1004 - Ventures - Easter Camp 2010



1004 - Ventures - Easter Camp 2010

29TH BELFAST VENTURES EASTER CAMP 2010

 

Many months ago, in a sudden light bulb moment, “The jungle!” Conall shouted in an evangelical voice, and everyone knew, the Easter camp had been decided upon.

After weeks of planning the day and the good weather had arrived and eight eager ventures turned up on Friday morning to head away.   As we made our way to the car park to be collected, the first of two big surprises hit us.  A school bus was waiting and wait for it, it was our school bus, Yes OLSPCK blue minibus, where were the secret cameras we wondered and then a new driver, yes it was Eamonn, where was Pat? “Jump in” he said “and all will be revealed”. We all piled into the bus and headed away to Cookstown and Drum manor Forest Park.

 

We travelled for hours and hours, round and round tiny country roads in the middle of Tyrone and finally, and at the point were we were so fed up there was a serious risk of a mutiny, Eamonn, shouted that with the aid of his trusty sat nav he had found Drum Manor!

“That looks like a house, not a forest park” we mused,  Wrong Drum Manor. After getting lost several more times (time to throw out the Sat nav), we eventually found Drum Manor Forest Park!

We got the tents up, ate up our grub collected firewood and set out towards the JUNGLE ADVENTURE PARK, Kelly lead the way , armed with his machete ready to kill any lions which would get in the way of us. Fortunately we came across no lions, but a knight in shining armour with a glint in his eye for Roisin, going by the name of Robert.  Robert gave us rope, barrels and poles and after several minutes both teams had come up with complex designs for rafts to row around the lake expanse. Then the building started. We spent the afternoon building and sailing rafts of rather dubious construction.  Some say their tears are ACID, some say they eat barbed wire to clean their teeth, all we know is they are called Colum McGrady and Rory McCabe and they are rubbish at building rafts.  Colum had to be taught a lesson with a severe dunkin’ to cool him down.  It would be fair to say that a trip on the Titanic would have been safer than the design of some of the rafts and only the diligence of the leaders and some precarious balancing stopped a major emergency incident from developing.

 

Our vast knowledge of knots, gained from years of Columbanus’ was, to say the least, nonexistent. The end product was a tangled mess in, which all attempts to build fell apart right away. On to plan B... This time with the assistance of Robert (yes he still had that glint in his eye for Roisin) and his grandfather (who seemed to have shopped off half of his trousers), new designs by both teams had been decided upon. The race was on, and both teams were frantically building, until Colum’s team just about edged the others out. Each of Colum’s sparkling knots seemed to keep him and Claire buoyant, holding the raft intact for Conall and Rory’s lap too. Next up were Adam and Kelly on their raft, a disaster waiting to happen. Thankfully, upon Rosin’s caring request, Robert had unearthed dust-free poles for Adam, in case he had a severe allergic reaction and drowned. They got around the course safe and sound and next up were Niamh and Bridget. The determination on their faces was terrifying. Niamh actually whacked Kelly around the face with her oar just because he looked at her wrongly (nothing new there then) .  Unfortunately for their team they had lost anyways, and no amount of violence could undo this, so Niamh decided to splash the opposition, which ended up turning into everyone getting soaked and pushed into the water, except Rory.

Once all the laughing had stopped and dry clothes put on, the intrepid group piled into the bus and set off for the campsite, stopping off in Asda to get some food for dinner. A fantastic BBQ and an evening of craic.  It was just as well it was a BBQ as Adam had completely forgotten his mess can, cutlery and any other item to eat with, (so unlike him),  We ate lots of food and built a roaring campfire which we sat around, chatting, until the early hours

 

Saturday morning, bright and early, we all got up, had some anti-dust cereal (and in Bridget’s case, a lovely, oddly shaped cake) and headed on to the bus for the swimming pool.   Fitness was on everyone’s mind especially Bridget and wee Claire and the bus took the group to the local leisure centre for an hours workout …………in the Health Spa, steam room, sauna and a little swimming (I should have known). 

