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Gummies were worth a mint. Except for three times, I wore them all the time. We had two hot days and eight days of rain. I've experienced worse camps regarding mud in the past, but it was still very debilitating. Our explorers built bridges in the end to cover the worst mudholes and puddles on the paths at our neighbors and behind our own kitchen tent over to the dish wash paradise.
Our district's subcamp with three tribes in the diocesan camp with about 1,200 people total was at the very end of the campground. So it was a fairly quiet spot at night and only few people passed through, which helped to keep the mud levels a bit lower than at other spots. On the other hand, the nearest toilet, shower and water gathering station was about 4-5 minutes from us. On the positive side, we never had any issues with toilet smell. That was pretty bad at our neighbors right next to it. Twice a day we had to bring our sorted waste to the garbage place and pick up the food for the next day at the exact opposite end of the campground. It took 15 minutes with our handcarts on these rutted roads to reach that. Also, the central food distribution office only commissioned packets for groups of at least 50 people. We were close to a 100 scouts in our district with our international guests from Isreal, but got all the groceries for us and another tribe with only 25 folks. So we always had to divide everything which also cost a lot of time, especially if you have to open up packaged goods and refill them in appropriate containers. All in all, this fairly simple task cost one and a half hours roundtrip including waiting times.
Before camp we had our remaining white tents cleaned and waterproofed. A few years back we did the same with a first batch. However, day two at constant rain and water was dripping down inside these tents. Turns out, they only washed it, but didn't waterproof it. So, in a rescue mission our material maintainer brought us all the rest of the (small) tents from our material store.
A strong wind gust got under our only half closed dining area made of three yurts and ripped a strong steel T-peg right in half and snapped two wooden yurt poles like matches. It appears there was a manifacturing defect in the peg, though. The beer table and ale bench shelves in our kitchen tents were thrown over. Luckily, everybody except three kitchen staff (who just went to rest a bit) were visiting a hydroelectric power plant, so there were no injuries. Even glass bottles for oil and vinegar, packed DSLR and laptops survived the rough trip to the ground, too. It was just a huge mess and chaos.
Another novum this time: No trip to the hospital was needed. We usually end up at least once with some injury.
Since I was part of the kitchen team, I didn't really attend the regular program. I only had one and a half days off at the weekend, when more volunteers paid us a short visit and joined the regular kitchen crew. We would have been 12 people, which would have been too many, so a few all-time kitcheners were allowed to rest. The first day I attended all our tribe-internal workshops: a botany lesson (forgot most of it by now, unfortunately, but was really cool), a woggle workshop, a gaming session and such. The other day I visited the power plant but had to return early to clean up the mess and replace pegs with longer and even stronger ones.
We dedicated one yurt for the fireplace, otherwise we could not have enjoyed the campfire. That was an extremely awesome experience. Just staring at the fire is super relaxing and the pattering of the rain on the yurt cloth is also very calming. Sitting around the fire in the rain, but not getting wet at all is just great.
All in all, it was a good camp, the kids certainly liked it a ton. Leaders and volunteers were super exhausted, though.
Only two or three tents could be packed up dry a day before departure, the second dry and hot day in the camp. The first hot day without any rain was on Monday when we arrived (and technically the day before, when our advance guard put up most of the tents. At tear down day we of course got more rain, so the day after we had to put up everything back at home to let it dry. Luckily, the sun was beating on us. Now it's all tidied up again and stored away for the next camp to come. Except for the tents to be waterproofed. In hindsight the good thing was that we could not properly clean everything at the campground, so we redid all the dishes and kitchen utensils back at home the day before yesterday. Now they're stored in absolute mint condition like they never had been before.
Photos from our trip on a rocky path around Lake Kochel. Or a very, very short section of it. The walking speed of our 15 and 16 years old Isreaeli guests, who are all guides and leaders, was overwhelmingly low. Our cubs (aged 6-10) could easily make at least double the distance in the same time. We barly made it to the first lookout and had to return to make it to the guided tour through the hydroelectric power plant in time.
