Jersey 2007
George's Report...
Wednesday 22nd August
Ok here we go, we arrived at Bristol international at 8 am, all in very smart uniform, except me in my jacket... apparently looking very suspicious... according to Dan. We got on the plane which was very small, and left Bristol. Before we arrived in Jersey, we stopped off at Plymouth to exchange some passengers and then set off again for Jersey. We arrived early afternoon in dull, grey weather and then walked to the hut where we were staying. Dan and Lee had already arrived by the time we got there and had set up their tent. The Hut was described as ?scrupulously clean? and to some of our delight (and other despair) there was a piano!!!! The scouts and Explorers quickly set off and put up all the tents ? obviously I was the quickest to put mine up :p.
We stayed in for the rest of the day because the weather was quite bad we had fajitas for tea... I think with Doritos! ...And then typically it rained that night BUT on the bright side only the boy?s tent leaked.
Thursday 23rd August
Today we took the mini bus down to St Helier and had a look around all the shops... well all the scouts did... meanwhile the leaders stayed put at a cafe with some drinks, playing with the walkie talkies, then had a little wander and ironically all ended up in Millets! At mid morning/noon Anita and Ayesha arrived at the airport so some of the leaders went to pick them up.
After spending about half the day in St Helier the 1st group got back on the mini bus and got dropped off a short walk away from Le Corbiere Lighthouse. We walked down to the ice-cream van (obviously!) and then walked down to the light house... well almost... the pathway was covered in water....
When we got back from the short challenge, the group which was cooking tea caught the minibus back while the rest of us walked back to the place we were staying.
That evening (i think...) we soon got a fire going and spent the rest of the evening participating in campfire songs and debating Tap-dancing slugs.....!!
Friday 24th August
Day 3 in the Jersey expedition, the weather was still dull and grim so we decided to go to the Jersey war tunnels to touch up on our knowledge of WW2......We successfully managed to get all the scouts there on time and went straight away into the garden of reflection, and it had stone plates with the names of some of the people who died in the war, also on the wall at the back it had lots of slabs of wood with different bits of information from the war like how many people died e.t.c.
We had a short talk before we entered the tunnels about when they were built and why, and then we were left to go and explore the tunnels on our own. They were really long and had different rooms, and in the different rooms they had different bits of information from throughout the war. The tunnels were really cold but also very interesting. At the end we all came out to be greated by the glorious SUNSHINE! (the first of the holiday about the same time and sat outside to wait for the wanderers.... and admittedly some of the lazy ones went to sleep... (Rosa, me, mike and Dave!). After everyone had come out we went back up to the garden of reflection and ate our lunch. After we ate our lunch Clive received a phone call telling us that there was no wind forecast for Saturday and so we couldn?t do blokarting, but we received a large selection of further options, and in the end we decided to do Wakeboarding and water skiing.
Later that day, we all went back to the Hut and went for a short walk down to the nearest beach... which proved to be quite hard having to carry two prams down! Pretty much all the scouts ran straight into the sea ? embracing the cold sea, then we had piggy back wars... me and Tom won! After a while at the beach, the group who was cooking headed back and then about 45 mins after them the rest of us headed back... it took quite a while trying to get the prams up the path... when we got home we were hoping for the tea to be done and ready to eat, but to our disappointment our introduction to Jersey royal potatoes was that they didn?t actually cook.... they had been in some boiling water for over a hour before we could actually mash them up!
Saturday 25th August
Today was the 1st of the two adventure days! We were greeted by sunshine in the morning that lasted us the whole day... well most of the camp really. We split up into two groups ? I was in the first group, and we did the abseiling first. It was a short drive away from the hut and we got there just before 10 and so we got a bit of time to take in the wonderful views and play on the old military... things (I think)... when Dave the instructor arrived.... we straight away were all issued with our harnesses and helmets, everyone was able to easily put on their harnesses on their own... except Rosy who seemed to struggle a lot with it, and then ray made it worse...! We walked over to a big tower thing which was quite high up an old German concrete observation tower... apparently, and I was the first of my group to go down, so no one was able to warn me that there were frequent windows on the way down that you had to avoid... Only two from our group didn?t go down, and Rosa and Catrin shown amazing courage and proved to be by far the bravest members of the group.
In the afternoon, the groups swapped over and my group headed down to St Aubin's Bay to take part in the Water skiing and Wakeboarding. We met up with the other group briefly whilst they warned us about the seaweed, and then were issued with our wetsuits and bouancy aids, then we headed out to the sea... and were greeted by the sea weed, which literally came up half of your legs... not very pleasant. Four of us got into the first speed boat while the others waited a bit for the second to arrive and then we had a very fast and fun boat trip up to the pontoon which was in the middle of nowhere. After a quick briefing some of us went to do the wakeboarding while the others either did the water skiing, went on a boat trip, or did flips of the pontoon. A small selection of our group managed to do the wakeboarding (Tom was very good) and only a few of us got a chance to do the water skiing, but instead most of us got goes on the back of the jet ski doing huge jumps over the wakes of other boats and lots of quick turns. Hannah managed to fall off and take the instructor with her which was quite impressive! After all the activities were over and we all finished pushing Alexis of the pontoon... (he he) half the group went back while some of us were left on the pontoon... for quite a while and we thought we had been marooned.... but we did get back in the end on the back of the jet ski (after Dan found the line....), and then managed to capsize even before he got on......
