Archive for 2010
Monday Cubs CANCELLED
November 29th, 2010
Due to the severe weather conditions and the dangers of slipping on the steps down to the Den, not to mention walking/driving there, the Monday night Cub meeting is cancelled tonight Monday 29 November 2010.
Other Sections later in the week please contact relevant Scouter in Charge for further information.
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Google Street View
October 8th, 2010
Look how well the Den is looking
Look how well the Den looks on Street View on Google.
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New books
September 21st, 2010
The new programme material, books etc, were collected last week and are being given out to all members this week.
Looking forward to see the real thing.
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Registration evening
September 1st, 2010
29th Dublin Blackrock Scouts are holding there annual Registration and AGM evening on Thursday 2 September 2010 at 7:30pm. Letters have gone out to all parents by post and email. If for some reason you did not receive them please attend the above meting.
If you are new to the Group please feel free to attend the above meeting also but attendance will not guarantee a place but the available places will be filled on that evening.
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Rover’s Summer: Rovers in Whales?
August 31st, 2010
Heres what the rovers have been getting up to this Summer! We’ve been to both Wales to complete our Silver Gaisce Awards, and to Scotland in order to get some rock & ice climbing in.
The reason for our trip to Wales was to climb Snowdon (1085m) and walk 50km in the process, to complete the final part of our (Kevin and Conor’s) Silver Gaisce award. The hike across Snowdonia took us three days.
So with our trusty leaders Emma and Tony, and silly David we left Dublin port for Wales. On the boat journey we played cards and explained to Tony and David the difference between Whales and the country Wales with some Father Ted styled logic.
We arrived in Holyhead a little late, and missed our train. On the train we practiced (well more like butchered) our Welsh pronunciation. We got two trains to Betws-y-Coed, and that’s where the journey really beings. We started walking, rovers first but the leaders and David (“cheated”) and got the bus! Rovers walked to the meeting point at Capel Curig. We joined up and walked along the A4086 towards our first campsite. Along the road we stopped at an adventure centre, and asked for information about SPA (Single Pitch Award) and MIA climbing awards, all part of the debate on what is the plan for next year. By a lake we stopped for the night in a cheap campsite, 3 quid. There were some concerns that our tents might blow away in the strong wind that gushed through the valley.
4.00am I awoke to the sound of heavy rain beating off the canvas of our tent. I rolled back over and fell asleep. We all got up around eight in the morning once the sound of the rain had stopped. We got up ate breakfast, there is nothing like a cereal bar in the morning. Looking up to the sky we realised the storm hadn’t passed, but that we were sitting in the eye of the storm. We packed the rain sodded tents back into our bags and started walking towards Snowdon.
It rained, and it poured, and it rained some more as we walked towards Snowdon. We made it to Pen-y-Pass by eleven o’clock, finally the rain stopped. Pen-y-Pass is a drop off point for hikes and tourists, and the starting point of the Miner’s track, Crib Goch ridge route and the Pyg track. The plan was for the Rovers to walk the Pyg track up Snowdon (the red track on the map), and for the Leaders and David to walk the Miner’s track (the yellow route on the map). So we split up and went our separate ways.
Us Rovers decided that the Pyg track wasn’t that fun, so we changed to do the Crib Goch route. (Really we made a slight navigational error) Crib Goch is a mountain beside Snowdon. Let’s just say it was an interesting route: cliffs; vertical climbs; and strong winds. I think I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of story.
So we made it over Crib Goch and then to top of Snowdon. We rested for about 20 minutes in the restaurant on top of Snowdon. Snowdon is no ordinary mountain, at the top there is also a gift shop, webcam, and a train station adorning the summit. After our short respite at the summit we began the long tired seven kilometer walk down to Llanberis (pronounced clan-ber-is) and our second campsite, and most importantly what kept us walking the whole day: Pete’s Eats. Tony’s favourite restaurant.
After a long, and well earned meal, we set off to the campsite, one kilometer from Pete’s Eats. Of course the campsite was also up hill. We stayed the night, recharged the batteries for the final leg of the trip. The night also lead to some fun quotes/stories like “*stands up leaves the tent* I think I have two left feet!”… “No, are you wearing my shoes!”.
I would love to tell you the rest of the trip was easy: we left the campsite, on time; walked the relatively straight road from Llanberis to Caernarfon, arriving on time; but if I told you that I would be lying. It was to be honest a disaster. We awoke and left the site late, got lost on the “relatively straight road” and had to use a taxi to make it to Caernarfon to make the bus back to Bangor.
Forty minutes later we arrived in Bangor after a mundane and relaxing bus ride. We got the train back into Holyhead in order to catch the boat back to Dublin Port. We played cards in the port before boarding the boat. The boat journey was also another interesting part of our trip, strong winds and bad weather delayed the boats arrival into the port, we left 40 mins late. The length of the journey doubled because of the rough seas. The ferry rocked back and forward relentlessly, leaving the entire number of passengers and crew feeling sick.
Though there were some unfortunate bits to the trip, we all enjoyed ourselves throughly.
View our Wales Hike route in a larger map
Our report on our trip to Scotland will follow shortly. (Hint hint Conor L)
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Fota 2010 (again)
August 24th, 2010
I am sorry this has taken so long but between one thing and another I have only just gotten a chance to get this posted. So here is the log for Fota 2010!
