Last weekend (13th and 14th) J-W had to go on a Nights Away Course and then go camping with the Cubs.

He had to cycle over to Ripley, which is ten miles away and the other side of the Downs (which go up as well).  We had to be there for 8:45, but the keyholder was not there! After the course J-W cycled off down some roads which went up and down, left and right.  It was like a bad fair ground ride.  We went up onto Ranmore Common and then down one hill and up something called Box Hill.  I did not see any boxes, but quite a bit of a long zig-zag road, which is called the Zig-Zags.  Who said humans did not have a sense of humour.

The cubs took  ages to pack the next morning and were off finding insects and other minibeasts.

We cycled back down the zig-zags (on Sunday), which were now facing down the hill not up it, how did they know which way we wanted to go. It was slow as we got stuck behind a car, so J-W did nor pedal for most of the way down.

84 nights away now.

Hello again.

Essex International Jamboree.

21st July to 3rd August 2008.

We went off to another Jamboree in Essex.  J-W had to pack a lot on Sunday, and finished it off on the Monday morning.  Took about 5 hours to get there, including going shopping in Guildford on the way.  We went on a bus, a train, two tube trains, two trains that seemed to think they were cable cars and then we got picked up in a pickup truck. We were camping in the WSJ tent, which seems to be changing.  The red printed bits are now a pinkish white!  J-W says this is due to the tent always facing the sun, due to him pitching it that way at the WSJ and the other camps.

We found Vix who is a Gojammer and Scottish on the first day there.

J-W was helping with the build from Tuesday to Friday.  I was supervising him and the work teams he was with. I got a bit worried as he was driving the Pickup Trucks around the farm.  At one time he said he had a pig in the open bit.  All I could see was a 8 foot long metal tank with water tap points down both sides!  One of these 'Pigs' had broken the weld and was making  a fountain.  So J-W and crew took this thing over and helped change it and bring the dead one back.  J-W did  a lot of water pipe work including digging them into the ground.  He also moved hundreds of tables and chairs around the site.  He was loaned out to Security at one point on the Friday, as all their stuff were being trained.  He got to sit in the control room for an hour or more eating biscuits!

We were by the Big Blue Wet Thing (J-W: he means sea) near Clacton-On-Sea.  The places have funny names.  We got off the train at Thorpe-Le-Soken and were in the village of Kirby-Le-Soken.

One of the kids in the second week, did ask J-W about if they were near the Big Blue Wet Thing (sea) and J-W said "See that bank at the end of the field, well it's called a Sea Wall!", and got the reply " Oh so the seas behind it?"

On the Saturday when the camp site became a car park, J-W was raking the grass up as the grass was cut down from about my height to an inch or so, where the targets and nets would be.  This went on for hours. The archery range they made was twenty metres from targets to the shooting line, and we had thirty bases on the line, but no zippy lenght bows.  Some small bows were made later in the week!

We met lots of the Go-Jammers.  Saw Becky and Plop a lot, Mary and Colin, and all of the Rangers with Merry and Co.  Saw most of the Bugs and the Beaver who was with the Rangers, who I meet last year.  I got a badge from the Rangers.  J-W also put a badge on my blanket, a Dutch Archery instructor gave him.  Also I got my 75 nights badge sown on my blanket.  J-W seems to thing it was funny that I kept getting stuck upside down in a lot of different beer glasses.  He would not believe I was helped by the Gojammers some of the time.

When we left we got a lift out to the station with Vix and her friend and two others, so we all got the same train down to Liverpool Street Station. So the five humans took up about eight seats in the end due to the bags not fitting inthe luggage racks.  The train got packed due to a Footy match in London.  Vix was taking one of the bugs home, so I got to talk to someone on my higher brain power level.  Took less tha five hours to get back, not bad as the trains and buses are lazy on a Sunday.

13 nights away, so that's 83 nights away.

19th July.

J-W cycled up  to the Albury Cricket Pitch up on the hill above Albury, on the Friday evening.  We camped on the edge of the Cricket Pitch in the Silver Tent.  We were helping run the Show, which meant putting up lots of tents and making bacon sandwichs!!  J-W spent a lot of time taking photos.  I was riding around in his pocket ringing my bell for a bit.  There were three groups of humans with bells on their trousers, ans they had a lot more bells than me so I stopped ringing mine.  (J-W here: They were Morris Dancers, and no Zippy they were not all called Morris). 

Seven-Five nights away. I must be due a badge soon, as J-W has gone quite when I keep on about the badges.

25th to 27th June.

1st Shalford's Family Camp. 