When we got back most of the group was already changed and ready to go, so we went to go get some ice cream and then headed of back to the hut.
Sunday 26th August
Today was the visit to the famous Jersey Zoo... well more of a conservation park really. We got there mid morning and the first group had a quick look around the zoo before the second group arrived, and then we split of into two groups and had an hour long tour around the zoo. After that we found a place to have lunch, and Dave fell asleep (again) and when he woke up we were all gone!! (All part of Clives plan to get rid of Dave!) After lunch we split up into small groups and went round the zoo on our own for about 2 hours. To be honest it was quite a struggle to find many of the animals... (they must have been influenced by Dave?s naps!) and it wasn?t long before all of the scouts to find the playground!
At 3 there was a talk about snakes which we somehow managed to completely miss, but when we did find the place we were meant to be we still got to touch the snake!
We left the zoo at about 4 and went back to the hut and prepared our breckfasts and lunches for Monday.
Monday 27th August
Today was the big trip to St Malo. We were scheduled to wake up at 6, but Mike decided 5.45 sounded much more fun. We arrived for the ferry in plenty of time and were issued with our boarding passes and passports to our amazement no one lost their tickets. Oh hang on a second ? none of the scouts lost them, But as mike was living in a different world to everyone else, he managed to lose it 5 minutes before security check... we were convinced that he posted it, and he never found it, but luckily he got hold of a new one. On the ferry about 4 of us fell asleep straight away and somehow I ended up on the floor (very suspicious of the scouts...) while the others went to the shops and out on the deck. When we got to St Malo we walked into the centre and after Clive doing the Dad thing by ordering some ?pan au chocola? in English... BUT in a French accent ?I vould like 15 Shocolate Crossants please? (I don?t know the rest of the conversation... I had walked away in shame by that point!)
Then after a quick briefing for the scouts we let them go off in groups to explore the shops while me and Dan (the only French speaking members of the group) ordered some tea (how VERY English) and then Dan seemed to have given the waiter a 5 (Euro) tip :p
After a while looking around the shops we went down to the beach and went for a swim, and then found a natural swimming pool with a diving board made of stone which was about 20 ft high (?) so we spent about a hour jumping into that which was great fun!
When we had all finished being adrenalin junkies we left the beach and went back to the centre to be issued with 7(Euro?s) each and were told to order some French food, so naturally all the scouts ordered French fries and burgers and spent the rest on sweets!
After eating the ?French food? we went for another quick look around and met some girl guides who were singing... and didn?t seem too keen on the idea of swapping Neckers.... grrr. Then we went for a short walk around the surrounding wall looking at the city and being amazed by how far the tide had come in, in about 2 hours! After the short walk we headed back to the ferry, and after a bit of a wait we were on our way back to Jersey. The 1st group left 1st and the 2nd were left for quite a long time waiting for the bus and were eventually kicked out by security...
Tuesday 28th August
Today we woke up late......(later) and after having a decent breakfast, half of us drove down the the bike hire shop in St Helier. After a shorter time then expected we were all issued our bikes, and begun our Cycling, I led the group and we cycled along the coast path for about 15 mins and then up towards the hut. When we got there I found the dirt track and managed to fall off and injure my knee... then we ate lunch and the second group took the bikes and I fell off my bike.... again, so did tom and Katherine! Then we rode back. And it was all downhill, it was great! Then Izzy fell off! And we arrived back at the bike hire place literally 2 minutes before it closed! (True 62nd style!)
While we were out, the others stayed at the hut and made cakes and did wood burning.
Wednesday 29th August
Today was the second of the adventurous activities, originally we had kayaking planned, but the sea was too rough so instead we did blokarting. The first group started off with the Coasteering (with Dave again.......) which involved 50% of the time in the sea and 50% of the time on the rocks, and they were jumping off rhinos into the sea and climbing through tunnels e.t.c. Then at lunchtime we swapped over again and my group did the blokarting which was amazing fun! Lots of falling over and racing took place... and lots of taking photos before helping people after they had fallen over... ALEXIS!! ...and after few hours of that we had to put them away.. without any instructions and then we got Dan wet by putting on the shower while he was washing his feet! head back up to the cafe and had tea and I had a GEORGMUNGUS icecream!!
Thursday 30th August
Today was the big clear up, we did the final tent inspection and the scores on the doors ended up girls tents were both 33 and the boys was an appalling 19.... after breakfast and some clearing up we headed down to the beach, and the explorers went down to the sea and we met a nice guy called Pete and made him go into the sea!!! Then we did some water aerobics... it was very good! Then when we got back we were amazed by a HUGE 62nd Bristol scouts designed on the sand and then we invested three scouts, after I took up the very hard challenge of burying Dave (for the second time) and I honestly didn?t think the beach had enough sand!!! :p
When we got back the scouts packed up the tents and then set up their stuff to sleep out on the veranda. We were cooking jacket potatoes and marshmallows on the fire, and took part in another of Dan?s sing song campfires.
Friday 31st (Drews B-day)
Today was the final morning. After being awoken by the leaders groaning at about 6 in the morning, we had breakfast and then the minibus left at 9, then after I beat Mike at Donkey we left for the airport at about 1 and headed off home.
The end
By George A.K.A Tap-dancing Slug / Seal