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This
year's Scout Troop Annual Camp was held at Buitencentrum Gilwell Ada's Hoeve,
Ommen, Nederland between 28 July and 4 August. The camp was well-attended
with 20 Scouts, 2 Venture Scouts, 2 Scouters, 9 adult helpers and 3 other
young people. We can confidently say the camp was extremely successful,
and was definitely worth the extra pressure and planning involved in taking
a scout troop abroad. We were very lucky with the weather, which was hot
and sunny (most of the time) and the campsite, which was an excellent back-to-basics
site (apart from the luxury of a small toilet/shower block) set in woodland
in a relatively quiet part of the Netherlands. The site is large with room
for about 20 Groups although only about 6 Groups were camping. Our immediate
neighbours were a large group of around 120 German scouts from Austerlitz
and a small Dutch Troop from Utrecht. We made friends with the Dutch, but
the Germans were more reserved although we did exchange pleasantries during
early our morning wash over the open air basins. We were fortunate in being able to afford to hire a private luxury coach for the camp. This was largely possible because the Troop made a magnificent effort in raising £2,300 in funding for camp. As a result we were able to subsidise the camp fee by about £60 per head. Camp started early on the Saturday morning (4:30am) when we gathered to load our equipment into the coach. It was nervously spent hour wondering if everything would fit in. It was a great relief when it did, but the coach was absolutely packed to the limit. Saturday was spent on the road driving across Wales, and England to Dover and then through Belgium and the Netherlands to Ommen. It was exciting to see Holland for the first time with its even, flat landscape, windmills, bridges and canals/rivers with dykes. We arrived quite late and had to pitch camp in the twilight/dark. Patrol tents and our living tents were erected while a meal (spag bog) was rustled up. Tired but pleased that we had arrived and that everyone had a safe bed for the night we bedded down ready for a busy Sunday getting things sorted. next>> |