8th waterford, tramore Kerry Log Home - Camps - Photos - Beavers - Cubs
The Kerry Log 2001
. . . . . .by Stephen This year on annual camp we went to Kerry. The camp was held in Cathal's Granny's field near Castlegregory. We met outside the scout hall at 11am Thursday and packed all our rucksacks and tents and marquees and timber and tables and chairs and about 16 metric tonnes of other unassorted s**t into several cars, a van and a bus. This was a link camp between Thomastown Scouts, Tramore Scouts and a St. Paul's Venturer (Singular) so all us decent, clean-minded individuals couldn't get a word in sideways the whole journey up in the bus because those Thomastown hooligans (all 3 of 'em) just would not shut up for the whole journey (Matt wasn't there so I couldn't ask him what SARCASM meant!!!). Anyway, when we stopped in Tralee, we knew we were still in a fairly civilized region 'coz they had a McDonalds so we filled up our young bodies with wholesome rubber carefully disguised as chicken nuggets. After refreshing our tastebuds with several McFlurrys we set off again. Where would you be without McDonalds? - At the campsite already or at a nearby chipper. Anyway, enough whining, we eventually got to Granny's field where we went about the usual proceedings of cursing, swearing and prodding each other in the eyes and several other places with fibreglass tent poles that were a lot longer and more flexible than they looked. I can't remember what else we did that night but it was probably something enjoyable, wholesome and educational like discovering that bog roll is necessary in the toilet tents or digging cesspits or telling dirty jokes, I'll stop there. Anyway, we all woke up Friday morning and did stuff like emptying toilet buckets (the most sought after job of the weekend), eating breakfasts, washing hands (though hopefully not in that order!!!) And then set off to frighten ourselves silly by looking at the mountains we would be climbing the next day. When we finally got to a river, we stopped and the leaders and some junior scouts went to see how bad the mountain really was, so we were left minding a herd of mini-Ashs who were determined to maim as many of us as possible. Phillipa and the map started a bitter feud and the map took swimming lessons. Cathal was quite distressed as it was his map, but it floated and fished out and put to dry in the sun. Although it did snarl a little and kept away from Phillipa for the rest of the camp. We transported via piggyback the mini-Ashs until they were collected along with us apart from some diehard hikers who insisted on walking the whole way back. These included Cathal, obviously forgetting he was cooking lunch and not realising the pointlessness of returning to base camp half an hour after everyone had eaten. Oh well, at least we had a volunteer for emptying the toilet buckets. Harharhar..................... On Saturday we set off hiking up the mountain and the younger scouts decided to bring 3½ tonnes of stuff each with them. These included essential mountaineering equipment such as:
To fit all these they needed to leave behind a few useless things like TENT PEGS!!!!!!!!! After a few metres, they decided to leave the senior scouts carry all those ultra-important items listed earlier. Those thoughtful little guys, it brings a tear to my eye! Anyway that day was spent walking and walking and walking and walking and walking and walking and walking and walking and walking and walking and walking and walking and walking and walking and walking and walking and walking and walking and walking and walking and walking and walking and walking and walking and walking and walking and walking and walking and despite the maps telling us we would be climbing almost completely vertical surfaces, MOST of us found it well, a little bit easy. Eventually we reached our campsite, which was a ridge by a lake. We put up our tents apart from those who had forgotten the pegs. Michael, a leader from Thomastown, threw my and Colin's staffs into the lake so we decided to blame Craig, cause he was smaller than us and hadn't had army training. Our dinner was roast chicken, which was lovely, even if Lee decided to keep his to himself, in a bag, cold. . . . Anyway we stayed up fairly late telling jokes but I can't remember any of them now but they were probably disgusting, dirty, racist, sexist and offensive to everybody everywhere. We slept, woke up Sunday morning and set off with Cider from Thomastown and the senior scouts leading the way. We stopped at the top of a waterfall for lunch and 4 of us climbed a mountain from which there was a fantastic view. Then we descended the waterfall. Try to imagine this:
Finally we reached the bottom and went through a wood where we fumbled and stumbled through a pine covered landscape until we reached the path which ripped the feet off us 'coz we were used to walking on heathers. Then we met the leaders and went fishing. The fact we had to make our own fishing rod out of twigs and string didn't deter us but it meant we spent 30 minutes constructing and about 2 fishing. We didn't catch anything except rocks. Then we got a lift back to base camp in the van and ate a casserole for dinner. Then we all rubbed our sore feet and hung around lazily until we went swimming like we did on Friday but which I forgot to mention when I was writing that part of the log. Anyway, this time there were no jellyfish. Then we went to the shop. (Events since dinner not necessarily in order). Later that night we had a campfire. I led some of the
songs but the highlight was Simon from Thomastown. He
couldn't think of a song so we just copied everything he
said. It went something like this: I can't think of a song - I Can't think of a song Stop copying what I'm saying - Stop copying what I'm saying Aaaaaaaaaagggggghhhhhh - Aaaaaaaaaagggggghhhhhh
Then we played charades and Tom and Fiona guessed such
improbable titles as "Fried Green Tomatoes at the
Whistle Stop Cafe" and "The cook, the baker,
his wife's lover, the candlestick maker's mother and the
barbers father-in-law" or something to that effect
after 3 or 4 seconds while the rest of us were still
trying to count the number of words. Anyway this was all
great fun so we decided to go to sleep so we did. Then we woke up about 7 hours later and we tidied up our gear (eventually) and discombobulated (dis'com'bob'u'late: v to take down, dismantle, discombobulated adj, discombobulation n : act of discombobulating. - Dictionary of Non-existent Words) the tents despite the disappearance of the tent bags. Even after taking the tents out of their bags 3 or 4 times we couldn't find them so we used black sacks. Then we gave Granny some sweets because she was outstandin' in her field (geddit?!) Then we got on the bus and went home. We probably did loads more but I can't remember. FIN |