We did two nights, where most of the Families only did one.  As normal it rained a lot on the second day, up to the point we decided to go home earily.  J-W was walking around in a funny suit, as he spent most of the first day in the river doing pond dipping. How that works in a river I do not know.  The water was too deep in places for the Cubs and Beavers, so J-W was carrying them.  It was fun when the dippers had to dodge the canoes as they came through.  Three types of fish were caught, as well as some insects in there water swimming stage, or so J-W says.

J-W helped with the Camp Fire, but got a bit hot from the fire.

74 nights away now.

19th to 21st June.

Went to the South of England Show Ground, for the 2008 Scoutabout.

J-W says it is a camp for the Scouts and Guides of Surrey.  We went in the Minibus from Shere & Peaslake.  I saw Charliestar from the Gojamboree lot.  I got handed into lost property, when I was sitting and looking after J-W's camera on the archery range.  I got taken to the radio station, and I got to ring my bell on the air.  J-W told me off for lossing my Go-Jamboree necker.  So I need a new one.

Two nights away, so on  72 nights away now.

Mood:  happy

PLOP! 

J-W went by train to Gilwell Park on Friday, and I went too.

In evening J-W went to find his friend Becky on her sub-camp which was at the far end of the site from us!  But we found her at the Lid, so I jumped on her.  Becky had brought Plop to the MegaCamp, so I got talking with Plop, whilst J-W and Becky walked to her subcamp.  J-W was instructing archery to the cubs on the camp (about 1400).  He did about twelve hours on the range, so did I but I was topping up my suntan (J-W's mum reckons it was a dirt tan!).  Becky tried taking me home to visit Plop, but J-W would not let me go.  He did say I can go camping again in a week, and would see Plop next month

Two nights, so now on 70 nights away. 

Three nights away.

We went in a van on Friday afternoon and set up the camp for the dozen Cubs, who got to Gilwell by minibus in the evening.  They were up earily the next day.  The cubs seemed to keep disappearing up a twenty foot tree.  J-W had to lift a Cub into one of the trees, so the cub could get the football down.

We joined in the Camp fire run by the staff.  "This way, that way, across the Irish Sea" (J-W: Stop singing Zippy)

There were scouts from Itilia on site.

We went walking in the forest and visited a big 500 year old building on the plain by Chingford.  The walls had wood stuck in them!

We went on a miduim ropes course (see my pictures on Flickr).

The cubs all had to have a shower as they got really smoky cooking thier own lunches over open fires. 

J-W got a Gilwell pin badge for his hat.  His scarf got really dirty.

(68 nights away) 

J-W has not been putting my camp reports onto the blog for me, and I spent hours working on them!

In September we went to Bentley Copse for two nights with the Cubs and did a Camp where the Cubs were making things out of wooden poles and rope.

They also made a big a pile of leaves and were jumping over it.

It was a bit strange as we were using the dinning tent we took to Kandersteg, and their were no mountains outside it this time.

65 nights away.  Must be time for a badge! (J-W: Sorry Zippy, I know you spent a week working out the gap between the last two badges, but it is from 50 upwards where the gap stays the same, so another 10 nights to go) 

Went on a train to Dorking in Surrey last weekend, and then J-W and some scouts walked up to the top of Box Hill.  It was really windy, and J-W slipped over on the chalk under the trees!!!

The scouts were in charge of putting the tents up and all the cooking!!! 

It rained from about 2pm to about 5am.  The DofE's around us woke up and started to shout at about 5:30am, so I did think about going to borrow their maps, but it was too muddy to get out of my tent. 

 (one night)

J-W forgot to add another night away in Septempber, from Junior Service Crew at Bentley. (one night, so 63 in total)

Hello all, another delayed report from August.

Well eight days after the Jamboree J-W and I were off again.  Was a bit strange as we left after work on a Friday, and J-W had to get one of those books which means he does not have drink port each time he sees it. (J-W here, I've given up trying to explain passports to Zippy.)

We meet at a Guildford School with a load of scouts and explorers, J-W helped load the coach.  We travelled until the following afternoon, and the hills around where we camped, had grown a lot and had also got dandruft.  J-W says this is snow, as we were in Switzerland, but even I know you do not get snow in the middle of summer.

After we got off the boat, all the cars were on the wrong side of the roads.  Also the trains here are strange as they hang from wires and go up the mountains.

The animals here are all into music, most of them wear bells of different sizes, and they play them all the time every where.  Also it got cold an night and there were lots of stars in the sky,  called the milkyway (I think J-W is making that up).

J-W took me on a push scooter down the side of a mountain, which was good fun.  The crisp packets seem to react badly to the large hills, they kept blowing up like balloons.  The river was a funny blue colour. 

(9 nights away, so that's now 61 in total)