Reports Page 1

 

October 2007
Unit trip to Holland

Over the Autumn Half Term, the four of us and 75 others went to the Netherlands for a week of fun! We stayed at Buitenzorg Scouting Centre near Baarn in Utrecht Province. We met up with some Dutch scouts from the Jamboree, went cycling and hiking, participated in JOTA/JOTI, did community work, spent a day at a theme park and visited a Dutch outdoor museum. Overall a worthwhile week, and a good wind down from the Jamboree.

 

 

 

Alex's Jamboree Diary
 Note: Laura (L) = Laura O’Neill (One of the leaders)
Laura = One of the participants

 

Day 1

I rolled out of bed at around 5:30 am, far too early for any civilised person to get up, and left the house, having finished some hurried packing and a quick breakfast, at approximately 6:30.
We arrived at Reading University at almost 7:00 on the dot and I quickly found Toby, Mark and James and we soon had a picture of the PG Four taken. Following some boring but, I’m sure, necessary administration work we were all set to start the adventure of a lifetime but it wasn’t to be …. The time the coaches were supposed to arrive came and went, the time at which they were 30 minutes late came and went, and hour came and went as did two, and three, but finally the coaches rolled up at 11:30, over 3 hours late!!, and we threw out bags underneath and clambered aboard.

As we neared Hylands Park we got our first glimpses of the site and some of the tents that were already up but when we reached the gate we were turned away as the driver had not taken us to check-in first. We turned away from the site and headed to North Weild airfield to check-in and then we returned to the site, a round trip of roughly an hour.

We arrived at the main bus depot and were greeted by many, many people as we descended from the coach. However we were soon heading off towards our site in the Volcano sub camp, attached to the Mountain Hub, which turned out to be at least twice the size of any other site on our sub camp – well we weren’t going to complain!!
After a little exploring, the unit ate lunch in the sun and then suddenly, as if somebody had turned a tap, it began to pour with rain just as we were about to begin putting out tents up. Infuriatingly the weather cleared just as the last of the tents went up!!

Toby, Mark and I then went exploring and made our way to the Tropical hub where the UK contingent was to have its dinner that night, a dinner that consisted of a BBQ sausage, burger and chicken breast, complimented by many cold side-dishes, with an M&M's brownie for desert.

The three of us then returned, as we had been told to, to collect our sleeping kit from the scout shop, only to be told that they had run out and wouldn’t have any more for at least another 2 hours.
Having failed that mission we went to the party being hosted for the 4,000 scouts that made up the UK Contingent.
The party was hosted by Peter Duncan and Anne, from CBBC, we saw several performance and then headed back to collect our sleeping kit and, this time, we partially succeeded, we got our jamboree carry mat, but we were given a temporary sleeping bag, as the real ones were stuck somewhere in Naples, Italy.
After dumping our kit in tent we returned to the party to see Liberty-X who were doing their penultimate performance before they split up, we also saw Lemar who finished off the concert.

We were back around 23:00 for bed and due to two of the hike tents being broken Mark, Toby and I all slept in one tent for the night.
 

Day 2

Everybody got up at 6:30 and the rest of my patrol cooked breakfast whilst I helped Laura (L) put up her hike tent, that was to serve as an impromptu store tent for the duration of the Jamboree, and sort through the equipment that needed to go in it.
We all had bacon and egg for breakfast and then helped to tidy up and sort out the kitchen, following this some of us put up Union Flag and Flag of St. George bunting up around the edges of the site.
I then helped to erect part of the gateway into our site and then went shopping and exploring around the site with Amy until lunchtime when we came back.

After a fairly simple lunch Mark, Toby and I walked around in search of badge swaps and after roughly and hour of very successful swaps we returned to the Berkshire site.
Back on site the three of us put the UK contingent flag and general Jamboree flag up onto the gate that now towered over the entrance to our site.