After some hard bargaining from Pat, he got a super reduced rate for our hot tub and sauna as well. Everyone got relaxed and soothed before the afternoon’s activities. When we left the leisure centre, Roisin greeted us with a huge saucepan full of pasta which everyone munched up in about 5 minutes. Off we set towards the jungle again, reminding Kelly that it wasn’t a real jungle and he didn’t need to take out his machete again.

 

Once we arrived at the jungle, Robert stood by Roisin’s car for a very, very, long time (too long in our opinion), offering her a hand out in case she slipped. Everyone got suited up and the necessary forms were filled out. Pat took the young group under his wing wiped away their anxious tears and reassured then it would be OK, he would protected them with his life if necessary, unfortunately it was all lost on Bridget and Kelly who later peppered his body with every opportunity.  Adam almost forgot to write down his dust allergy in the space provided, but thankfully Eamonn was there to remind him of the importance of accuracy in matters of health.

 Everyone was split into two groups and given our guns. We set out towards the game areas and after a whole 30 seconds Roisin was out of 300 bullets. While Niamh and Adam were careful with their ammo, Roisin once again continued to show a talent for hidden vengeance and like a scene from RAMBO blasted everything and everyone (including her own team) to smithereens.  He favourite saying, as she wiped the perspiration from her brow, “Gimmie another 200 pellets if you value you life and make it snappy.  Don’t mess with this lady if you want to see your next daybreak.  Claire was lucky as most of the shots veered over her head but Rory wasn’t so, as most of the time when he walked away looking like a cheese grater with so many holes in him. At the break Conal moved into his now familiar role of chatting to all the female leaders even asking Sinead for her telephone number and promising to write everyday when he got home.  (god loves a tryer).  Later still after a few games we said our goodbyes to Niamh, Claire and Colum who sadly had to go home. Rory seemed intent on getting Pat drenched in paint, but he found that Pat’s svelte figure and gazelle like running, meant he could never get a good shot. Another difficulty Rory seemed to have was that each bullet he shot at Conall seemed to deflect straight off him. Eamonn too seemed to have an aurora about him which he used to protect himself from all shots.  It was like a scene from the MATRIX and bullets aimed straight at him just dropped at his feet.  It was an uncanny experience and clearly this person is not without hidden and unexplained powers.  I suspect the blue emerald has something to do with it.  So the day of paintballing was a success. Pat’s team marched out, dotted with bruises but with their heads held high, winning 6-0.

 

Later that evening, after we had all been showered and prepared for a night out , 29th Belfast Ventures hit the ‘Retail Capital of Mid-Ulster’ and went to McDonalds and then, after this time remembering to bring Conall with us, we went to the cinema, seeing Kick Ass. We got quite astounded however; as the little girl reminded us an awful lot of wee Claire, who had to go home earlier. We left the cinema and went back to the campsite for another night of sitting round the campfire chatting till the early hours about our day. Rory and Kelly decided, with true scouting spirit, to bivvy outside rather than wake in the sauna which was to be the tents the next morning.

 

The hottest sun we had seen in a long time woke us the next morning, and surprisingly both the girls and the boys were thankful their zips were broken on their tents, otherwise we would have been roasted alive in there! We all hopped in the van and Eamonn drove to Tesco’s, having ditched the sat nav this time. It was like supermarket sweep, as we all rushed around the shops, buying as much food as we could possibly binge on for breakfast, which was basically all eaten by the time we had got back to the site. After breakfast was finished, we took down the tents in a... questionable fashion. After this we all were given compasses and went on our orienteering mission, Kelly armed with his machete. It was one of the most, erm, difficult orienteering courses we had ever done and were finished it in, well, about an hour and a half...

We all then sadly hopped back in the van, and this time with Roisin leading the way, we got back to the Church car park that afternoon. A great weekend was had by all who attended, and anybody who didn’t, I’m afraid it was your loss.

 

VENTURE SCOUT.

 

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