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ISLE OF MAN |
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ISLE OF MAN |
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Reports of camps held at venues outside the Isle of Man
August 2000: East Cub Leaders shipwrecked on Port Erin Beach…..
30th Pack’s summer camp took place in the Isle of Man from 16th-23rd August. We were also joined by some Cubs and Leaders from 10th Pack. This year, Akela decided against the compulsory dosing of all the Cubs with sea-sickness tablets before boarding the Seacat, with the result that we were treated to the sight of several Cubs and one Leader (who shall remain nameless) sitting out on deck clutching sick bags and looking an unhealthy shade of green when the crossing got a little rough.
Our base for the week was Trinity Methodist Church Hall in the centre of Douglas, ideal for the shops and the beach although the one-way traffic system and limited parking facilities taxed Akela’s driving skills to the limit, while the climb up the steep hill from the sea front nearly proved too much on occasion for the 10th minibus and a few of the leaders alike.
An active and busy itinerary started with a tour of the Laxey Wheel and Mines, and then on to the Snaefell summit by Mountain Railway. Taking advantage of the glorious weather, we opted to walk back down the path rather than taking the train, stopping off en route at the Motorcycle Museum (a Biker’s paradise on the hillside bearing an uncanny resemblance to the inside of John Corry’s garage and not much bigger) at the request of Pamela (ACSL 10th). Pamela had been enthralled by this museum during our last joint camp in 1997 and was once again mesmerised by the display case full of spark plugs! There were also visits to the Ramsey Lifeboat Station, Castle Rushen, Curragh’s Wildlife Park and to the House of Mannanan and Castle at Peel. This coincided with a Viking festival in Peel Harbour at which we were able to cheer on the various teams in the longboat race, before heading on for some fun at the nearby beach.
As there were no showers where we were staying, we made regular visits to the island’s swimming pools. At Castletown, we were inspected by an elderly lady attendant. If our bathing attire was deemed acceptable we were allowed in. Those wearing baggy shorts that could possibly catch in the drain of the pool were forced to wear speedos much to the amusement of everyone else. Even more entertaining was the moment when Johnny (ACSL 10th) was shouted at by the pool attendant for playing with the rafts and inflatables set out for the childrens’ fun session! We also tried out the new National Sports Centre in Douglas and had great fun on the waterslides, even Akela eventually was persuaded down the pitch dark tunnel crashing out the other end in a record breaking 30 seconds!
Onchan Park proved a big hit again this year. We spent an evening playing crazy golf before taking to the rowing boats for the inevitable water-fight. Once again the Leaders came off worse than the Cubs. We returned later in the week to spectate at the Onchan Stock Car Races: the Cubs thought this was really cool, especially when there was a three car pile up on the track!: thankfully though none of the drivers were hurt. We also had a go at roller-skating at the Douglas Pleasuredome; once again the Cubs quickly mastered this and put in an accomplished performance, while some of the Leaders took gingerly to the floor with all the grace of a bull in a china shop. Skinned elbows and bruised knees didn’t stop the Leaders indulging later in the evening, albeit unwillingly in some cases, in a new sport devised by Wesley, called ‘Indoor Taboggining’. This involved being wakened from where some of the Leaders were sleeping on the landing at the top of the stairs to find yourself being launched by Wesley and hurtling down the stairs on your air-bed still in your sleeping bag! I still have the scars to prove it and I can’t quite see it becoming an Olympic sport!!!