Following the raising of the two flags the three of us went to the clearance sale on the site to buy even more badges to swap, when we had finished that shopping excursion we moved to one of the 3 Sainsbury’s on site, selling all the essentials for the 40,000 campers, where I found my favourite Sainsbury’s product, Mini Choc-Chip Muffins.
After a little more swapping, Toby and I went to the main arena and saw part of the rehearsal for the next days opening ceremony.

Eventually dinner was ready and I was lucky enough to get mashed potato, which quickly ran out and was replaced by a mixture of half cooked potato with flour and water!
The evening saw even more exploration followed by a show combining music and synchronised water jet, dry ice and fireworks at 22:00.

The PG three then wandered back to our sub camp and on to our hub (Mountain Hub). We arrived back at our site around 23:00 to find cake on offer.
We went to bed at about 23:30 and Toby and I read our books for a while before sleeping.

 Day 3
The 28th saw a very welcome lie in and a fairly leisurely breakfast.
After breakfast the majority of the people on our sub camp, and certainly everybody in the Berkshire unit, rushed over to see Prince William and the Duke of Kent as they descended from the helicopter following its landing in front of Hylands House.
We quickly rushed back to camp and picked up our English Flags and inflatable hands. As a troop we then walked down to the sub camp stage where we were organised and taught the actions to the ‘Jambo’ song. After our teachers were certain we had learnt all of the relevant actions the entire sub camp paraded to the arena and arrived almost an hour and a half before the opening ceremony was due to begin. Unfortunately our troop was exceedingly badly placed behind a tree with a TV screen, a massive one, but a TV screen none the less, however Toby, Mark and I took the initiative and moved to another position, bypassing several annoyed stewards in the process, and we were closely followed by Pete, one of our leaders who also wanted a better view.
As it happened, we ended up little more than 10 metres from where Prince William was sitting!

Our wait was partially filled by and extremely old, but none-the-less funny, episode of Mickey Mouse.
The ceremony was extremely well put together, including performances of traditional songs by the four countries making up the UK, parades of flags from every country at the Jamboree, fireworks (yes, fireworks during the day time!!) and the arrival of Chief Scout, Peter Duncan, in a very battered black London cab.

At the end of the ceremony the three of us wandered around the site for a little while and then headed back to our site as Toby’s patrol was cooking dinner. Dinner was a disaster, the rice ended up so burnt that it all had to be thrown away and hastily replaced with potatoes that we cooked and mashed.
About 20:30 the three of us went to the concert in the main arena to celebrate the opening ceremony, which lasted until about 23:00.
 
   
 
Day 4
We all got up at around 6:30 and ate a cold continental breakfast at about 7:00. We then departed the site for the buses that we were to take to Gilwell Park; we met at the sub camp and then paraded to the main bus terminal.
We got to the Jamboree gate, the main entrance to Hylands Park for the day visitors, and the line ground to a halt. It was another hour until we got into a coach and finally left for the Gilwell.
This journey saw me sat next to Amy and we both slept during the journey. On arrival we were all handed green wristbands and, as they had lost the green flag, followed an orange flag into the village centre, the main arena set up at the site for the Jamboree activities.
Our first stop for activities was the Discovery Zone (The site had been split into 4 zones for the occasion: Challenge Valley, Discovery Zone, Scouting Skills and Mountain and Motion)
On this section we were told the history of Gilwell, from its purchase for £7000 pounds, the significance of the Leopard gates (the original entrance to the site) and why the ‘Random Rubble Wall’ was built on the site.
We then moved on to Challenge Valley which saw us drop off our bags and run through an immense assault course, involving climbing, scrambling, running, jumping and rope climbing.
Next the PG three went to take part in the most important activity of the day, lunch!
After a satisfying, and probably hugely unhealthy lunch we moved into the Scouting Skills section, which was fantastically put together, and great fun. This zone had us branding wood and saw Toby take part in a cart race with a team otherwise entirely composed of Italians.

We had an hour break after this, which we used to explore and take photos of various parts of the site.
At the end of our break we moved on to the Mountain and Motion zone. Here we took part in a go-karting, carpet sliding, grass sledging and queued for 30 minutes to go ‘zorbing’ only to be told there wasn’t time for us to do the activity, forcing us switch to ‘Plan B’ and go trampoleening.

