wombourne explorer scout unit website

So, it's been a bit quiet on the website of late - not at the meetings though! We've been very busy over the last few months - we've been working on the Chief Scouts Awards, developing our current project - more news on that soon - planning the camps we'll be doing for the year, and a load of interesting and fun activities. First one of those is in less than a week, followed by another just 7 days later! We've got plenty planned for the rest of the year and we're guaranteed to have a busy summer timetable to take advantage of the long evenings. Full programmes will be put up as soon as possible so logged in users can keep up to date on what we're doing, and when we're doing it.

Keep checking back - more updates soon...

Iain.

Ok, so our next camp is in just a couple of weeks (log in and look at the calendar for details).

The cost will be decided very soon, and the permission to camp forms will be available shortly. Please download, fill in, print, and bring with a wodge of cash to the next meeting.

Any questions, email me, text me, or comment on this post...

Cheers

Iain

Just a quick note to let you all know that the new programme has been planned to take us up to the end of the year. If you log in to the site you'll be able to see what's planned for each week, and the camp we have coming up in October. (Permission to camp forms will be available soon.) Go have a look. Any questions, comments etc, leave a comment on the relevant event

Iain.

Hi there..

For those with accounts, you may have noticed that the site has been somewhat dysfunctional recently. I have finally resuscitated the site and it's alive again. You will clearly notice that the site is lacking it's usual theme, as I have to recreate it. booooooo. It'll be back before soon..

Many apologies.

Phil

Hi Guys

Yes its that time of year again when we try and get you all some awards, training packs for chief scout platinum award will be handed out on the quiz night 23-04-07. For those of you who have done bronze Duke of Edinburgh there isn’t much left to do, Stretch will be talking to each of you about what you have already done and what is left to do to achieve this award.

We will also be holding monthly monitoring sessions where we can help you with any problems that you have with the award and pretty soon we shall all be moving onto the chief scout diamond award.

See you later

Stretch

Hi Guys

We got the dates wrong for the St Georges Day Parade it's not Monday the 23rd June so scouts is back on as normal, and we will be having a St Georges day curry and quiz night where you can test your knowledge of all things English. If you are coming please let Iain, Stretch or Adam know as we need top know how much curry sauce to buy, and please bring with you the princely sum of £2 to cover the cost of the curry ingredients.

See you Monday

Stretch

Well, it's now 3 days since we all got back to England and vowed never to set foot on a trans-Europe coach again.
I think it's fair to say everyone had a fantastic week. (I'm sure even Liam and Vicky would agree, although they could probably have done without the injuries...)
All of the Explorers did fantastically well - Jack and the 3 Matts swore blind they hadn't been skiing before, but were ready for anything the resort could throw at them by the end of the week. Eddie and Tom could already ski, but bonus points for not injuring yourselves during 6 days of skiing, lads.
As for us leaders - some of us (me) had a whole 2 hours of previous experience, which went completely out of the window as soon as we realised that, actually, snow is a bit different to the dry slope at Telford. (Phil & Stretch actually realised this at the top of a mountain, as they were about to start skiing down it. Here, this is a creek. You won't be needing that paddle...)
On Friday we decided to break away from the Ski school lessons, and ski as a group (well, not including Ed and Tom. Antisocial gits). This meant the lads who were feeling a bit worse for the constant sun exposure and their own forgetfulness when it comes to drinking plenty of water could take it a bit easier (along with Ad, Phil & Zanna who just wanted to be lazy for the day), and the rest of us could spend some time practising what we'd been taught over the days before. It also meant we could grab lunch at a restaurant on the slopes - a good thing, as we were all getting a bit bored of ham rolls!
We kept this up on the Saturday - Emma and Jo stuck with their group who went to a different part of the resort, so the rest of us ski'd across to meet them in time for lunch. We then had probably our best investiture ever - four Explorer Scouts, in the middle of the Alps, at the top of a ski run. We left Emma & Jo to enjoy the rest of the afternoon from the comfort of the restaurant and ski'd back to where we started the day - except the return journey happened in Scout uniform! We're going to have to think of something pretty special for our next investiture...

All in all, it was a fab week, and we're very grateful to 3rd Wombourne Scouts to inviting us along - it's great to go on a camp and not have to run it!

I'm thinking we could do a week in Kandersteg International Scout Centre in 2008 sometime. (Ok, 2009, if we're realistic). If we're going to we need to get moving on organising it soon. Have a look at http://www.kisc.ch/ and see what you think.

Iain.

Oh my god! I'm fairly sure I don't think I've ever seen fog as thick as this! I'm absolutely sure I've never been skiing in said fog!

Once we got to the middle station on the mountain we discovered the fog and lack of visibility. Here, the fog must have been down to about 30 metres. As soon as group C (my group) got to the top of the mountain, we discovered the visibility was down to about 10 metres. If you were too slow and lost sight of the person in front you had to guess where to 'drive' to get to the bottom of the slope. Scary stuff! When I finally get the photos up here, you'll see what I mean...

By the afternoon, all groups had made their way up the mountain into the fog. Not everyone was entirely in their comfort zone. All in all, a tiring day. At least we didn't get too hot!

The evening's entertainment was provided by the swimming pool in Wörgl. Various slides, wave machines and jacuzzis went down well, which is more than I can say about the unisex changing rooms! Talk about cutural differences...

The swimming was more than enough to tire everyone about, but also eased the aching muscles. The leg burn was starting to ease off by now.

Today was the last day at our current resort as we were starting to lose the snow and, due to it's size, were running out of slopes to come down. For Thursday, we were moving to a much larger resort with many more slopes of various ability, which everone was looking forward to.

More sleep required!

2nd day of skiing. By now everyone had adjusted to the slopes, compared to the dry equivalents back home. A lot of people were complaining about their legs but we're here to ski, so ski we will!

The groups stayed pretty much the same as yesterday. Groups A and B (beginners and intermediates) had been on the nursery slope for day 1, but group B managed to advance to the mountain by the afternoon. Group C (the advanced group) were still on the mountain and were trying to perfect their traversing.

The day was good, if a little hot, but everyone was happy that they had progressed further.

I can't remember what our evening meal was, but it was ok (although we're starting to get a little tired of watery soup!)

And if you're wondering about the title, Scouts say the wierdest things sometimes...

Well, after just over 24 hours in a coach with 30 well behaved and quiet scouts we arrived safely in sunny Austria. After initial concerns regarding the apparent comphrensive lack of snow of any sort, we learnt to our relief that the slopes we'd be using were safely above the snowline. Just the hotel with sun loungers and parasols then...
After getting settled in to our rooms and succesfully locating the bar, we had a meal and established our reputation with an impromptu piano concert & singalong, covering such classics as 'Back for Good', 'American Pie' & 'I wanna be like you' mixed with 'Angels'. As you do.
This morning saw a bright and early start from the whole group, breakfast, and the short journey to the slopes. We divided into groups on the basis that some of us are proficient skiiers and others were wondering quite what to do with the brightly coloured planks they'd been given.
Everyone did very well today, even the complete beginners mastered the nursery slopes & can now snowplough turn and (in most cases) stop without falling over.

We can't put any photos up this week I'm afraid but we will when we get home. That's all for now, the credit's running out and there's a disco going on downstairs...