Roverway Contingent Weekend 2012
Brian O' Mahony
Photos by Becky Collins
To prepare us for an upcoming Roverway camp in Finland, Fermoy ventures and rovers are attending two weekend camps where we will learn all we need to know to enjoy our trip. The first of these was last weekend (March 30th - April 1st) in Blackrock Scout Hall near Dublin. It was a good opportunity for us to get to know the people we will be with on Roverway and also to get our heads around what it is. We got a bus to Dublin just after school on Friday and then got the Dart so we were within walking distance of the hall. We were greeted with as many cups of tea and burgers as we could have and started to get to know people. The camp opened with a few games followed by a small campfire with a man telling us some Celtic stories. It was a nice and relaxing start to the weekend. Afterwards we were given some more food, set up our tents and fell asleep.
All Ireland Venture Challenge 2011
On Thursday 11th August after months of preparation, 2 teams from the Venture section in Fermoy Scout Group headed to Galway on the coach. Their aim was to cover a distance of 100km on foot, live within a limited budget and secure a place to camp from local people every day for 5 days. An accurate log of the challenge had to be kept and projects involving interviewing local people had to be completed along the way.
After spending the night in one of Galway’s Scout Dens’ the 21 teams of 2 from all over Ireland were transported by coach to places in Galway, Limerick and Clare. When they were dropped off the coach they were given an envelope contained a letter of introduction, if they needed it to verify what they were about, which contained a list of projects to be complete, personal challenges for each team member, a time-table of the phone in/text in details that had to be adhered to every day with the sweep team, a map of the area, an envelope containing their budget money and an emergency envelope.
Ventact 2011
Ventact is an action packed fun activity weekend held every year in Kilcully Campsite Co. Cork. Up to 500 scouts and guides from every part of Ireland gather for one of the best scouting weekends of the year. It starts on Friday with scouts converging on the campsite in large numbers. Each one loaded to the brim with tents and bags of all description eager to get their regrestration confirmed so that they can put up their tents. The campsite is transformed into a mini village for the weekend with scouts and guides cooking, chatting, making new friends or looking out for friends they made last year who promised faithfully that they would be back again this year. As the evening wore on I could not help thinking how relaxed everyone looked and how easy it was for them to adjust from their urban and city lifestyle to sitting around a fire in the middle of a field chatting.
This is a very well run event with civil defence, first aid posts, information stands, fast food stands and staff strolling the grounds 24 hours a day making sure everyone has the best possible time over the weekend. There is also a group buddy system in place whereby a group from outside Munster can twin with one from Cork and if they send their gear down in advance the Cork group will have it put up before they arrive.
