Belgium_trip

MY TRIP TO BELGIUM!

(Skerries Sea Scouts, Colt Troop)

22 AUG. 02: It was time for take-off. We had a really early start that morning. We had to be at the airport for 5: 15 a.m. We were on our way to St. Joris Weert, just outside Brussels, in Belgium.

When we finally got off all the trains, planes & buses we still had a two-mile walk up hill to the campsite. Tonight we had been invited to stay in the hostel part of the campsite. It was a lovely courtyard with a two-storey building surrounding it.

23 AUG. 02. It was another early morning. Up at 7:30 a.m. to get all our bags packed and leave them in the empty bedroom ready to collect when we got home this evening.
We caught the train to Brussels at 9:15 a.m. and walked around for a bit. We found a lovely statue, took a few photo's & then walked up to the town square where we were told that we could go shopping in our watches & off we went. First of all we bought some crepes & looked around some gift shops. An hour later we met with the rest of the troop and have lunch. After lunch we proceeded up to the palace on another train. Had a tour around it. We got on some more trains and walked a bit more to LE MANOR chocolate factory. There we were shown how to make chocolate and we were even allow have a go ourselves.
When we got home to the campsite we still had to move all our bags up to the chalet at the other side of the forest.

24 AUG 02: The chalet was like a four star hotel according to scouts. There were three bedrooms, one the girls one for the boys and one for the leaders.

It was time for the first watch challenge of the camp. It was set by Aft. What each person in the watch had to do was go up to a foreign person and ask them to stand on one leg blindfolded and hold an egg on the palm of their hand for a minute. Our watch went up to some Germans and they succeeded in doing it.

Tonight it was really funny because we had a court case to decide should one of our scouts be invested because she hadn't been invested yet and one of the boys brought up "Molly the teapot" for questioning

25 AUG 02: Up early again on this morning as we were going to: SIX FLAGS THEME PARK. There were so many rides to chose from (over 70). Lots of the scouts wanted to go on big roller coasters and others didn't so we split up and met back for lunch at 15:00. Off we went to a restaurant. After lunch some of us went wall climbing and only some finished by the time we all finished we were 5 minutes late for the Water Park and the manager was looking for an extra ?200. So after lots of arguing he let us in for half an hour at the original price.

26 AUG 02: It was another day on site. And up came the next challenge set by the leaders a treasure hunt. Our watch won that. The challenge was three-legged football and that was a laugh as people were running different ways then others. That was set by Spinnaker.
27 AUG 02: We were up early again on Tuesday as we were woken up from another very loud thunderstorm and we had to go to Leuven anyway. Did lots and lots of shopping and some people go of to do more wall climbing.

When we got home we still had to do two watch challenges so when the older scouts went of to do the obstacle course our watch made a slide by staking bivi-bags and poncho's down a hill and then pour water and washing up liquid over them. When sliding down whoever went furthest won. By the time the older scouts returned the slide was ready for them to go on.
Then later on that night we had Starboard's watch challenge which was that every person in the watch had to do at least one circus trick. EVEN THE LEADERS DID IT!!!!

That night it was too wet to have our campfire outside so we brought it into the fireplace inside the kitchen and sang lots of songs had marshmallows, chocolate biscuits and blackcurrant juice. When we all went up to bed we had a big pillow fight.

28 AUG 02: to we had to have the place spick and span for the next people before we left because we were going home. We went down to the train station, left our bags there and went to the shop. We then got on lots of trains, buses and planes and we arrived back in Dublin airport safe and sound. We still had a few presentations to be made including the trophy to the "Watch of the Year" (our watch!) and a bouquet of flowers to our leader Celeste because she had been with the troop for over twenty years and now she was leaving.

Written account by a scout from Colt Troop, 16th Port, Skerries.