Summer Camp 2000 Report

Bericht der Engländer über ihre Fahrt nach Deutschland und das gemeinsame Zeltlager 2000

So with everthing finally sorted out, money collected in and bags packed, 31 of us set off on our journey to Stockstadt in Germany. WE left Gloucester at 7.30 pm on Thursday, took a trip through London then on to the tunnel at Folkestone, through a mix up we ended up on a later train and had to sit in the coach and wait for about an hour, we arrived in Calais (France) at 4am (3am our time). All went well travelling through Belgium when suddenly the Autobahn finished and we ended up travelling through the centre of Brussels, we reached what we thought was our final destination to realise immediately that we were in the wrong Stockstadt and had to travel another hour. We finally arrived in Stockstadt at 5.30pm (Friday) their time after a total of 21 hours travelling. Er unloaded our day bags and within half an hour of arriving we were off to have some food and meet the rest of the German Group, the Cubs and Scouts took part in a quiz around Stockstadt. After a game of football in the school where we stayed we were all in bed by 10.30pm (9.30pm our time)!

On Saturday morning we set off on what should have been a two hour trip to Westerburg, for it to end up as a 4 hour trip (not our fault this time!), we arrived at the camp site just as the last tent was being pitched so we only had our Leader tents to set up, that day we had a football match which our group won, then a camp fire in the evening.

Sunday saw everyone up at 7am (woken by a wistle being blown!), we attended the Sites Church Service which some of our members took part in without any rehearsal all doing a good job. In the afternoon different bases were done all members could take part in what they wanted to including painting T-shirts, pioneering, badge work, learning to pitch the German’s Black tents. Finishing the evening again with a camp fire, which happened every evening.

Monday saw the Cubs building a castle, making swords and costumes as part of their Medieval Theme, one group of Scouts did some pioneering building the tower of the castle and learnt how to use an axe and saw, the other group of Scouts went on a short hike to learn some compass skills ready for their overnight hike the next day and the Ventures walked into town which was approximately 4 miles away down hill, so they were able to enjoy a long walk back up.

Tuesday the Cubs carried on with their Medieval theme, both groups of Scouts went hiking, with four of them sleeping under the stars. The Ventures enjoyed building some camp gadgets and helping out the Cubs and visiting the Black Café which was a room in the dark where they ate food and played games to experience what it would be like to be blind.

Wednesday the one group of Scouts returned an then later took another hike to the lake for a swim with the Venture Scouts, the others went off on another hike having to find their way back using only compass bearings, the Cubs had a jousting tournament and banquet, most of the Scouts and Cubs visited the Black Café. During the evening a 2 hour Wide Game was held for the Ventures and Older Scouts stating at 10.30am. No one won, but this may be the due to some of our members falling asleep whilst hiding, two of our Ventures didn’t return until 45 minutes after the game had finished we were just about to send out the search parties when they returned, obviously they needed the sleep.

Thursday we went on a trip to Panorama Theme Park on our own apart from one of the German Leaders and his young son. A great day was had by everyone enjoying the rides on offer, the favourite being the toboggan run. We arrived back at camp at 9pm to sit around the camp fire eating our meal, the Cubs and Scouts mimed their favourite activity of the week.

Friday meant packing up and saying goodbye, but the Cubs, Scouts and Ventures still had time to take part in one last activity with the German Scouts completing lots of challenges. Photos were taken, Goodbyes said and off we set on our journey home a shorter one this time thankfully and we even managed not to get lost. We arrived back in Gloucester at 6am on Saturday, nearly everyone wanted to stay in Germany we had a struggle to get the Cubs out of bed on the Friday morning because they didn’t want to go home.

Most of the activities were joint with the German Scout Group that we have had links with for many years, everyone on the camp enjoyed themselves and learnt new skills and gained many friends, lots of addresses were exchanged. We found many differences with their style of camping compared to ours, but there were no major problems, some of the activities have given us extra ideas for on our camps and our members have also asked to do some of the different activities that they learnt. In the future we hope to meet the German Scouts again, with maybe a joint camp in this country the next time, they can then experience one of our Camps. We managed to see a lot of Germany through our travels finding their road signs very difficult to find, they don’t give a warning, the sign was always on the junction which quite often we had just driven past, which when you are travelling in a 53 seater coach finding a turning place is not ease. Even through it was a long journey and lots of planning we feel ti was well worth th e effort as it gave the chance for all the members to meet and see the people that they have been writing to for the last few years and we are sure that we will all meet up again soon.

Übersichtsseite "Puzzle-Camp 2000"


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DPSG Stockstadt - Stamm Mauritius
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