Fota 2010
written by Catríona Spratt and Karen Reilly with some bits added by Emma.
3rd July 2010
We met at the Den at 9.30am. We left the den at 10.00am. It took us three and a half hours to get to the campsite on Fota Island in County Cork. We had lunch and then set up camp. We all pitched the tents. Then we went to get some firewood. We also got split into patrols, we were put in the Hippo patrol and Marcus is our Patrol Leader.
After that at around 7.30pm we had pasta bolognese for dinner and angel delight for desert. We also got to go to the tuck shop.
Then we all went into the forest and played “Tip the Can”. It was really really REALLY fun. When we got back we had hot chocolate and biscuits for supper.
4th July 2010
Today our patrol made breakfast and then it was time for a tent inspection. Then we all went and collected some more firewood. After that it was time for pioneering. We made a table and a gate. We also learnt how to use the axes and saws safely and how to light fires and feed them so they stay lit.
Then we had lunch. We had sandwiches, crisps, bars and fruit. But nobody ate the fruit. Catríona and I found some fish. I named some of them Steve, Bob and Justin Bieber. For dinner we had chicken curry and Brownie cake for desert.
Then we started the sports leagues, we did “elephant races” and a game called “avoid the crocodile”. These were fun but everyone got very very wet. Our patrol won the “elephant races”, but we couldn’t jump well enough to avoid the crocodile but we did come second at this.
5th July 2010
Today we went to the wildlife park. We saw Zebras, Giraffes, Lamas, Monkeys, Eagles, Leopards, Ducks and Walabies. Marcus tried to pet a Lama and it bit him on the arm. When we had seen everything in the wildlife park we came back to the campsite for dinner.
After dinner we did some more of our sports leagues. Tonights event was the “Jungle run” or obstacle course. This was really difficult but everyone managed to do it, even Ruairí who is only four, and he did it twice! During this we had to run, jump, wriggle, tie a knot and skip.
Then we had supper and went to bed.
6th July 2010
Today we finish off some stuff around the site in the morning and then we had our cooking competition. Our patrol decided to make chicken tenders and potatoe wedges with coke floats for desert. It was all really really good. Jack went with Niamh to do the shopping for our meal. We won for our main course but the tigers won for their desert. We had lots of fun cooking but not so much fun cleaning.
While we were making dinner Gavin got scalded by the water boiler but he was ok again after dinner was finished, he even played “Hippo football” (three-legged football) with everyone else. We then played our last sports league game which was the “cheetah run”.
7th July 2010
Today we were all very excited we had to get up early because we were going to Trabolgan. After breakfast the bus arrived and it only took a short while to get there. When we got there we had to find the quad bike track. There were two, one for the older scouts and one for us. I thought the quad bikes were good fun but they were kinda scary too. Everyone had a go, we got to go around the track four times.
After that we went to do the orienteering course, this was fun because we got to explore on our own and see lots of Trabolgan. Then we went to the Swimming Pool. We had some time to go to the arcade before we went swimming. This was fun and some people bought presents to bring home. Then we went swimming, this was fun but the life guard wouldn’t let anyone into the deep end of the pool. The waves were good though and we went on the slide too but it wasn’t very good.
After swimming we got back on the bus and went back to the campsite.
Then we had Tuna pasta for dinner and hardly anyone liked this but we all tried at least a little bit. We also had apple crumble for desert which was really really good.
After dinner we started to take down the boys sleeping tents and then it was time for the campfire. This was brilliant! We sang songs and then Emma and Hugh gave out the badges and the camp awards. Marcus got Scout of the Year, Bláithín got Scout of the Camp and Sarah K got most improved Scout. After lots of smores we all had to go to bed even though no one wanted to.
8th July 2010
written by Emma
Time to go home. We didn’t do much today other than pack and get ready to go. We had all our bags packed before breakfast and then got the last few tents taken down. Almost everyone fell asleep on the bus home, especially all the leaders! Thank you everyone for a brilliant annual camp 2010.
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ONE Programme
July 14th, 2010
So with the bulk of the annual camps finished, good luck to Rovers in Wales and Scotland, our attention is turning to the new ONE Programme and the change in Sections.
As part of the pilot scheme I believe that the Group has benefited by having greater youth participation in the programme planning and I am looking forward to seeing this even better enhanced with the ONE Programme. Well done to all the Scouters and Scouts (Trackers to Rovers) for all their hard work and making it a success for our Group.
The biggest changes in the ONE Programme are the names and age ranges. The names have not changed from the previous programme but are different from the Pilot Programme Section names. The names and Age Ranges for the ONE Programme are as follows:
| Section | Age |
|
Beaver Scouts |
6, 7, 8 |
|
Cub Scouts |
9, 10, 11 |
|
Scouts |
12, 13, 14, 15 |
|
Venture Scouts |
15, 16, 17 |
|
Rover Scouts |
18, 19, 20 |
It is Group policy that any six year old wanting to join the Group must be in 1st Class in the September of the Scouting year they join (September to July).
Everybody at this stage should know their new section and meeting night, check with your Scouters if you do not. Potential Patrol Leaders have been identified and invited, Cubs to Venture Scouts, to the Group Training day, hopefully 11 September if available.
If you have any question or comments on the ONE Programme please post here and someone will post a reply.
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