On our arrival back on site my patrol cooked burgers for dinner, which was accompanied by a selection of salads. We then began ‘Challenge 100’ (an activity that involved our troop completing 100 challenges in our hub, sub camp and the plaza and receiving the stickers for them all)
Eventually Toby disappeared with the sheet we were supposed to be sticking stickers to, and Alex Price wandered of with the number cards required to do the activity and so Laura (L) (another of our leaders), Fergus, Catherine, Amy and myself left to talk to one of Laura’s (L) friend, staying on Brownsea Island, via the amateur radio station on site.
We talked for about 20 minutes and got to know him relatively well.
Following this the six of us returned to site to find Toby and Alex Price sitting in the dining shelter. After a quick list of notices we all headed off to bed.
 
Day 5
Apart from Rachel’s patrol, which was cooking breakfast, we all had a bit of a lie in, waking up to sausage and pancakes.
We had ‘Choice Time’ to begin with which saw us head to the World Development Boulevard, adjacent to the World Development Village. In the GDB we investigated many issues including poverty, problems facing refugees and money management when you have little. All these investigations were carried out at the stools that lined the boulevard.
We finished off our time in this area by watching a presentation at the BT Scout Tube stall, on how to confidently respond in interviews. We then went out with a video camera as a group of four (the PG three and Fergus, a past pupil at Reading Blue Coats who has now moved to Northern Ireland) and walked around interviewing Scouts on the Jamboree in general and on world issues. (BT Scout Tube is a spin-off of the internet video site, You Tube.)

After Lunch several of us, including Vanessa, Jon, Toby, Mark, Alex Price and I met the Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire behind Hylands House.
Following several short conversations with the Lord Lieutenant those of us that met him headed off to Elements, the afternoon’s activity. On arrival we were each handed a card for the fire section of the Elements area.
The fire sections had many interesting bases and displays, including the effects of trying to put out an oil fire with water, investigated the different uses of fire extinguishers, made and cooked twist, lit a fire, made rockets and built a solar powered car, which it has to be said didn’t move so much as a centimetre (our gearing was far too high – about 50:1).
To finish of the base we saw 60 rockets being launched simultaneously into the air and then helped to collect them afterwards.

We had Lamb Korma for dinner, which was a success. Spent the evening wandering around the site with Amy, Catherine and Alex, from the Greater London North troop.
 
Day 6
We all got up and had a bacon sandwich, washed up and headed down to the sub camp and subsequently paraded to Aqua Ville where we queued for ticket to the Austrian ‘Sense Cinema’ and procured tickets for the 12:00 showing. We went to the Netherlands area and did six activities (including cheese rolling, Dutch Twister and sack racing) Afterwards we headed back to the Austrian ‘Sense Cinema’ to reach our 12:00 showing. The cinema was an instant success, with sounds, smells, rain and movement.
After the cinema experience we moved on to a traditional Serbian workshop where I was dragged (and I do mean dragged) to see gliders that one of the Serbians in the tent had made.

Lunch was in the main arena of the two World Villages and saw a jousting event and medieval knights to keep the 8,000 people watching entertained for half an hour.
After our nice healthy lunch we went off in search of the food halls on site to find some more, and possibly less healthy, food. Four people from the group I was in went to one stall while Laura (L) and I went to cook Arepas (a cross between a roll and a doughy pancake)
We then carried on to the Welsh area where we each picked up, and left, anonymous “pen friend postcards”, my new pen friend originated from New Zealand.
The three of us collected our stamps at the Welsh marquee and moved on to sand castle building in the English section, we followed this with several attempts at lassoing, in the American area, and gold panning.
Dinner that night was cooked by my patrol and consisted of boring old burger and salad.

Several of us went to the sub camp office although everyone except Catherine and I, who had succeeded in getting the extremely comfortable chairs (probably explaining why we were still there, wandered off whilst we were waiting for Amy to fill in a “Young Spokes Person” form. The three of us then walked around the site investigating sub camps and hubs.
 
   

 

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