and dips in the canal which ran through the site. The caterers also had several memorable shopping trips where they cleared the shelves of the local supermarkets. The locals looked very bewildered by the trolley loads at the check out but thankfully we had the services of the warden’s wife who explained everything and also took us shopping. Her little Peugeot 306 will be needing a complete new suspension system I’m sure but her help was invaluable to us. We certainly could not have coped without her.
In all these outings we provided more than a little amusement for the local people who were amazed to see this mini army on the move. We only managed to ‘mislay’ one cub temporarily when he nipped to the loo just as we moved off to the bus stop. However, there were some we might not have minded mislaying for a longer period of time!
All too soon it was time to pack up and set off on the return journey. By now we had travelling by public transport down to a fine art and there
were no hitches. We left Amsterdam in blistering sunshine, and arrived back in Belfast to the more liquid sort we are used to. The boys (and girls!) in our party were to be commended on their behaviour during our stay. They were, I think, excellent ambassadors for Northern Ireland Scouting. Charlie, Ian and all those involved in organising such an unusual and memorable camp are also to be thanked. It was not an easy task with no previous similar camps to use as comparisons, but I think all sections were catered for very well (Of course they were! Didn’t you mention earlier that you and John were the camp cooks, Liz?!- Ed). Perhaps after a few short weeks away from Scouty things, they will start planning another Group camp for our 100th celebrations.
Liz Whitley, BSL 10th
