Birkenhead Scouts Special Needs Section's most ambitious venture ever!

This camp marks the culmination of two years planning, fund raising and hard work by all those involved.

The original idea for Euro 2000 was dreamt up the day after the last Dehon House camp in August 1998, when Neil Whittingham and myself were staying in the district caravan providing security to the campsite. Various answers to the old question, ‘where do we go from here?’ were being explored. Neil had taken his troop to the Acorn Adventure site at Hautville sur Mer a few years previously and so we decided to explore the possibilities along with the cost, to see whether such a trip would be feasible.

To our surprise we found it was !

There followed some major fundraising schemes, appeals, begging and trials and tribulations in order to find the necessary money, people and equipment for a nine day trip to France. 

We finally got there and on Friday 4^th August 2000, we all arrived, at 04.30 am, to get on the coach to take us to France.

Friday 4^th August.

4.30am we are assembling at Woodchurch Road school, Birkenhead, to wait for the coach, which is due at 5.00am. Everyone is here, but the coach is late. This adds to the expectations and to the excitement. At last it arrives and we somehow get 47 of us (with 2 in the support vehicle) along with rucsacs, cases, wheelchairs and medical supplies etc, it’s a tight squeeze!

An uneventful journey takes us to Portsmouth for the ferry to Cherbourg, meeting one of our special needs children outside the ferry terminal. We now have the full complement;

7 leaders, 1 nurse/leader, 21 Special Needs Children, 21 Able bodied partners (made up of Venture Scouts, young Leaders, Ranger Guides, D of E Gold participants and Student Nurses).

We arrive at the campsite, on the Cherbourg peninsular, at 9pm, in time for a hearty meal, tent allocation and bed, it’s been a long day. Even the large travelling funfair and Disco which had set up on a neighbouring field and thumped out the Birdy song at 2am failed to keep many of us awake!

N.B. (The campsite consists of four separate smaller sites, we have one of them to ourselves. It contains a marquee, where we congregate, have meals and sit if it is too hot/wet to sit outside. There are 16 frame tents, each with a wooden floor and steel framed beds. These tents are positioned in a circle around a volleyball court. The ground is sand. Meals are cooked by Acorn Venture staff at a central kitchen and then carried out to each camp and served out at the marquee).

Saturday 5^th August.

After breakfast it’s straight into activity groups for the morning.

We meet in a circle on the volleyball court for a rousing ‘start the day off’ sing song. We are learning a few new songs, the favourites are the camp Hakka and the Funky Chicken (you really had to be there!).

For Groups 1 and 2 it’s Waveskiing, a mix of canoeing and surfing at the nearby beach, about a mile away. Group 3 and 4 are alternate between archery and orienteering (not at the same time).

The afternoons activities see Groups 1 and 2 shooting air rifles and undergoing initiative exercises whilst Groups 3 is kayaking in the nearby River Seine and Group 4 are attempting to build a raft at the same location. All good fun and most people end up very wet. It’s a good job the weather is very hot. Fun and Games in the evening, all in all a good day. The last night for the temporary nightclub in the next field too, Hooray!

Sunday 6^th August

More activities, this morning it’s raft building, kayaking, abseiling and climbing. The abseiling is at a local disused quarry, a quiet and very picturesque spot. The indoor climbing is at a purpose built climbing centre in the next village. It is a most impressive sight, they hosted the French National Championships there a couple of years ago and the French are passionate about their climbing. We all managed to challenge ourselves there!

We alternated the activities after lunch. With those people who were on the river on the morning being on a rope in the afternoon and vice versa. The level of instruction and supervision is excellent with everyone able to partake fully in all the activities. Even the less able and least confident of our party had a good bash at climbing and abseiling due to the expert help and skills of the instructors.

After tea we had a version of the Generation Game in the marquee and then collapsed exhausted for a quiet nights sleep (no disco!).

Monday 7^th August

Another early start, rising at 7am, breakfast at 8.30am, activities start at 9.15. (Breakfast consists of a hot something, maybe a croissant or sausages, French bread, jam and cereals.)

This morning we have groups kayaking, abseiling indoor climbing and rifle shooting. Then it’s all change after lunch for more of the same, different groups.

The evenings activities was a big game of rounders on the field.

Tuesday 8^th August

Today was our day out. We had decided to go to Arromanche, a small seaside town on the other side of the peninsular, famous for being at the centre of the ‘D – Day’ landings. Our plan was to have some free time around the town and then after lunch hold a sand castle competition on the beach.