One of the highlights of the week was the Port Erin RNLI Fun Day. After parading to the Sunday morning service at Trinity Church, all the Cubs headed along to join in the beach games and sand castle building. But the main reason for travelling to Port Erin was so that they could cheer on four of the Leaders, David, Jamie, Richard and Johnny, who had entered the annual Port Erin Raft Race.We had even received a mention on local radio the day before the event. We arrived early to build our raft carefully from the materials provided only to discover that building the raft was also part of the actual race. Having dipped our toes in the icy water and eyed up the competition- many of the other dozen teams were veterans of the event- we started to wonder exactly what we were doing there but with all the Cubs to cheer us on there was no going back - we couldn’t disappoint our fans! The whistle blew and we set to building our raft amidst a running commentary from the organisers on the ‘Scouts’ knotting skills and raft design’. We launched the raft. What happened next is a blur but apparently this is the correct sequence of events..David got on, David fell off, David got on again, Jamie tried to get on, Jamie fell off, the raft up-ended, David was catapulted into the water, the knots unravelled and the raft fell apart (I reckon we would have needed some lessons from Alan Campbell and the Sea Scouts from 27th). Undeterred, we swam on round the course dragging the wooden pallets, oil drums, oars and miscellaneous debris and all the while some of our Cubs were being interviewed by the radio crew and saying how embarrassed they were! Despite our valiant efforts we were disappointed not to win the most Heroic Failure Award and were even more humiliated when we picked up a special Visitors’ Trophy after one of the sixers, Peter, literally begged live on radio on our behalf!!
The Cubs had their turn a few days later at Mooragh Park in Ramsey. There Simon, our instructor for the day, divided them into two teams and helped them to construct and race two rafts across the boating lake to the island and back. To encourage them not to fall in, he pretended to frighten the Cubs with stories of Cub-eating eels at the bottom of the lake. The Cubs were not convinced..much to our amusement one of our Leaders was! (and no for once it wasn’t me!). Once the rafts were launched and the race was underway, the Cubs were like sitting ducks in the water. The Leaders couldn’t resist the opportunity to get their own back for the soaking at Onchan earlier in the week.. The sight of Wesley and Jamie drenching the Cubs from a Pedalo was priceless!
We rounded off a busy week with a Spying Mission and Treasure Hunt in Douglas. Only Johnny’s team managed to obtain 24 of the 25 items on the list ranging from a kipper to the most tacky tourist souvenir for £1.. even they couldn’t manage to find a paw print from a Manx Cat though!! Congratulations to Christopher Foye and Mark White who won the 30th and 10th Pack Cub of the Camp Shields respectively and to all those who completed the Cook and Local Historian Badges while at camp. Many thanks to Carolyn (ADC South) and to the 10th Cubs and Leaders who joined us for a memorable and enjoyable week.
David and Fiona, 30th
Isle of Man, Summer’97
On Saturday 5 July, 38 Cubs and Leaders from the 10th and 30th packs, together with 10 members of the McMordie Venture Unit set out for summer camp at Lewaigue Farm, Maughold, Isle of Man. It proved to be a hectic and fun-packed week. Once a mass ‘vaccination’ of the entire party (with sea-leg tablets) was completed we boarded the Sea Cat for our journey to Douglas. This was followed by a short drive along part of the TT Course along the coast to Maughold with 30th in the ‘Yellow Peril’-courtesy of Castlereagh Borough Council, driven by John ‘Dunlop’ Corry and 10th in the ‘Blue Bomber’ driven by Victor ‘McCallan’Moorhead, an assortment of Venture Scouts, Leaders’ wives and toddlers crammed like sardines into a third bus (courtesy of 11th) and driven by Wesley ‘The Mangler’ Mosgrove brought up the rear, arriving at lewaigue farm around 10.00pm.
Our itinerary during the week included visits to Peel Castle and the brand new Peel Heritage Centre, House of Mamanan, opened only a week previously by the President of the Republic of Ireland, Mary Robinson; Castle Rushen for the re-enactment of a mock battle; Cresneagh Village Folk Park and Motor Cycle Museum. We also took the Mountain Railway to the top of Snaefell before a leisurely hike back down again. A trip to the Laxey Wheel had to be abandoned however since an unidentified lunatic had scaled the Wheel and chained himself to the top during the night and was refusing to come down, necessitating the cordoning off of the entire area by the police. We assured the officers that we could account for John’s whereabouts during the night (the snoring’s a real give away!) even though we couldn’t find him at that precise moment.