Besides their general sloth in camp, bad time management (they were almost always late, although it improved a wee bit over time) and enourmous amount of rubbish they produced, it was a really good time with 'em. Super kind, funny and they had great attitude. They were singing and dancing a lot, I enjoyed that. Once they prepared a Sabbath meal and a breakfast for everybody. I forgot all the names but it was all very, very tasty. One was very similar to our braided sweet yeast bread. Communicating in English worked out very well. Plenty new friendships were made.
Also in terms of food they were fairly uncomplicated. Most of our kitchen worries beforehand were for no reason. Except for one day (chilli con/sin carne) the whole camp was vegetarian, even vegan sometime, which simplified cooking in general. First we were told by the camp organizers that our guests won't eat any meat at all, but then we heard that some of them would love to have some meat, too. A bit later the numbers grew and after the final check with their trip leader everybody but two were looking forward to get some meat. So we had to reorder more beef last minute, which luckily worked out.
Yesterday evening, we went to a restaurant to have dinner with the scout leaders and volunteers after completing the cleanup. My bicycle lock had to be cut open with a wire cutter, because the lock mechanism did not release although the key still turned fine. Luckily, a gambling hall next door had the right tool to lend. 20-25 years this lock served me well.
@lyse That little frog there on the photos should become Rust’s new mascot. 😅
Well, this report reminds me why I don’t do camps/festivals anymore. 😅 Sounds like a lot of fun on the one hand, but boy, a lot of work. 🥴
I take it this was a church thingy?
@lyse That little frog there on the photos should become Rust’s new mascot. 😅
Well, this report reminds me why I don’t do camps/festivals anymore. 😅 Sounds like a lot of fun on the one hand, but boy, a lot of work. 🥴
I take it this was a church thingy?
@lyse That little frog there on the photos should become Rust’s new mascot. 😅
Well, this report reminds me why I don’t do camps/festivals anymore. 😅 Sounds like a lot of fun on the one hand, but boy, a lot of work. 🥴
I take it this was a church thingy?
@movq Haha, yeah, that frog kinda looks rusty. ;-)
Big camps like this one (Diözesanlager) are always tons more stressfull than smaller camps with just our own group (Stammeslager). There are plenty of things cast in stone that you cannot control and have to work with (or try to work around). The kids loved it, though. Thus it's still a big success in the end.
Kind of. Unfortunately, the scouts are connected to the church. At least over here, not sure about other parts of the world, but I reckon it's very common. The local group or tribe (Stamm) is connected to a church parish. Scouts use the church's premises for their weekly group meetings of all their sections (Stufen) to play games, do crafts and such. Also the leader meetings (Leiterrunden) often take place there. Especially if the weather is not suited for outdoor activities. In return of using the rooms the church asks for participation in services and such. However, it heavily depends on the local group how much church things actually happen. In our case it's rather not so much.
To participate in the scout movement, you don't have to be catholic, in fact anybody is welcome. I'm even an atheist, like some others, too. Since I'm just a volunteer and not a leader, it's extremely easy for me to just skip all the church things. Which I do. In the camp there was also a church service, but I did not attend it. Although they're kind of weird, I interpret §5 and 8 of the scout laws to cover my case actually pretty well. ;-) But again, it really depends on the local group and also the scout organization. The DPSG is generally quite liberal on that regard.
To finish it off, the tribes or local groups of the [DPSG (Deutsche Pfadfinderschaft St. Georg)](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsche_Pfadfinderschaft_Sankt_Georg) – where we're a member of – are grouped to a district (Bezirk) and districts then are combined into the dioceses of the Catholic Church which happens to be Diözese Rottenburg-Stuttgart for me. Plenty of scouts from Ro-St came together for ten days: https://rostwaerts.de/
@lyse I see, interesting. 🤔 That’s a subculture that I really never had any contact with. 🤔
@lyse I see, interesting. 🤔 That’s a subculture that I really never had any contact with. 🤔
@lyse I see, interesting. 🤔 That’s a subculture that I really never had any contact with. 🤔