70th Greenock & District (Finnart-St.Paul's Own) Scout Group

7 Explorer Scouts, 2 Scouts and 3 Leaders from the 70^th Greenock and District Group took part in one of the largest contingent of Scottish Scouts ever to travel abroad. Over 400 Scouts from across Scotland set off on 14th July 2009 to join 20,000 others at the 10-day Bla Sommer Jamboree in Denmark.

The Scouts and Explorer Scouts’   32-hour journey began with a coach trip to North Shields where they joined up with the other groups to board the DFDS ferry, King of Scandinavia, for the overnight crossing to Amsterdam.  This was followed by a nine-hour coach trip through Germany to the campsite at Stevninghus in southern Denmark.

Hosted jointly by 2 groups from Aalborg the group soon got to know the Danes and were mightily relieved to find out that their English was better than our Danish. A wide range of activities was on offer at the camp with the emphasis on traditional Scouting activities - pioneering, wood carving and crafting, environmental impacts, water activities, assault courses etc. With all cooking being done on wood fires scouts got first hand experience of this dying art. Geo caching with Danish instructions was a challenge however willing help was always at hand from the friendly Danes. Some of our young people managed to complete the Friendship Challenge and the World Environment Badge.

A day trip to Legoland was fitted in and all too soon it was time to say farewell to our hosts and head off on the long journey home.