The first part worked well. We all wandered around some purchasing souvenirs, some watching the world go by from a pavement café.

The plan changed when the heavens opened and we had our only rain of the camp. Finding shelter for 50 people in a busy seaside town is never easy, but we managed and after lunch decided to cut our losses and head back for home. It was still a good day and gave everyone a taste of France.

In the evening we practised for the following evenings cabaret.

Wednesday 9^th August

Back to activities this morning, and the sun is shining again. The weather has been very warm, apart from the downpour we had at Arromanche.

This morning we have two groups Climbing and two groups Landyachting. However there is absolutely no wind, so it’s Landyacht pushing or sandcastle building! This was a big disappointment, as landyachting was a new challenge for all of us, however the weather is beyond our control.

The beach, just down the road from the campsite is a beautiful one, good sand and lots of it. The two groups at the beach this morning made a model representing all the famous sites of Paris which they hoped to see the following day.

The afternoon saw archery, orienteering, climbing and abseiling as the activities. Tonight’s evening meal was a barbeque, cooked for us at our site by the activity staff.

The evening fun, as it was our last night at Hauteville sur Mer, was a cabaret.This was more like a camp fire, without the fire, as we sang campfire songs and performed stunts and sketches. All the old favourites were there, the Enlarging Machine, Alice the Camel, Dorothy Perkins (Neil, you overdid it on the lipstick!). A good night was had by all. Packing began for tomorrows trip to Paris.

Thursday 10^th August

We left the camp site on time at 10.00 am, after our goodbyes and a final rousing chorus of the Funky Chicken, to begin our drive to Paris. We stopped for a picnic lunch somewhere along the way and arrived at our hotel in Paris late afternoon. After allocating rooms, showers and a freshen up, it was time for our evening meal and then to Paris for a coach tour. We stopped at the Eiffel Tower for a group photograph and also saw; The Louvre, The Arc de Triomphe, The Champs-Elysees, bridges over the Seine, and Notre Dame,

We then found our way back to the Hotel for a chance to recharge our batteries for tomorrow’s big day at Disneyland.

Friday 11^th August

Disneyland An early start saw us at the main gates at 9.30am. We split up into our activity groups and attempted to do and see everything!

We met up for lunch and then for Tea at ‘Buzz Lightyear’s Pizza Planet’. Two parades, a fantastic firework show and all the rides we could fit into the day, what a day, it was a long day, but it was also a fantastic day and it will be remembered for a very long time.

We finally got back to the coach just after midnight. We had temporarily been split up in the crowds building for the Spectromagic Electric Parade, and had only regrouped after some of the crowds had left the park following the firework display. We left Paris bound for Calais excited but exhausted and hoping to catch a 4 am ferry.

It was not to be……

Saturday 12^th August

We missed the boat by half an hour or so, not a major problem, there are plenty of ferries from Calais, so we booked onto one sailing at 6 am. This got us into Dover at 8am when the time difference is amended. We then drove on, with the coach starting to develop some acceleration problems. It was fine on a straight flat road, but any kind of hill meant problems but we persevered and made it onto the M25. After a stop for a mid morning break we returned to the M25 only to find ourselves right in the middle of the biggest traffic jam that day. A tanker had shed its load of olive oil, which caused a few problems! We then moved very slowly, in fact we covered about 2 miles in 2 hours. By this time the temperature was about 80 degrees and the coach had no air conditioning. It was not a pleasant journey.

By mid afternoon we got past the obstruction, back onto the M40 and underway, however the coach really started complaining and we were forced to make the decision, at Oxford, that it wasn’t going to get us home. This meant a wait of about four hours for a replacement vehicle to be found and driven down to us. Thanks to the very kind staff at the Welcome Break services on the M40 at Oxford, this time went very quickly and comfortably. At about 8pm our new coach arrived and we were able to continue our journey, finally arriving at Birkenhead, to cheers and applause, at about 11pm, 12 hours later than anticipated. I must say a big thank you to our coach driver Barry, who became a part of the team and 'got us home'.

The journey home stretched the resilience of all the members of the camp, but I think they all showed great strength of character and emerged back home still laughing, smiling and singing, guess what, the Funky Chicken!

My personal thanks and gratitude and that of the Birkenhead Scouts Special Needs committee goes out to everyone involved in the camp, it was a big step to take, it wasn’t easy but we learnt a great deal from the whole experience and this will be carried forward to our next camps, wherever and in what form they may be.

Here’s to the next one!

Paul Coleman.

Camp Leader.

The whole camp at Disneyland Paris.