Chasing the wind: 2010

Rambling On: Jamboree 2010:

"We had 2 of our children go to AJ2010 , Sarah was 14 and Evan was 12. Sarah was pretty laid back and confident about being away from home ..."

Once again it seems the mother, Emma Hazell, has posted some of my writings but I'll give her this one since I sent it to her in 2010. A letter from the 2010 Jamboree (a.k.a AJ2010) that I wrote telling of all the wonderous things I got up to. It was the trip of a liftetime. I still have every single issue of the special Jamboree newspaper, and my passport, stamped for every activity I completed.

2/1/10

Dear Mum, Dad and Harry,

Its only the first day here and already we're exhausted and have had some minor adventures. We all have our bags and stretchers safely back in our tents now, off ground in case water leaks in. After hardly sleeping a wink on those rock-hard bus seats and almost dying from heat and hunger between breakfast and lunch as we slaved away at our tents, our stretchers are like heaven. Insects are definitely out in force, especially those tiny black ants whom we had to firmly relocate from our tents, patrol boxes and kitchen gear.

It was quite an itchy challenge taking everything out of the ant-hill/shipping container, which, I might add, needs a very good water proofing! The tents, too, are letting the edge of my stretcher become damp! And other troops, one not two sites away, have nylon dome tents! We have heavy leaky patrol tents that will easily let in another insect which is much more deadly than a black ant. I haven't seen one yet, but there are warning signs on the way into Cataract.

Oh and I haven't told about the gateway. You'd have to be blind to miss it, 4 identical, massive concrete arches. I have a badge showing it. The weather has been balmy with random showers, and, just five minutes ago a thunder storm. Not much different from Coffs Harbour.

6/1/10

Its our fourth day here at cataract and the 2nd day of the official Jamboree. When we got here 4 days ago our campsite looked like a paddock with NSW camps dotted around. The, the next day, the spare spaces started to fill up and now we have to walk around on the paths between camps. On the 2nd we were allowed to walk around and the badge trading began.

As you walk along the main road between sub-camps you are asked which state you're from by scouts wanting contingent badges. We've got our troop badge which is one of four from all the troops from North Coast NSW.

All four, plus a region badge, join together to make a set. I have all the badges in that set. I also have all the sub-camp badges, which make an octagon when put together, with Aquarius in the middle. All the sub-camps are named after constellations. There is Andromeda, Gemini, Orion, Taurus, Aries, Leo, Pegasus, Aquarius and Scorpius.

Its really fun putting our troop pegs on peoples clothing without them noticing.

We made these pegs yesterday and used them up yesterday. It says, "you have been bitten by the NC123 bat colony" and has a cute picture of a bat on the peg too. I am writing this on the bus to Jamberoo water park, where we will stay for the day. Last night was the opening ceremony. There was fireworks and a live band. Me and five friends from my troop got to a metre from the front row, where there was no room to move. Tonight's a rock night, though I don't think I'll have any voice left to scream with.

11/1/10

Jamberoo was great. The best ride was the Taipan. It was pitch black, in a raft, down 200m curving back and forth. Today is the 11th of January and more than halfway through Jamboree. I'm still tired and still having

Fun. I miss you all loads!

The day after we went to Jamberoo we did adventurous activities. Our package included BMX, Challenge Valley and Laser Skirmish. BMX- I only went round the track 3 times but stacked twice. It was hard. Challenge Valley was run by venturers and was like a big commando course with mud and water in more than half the activities. By Laser Skirmish we were so tired, but it was fun.The day after that we had Endurance 2010. It lasted all day with 17 bases. We only had to do ten, we did 11. We skipped both the skirmishes in which you got dyed red with water. One of my favourites was rock climbing. There was also abseiling, mega board games, a maze & first aid.

We almost missed the bus out.

The day after, we did Brownsea Island. It re-enacted some of the activities @ the first scout camp. We did animal tracking, knotting nets & Law & Promise, and Pioneering. That afternoon we went 2 Cirque du Scout. That was awesome. We painted each others faces, practised 4 types of juggling & did trampolining.

Two days ago was market Day (Visitor Day) we had the day off to try and raise lunas (Jamboree Market Day Money). Vicki came and visited our camp. We were duty patrol that day. Our troop made an Emoo Steak stand and raised over 200 lunas.

Yesterday we went to water activities in Chowder Bay. There was canoeing, kiaking, swimming, snorkelling, a ferry ride and a scenic walk. Candle was at the snorkelling base. The ferry ride was fun because we could go right on top and see all round Sydney Harbour. Today we had another lot of adventurous activities. We had Waterslides, giant swing and high Ropes. The waterslide was just like the ones @ the Big Banana and the giant swing was awesome! I was pretty good @ high ropes though it was scary.

Hope u are all well

Lots of Love,

Sarah