The excellent weather during the week made beaches, boating lakes and water fights popular distractions for all. Most days, after Pamela had plastered sun block liberally over all the Cubs (and some of the Venture Scouts!) we headed for the water. One day John took a few Cubs out for a leisurely trip in a motorboat around a lake near Douglas- well, this was too good an opportunity to miss- the rest of us bought up all the water pistols from a nearby kiosk and piled into boats to ambush him as he came round an island and into view! On another day in rowing boats and pedalos near Ramsey, David got plastered in mud when he slipped and went under the boat while wading through the lake dragging a rowing boat of Cubs minus oars back to the jetty- he was like the monster from the deep!. There was also the opportunity for crazy golf and go-karting- an activity the big kids enjoyed as much as the little kids, a visit to Ramsey Lifeboat Station and the memorable orienteering evening organised one evening by Victor which became more difficult when we found ourselves lost in a field surrounded by sheep as dense fog and mist rapidly enveloped us!
Perhaps the highlight of the week was the Beach Survival Exercise organised by ex-SAS Officer, John Foster. All of the Cubs, Leaders and Venture Scouts joined together in a pioneering project to construct and sail a raft under the direction of chief engineer Jamie ‘I’ve lost the blueprint’ Stronge. The launch of our craft is shown in the photograph below , shortly afterwards just as the whole group had finally succeeded in clambering aboard, a Cub about to fall off grabbed David who grabbed Pamela, who grabbed a Cub clinging in desperation to the mast, with the result that the whole raft lurched violently and everyone ended up in the water! Time to abandon ship and light fires to cook fish and bread on the beach- guess who didn’t follow the instructions given in Mr.Foster’s talk the night before? Then made himself scarce when Mr.Foster came over to tell the boys off for doing it wrong! (shame on you, John!!).
Congratulations to Connor McKee and Matthew McConnell who respectively won the 30th and 10th Cub of the Camp shields and to all the Cubs who completed their camper, navigator and cook badges. Many thanks to Eileen and Elaine, to drivers Victor and Wesley for all their help and to John, readily coaxed out of retirement yet again, and to the Unit, especially Thomas, Aimee and Jonathan for mucking in and helping us out with the Cubs during the week to give the Leaders a break from time to time.
David, Dougie, Pamela and Jamie, 10th and 30th Packs
99th Belfast Pack Holiday 1999 - Douglas Isle of Man
We set off on Wednesday 11 August from Belfast with 22 Cubs (thanks to one parent’s ‘Eddie Irvine’ style of driving - misread the time of departure and arrived with about 5 minutes to spare!) for our trip to the Isle of Man and arrived full of energy and raring to go (leaders excluded) at about 10.00 pm that night. With only four full days we had a packed programme. on Thursday the Electric Railway took us to the Laxey Wheel and mines and then on to the boating park in Ramsey. Friday was a trip on the Steam Train to Castletown to explore Castle Rushen and then Port Erin to the beach. The weather so far had been kind but that night just as the bus pulled away from the stop to take us to Onchan Pleasure Park, it started to rain - not just any rain but RAIN!! However it didn’t dampen spirits and the cubs had a great time on the petrol powered boats and crazy golf.
The highlight of the holiday for many was the trip on Saturday morning to the swimming pool which is part of a new Sports Centre in Douglas. Two big pools, two huge slides, a Jacuzzi, a whirlpool and hot showers - PERFECT. After our ‘relaxing’ morning at the pool and another trip to Onchan Park (the sun appeared for this visit!) we hit the shops - for presents and ended the day with a walk along the promenade and beach. After packing (which was amazingly quick and very well done - with no lost property) we caught the bus to the House of Mannanan in Peel. This is a heritage centre which opened two years ago and told us the history of the Isle of Man including the Viking era, the Steam Packet Company, the fishing industry (clothes-pegs needed at this exhibit) and the marine life around the coast line - well worth a visit.
Being only two minutes walk from the Seacat terminal we were in good time for the boat home - over three hours as it turned out because of a delay. The boys were great during the long delay and even managed to win prizes for their colouring in efforts - not sure in what age-group though!!!!!
Alex, CSL 99th Pack
PS.Mowgli’s sunflower has grown to 7 feet high - beating Mang’s (but her flower was better and her leaves weren’t covered in greenfly). Can anyone out there beat that - none of the 99th Cubs could!
