Annual Camp - Blackwell Court '98

In 1998 the De La Salle Scout Unit celebrated it's 70th anniversary. As part of these celebrations we organised an abroad camp to probably the most popular venue for a Unit camp ever - Blackwell Court. Blackwell Court is a dedicated Scouting centre located about 12 miles outside of Birmingham in the countryside of Bromsgrove. It is one of Britain's leading campsites and played host to this unit for excellent camps in 1990 and again in 1993. As it was an abroad trip, camp this year ran over eleven days from Thursday the 30th of July to Sunday the 9th of August. Below the story of Camp '98 unfolds.

Above Left : Pictured on the Log Flume in Alton Towers are Colm Ennis of the 7th, Traolach O'Sullivan of the Venturers, Bernard Cunningham of the 3rd and Paul White of the 7th. Above Right: Owen Griffin of the 7th on the grass sledging slopes.

And We're Off.......

We had been waiting for Camp 98 for a long time. It was our first abroad camp for five years and it was going to be the major Scouting event of the year. Of course on Thursday the 30th of July most people were just panicing. Even though our gear had gone ahead of us by container a week before, there are always those thousand other things that you've forgotten and which you just have to fit into a fifteen litre day pack. The bus left from the Mayors Walk at 6.30pm on Thursday the 30th after waiting, as usual, for twenty minutes for John Butler to arrive. John it is believed has been late for every camp he ever went on. Then it was on to Rosslare and the ferry where we met up with the St.Pauls Scout Troop who were going to Blackwell with us. Nobody was thrown overboard from the ferry (despite the temptation) and instead a stackful of money was spent on games machines and dodgy Irishy T-Shirts from the duty free shop. It is amazing that whenever we leave Irish soil that the Wolfe Tones tapes are resurrected and a hundred hurleys are brought along for the ride! When we reached Pembroke, we prepared ourselves for the usual bus journey from hell to Birmingham. It's a five hour journey to Blackwell Court and no matter how many times you stop in the motorway cafes, the seats still shrink after every mile until they eventually feel like they were made for somebody about three feet tall.

Above: An arial view of Blackwell Court which is situated in the heart of the Worcestershire countryside near Bromsgrove.

We arrived at Blackwell at about 6.30am and as usual the place was covered witrh rabbits (but not for long). Our gear didn't arrive for another hour or two so we had plenty of time to have a look around and relax before we had to set up camp. The weather on the first day was brilliant which made getting up 6 sets of Icelandics and dining shelters, the marquee, the Big Brown Megatent (old army MASH style tent), a dozen or so domes and a couple of house tents a lot easier. Paschal Guilfoyle, Camp Chief and Scoutleader of the 3rd Waterford unveiled his new Vango 800 which it is believed could double as a garage for his car. By the afternoon everything was set up (although it took St.Pauls another three days for some reason) and we headed off on an orienteering course around Blackwell Court which helped us to get to know the site. The event was won by Christopher Farnan of the 7th who was the only person that get all 15 points. Meanwhile Unit Leader John Hennebry (JD) headed off to get his new hire car and even managed to get a parking ticket, just 30 minutes after he had collected it. After a swim in the pool and dinner we had the practice sessions of volleyball, soccer and basketball for the inter-patrol league which would be run throughout Camp. We also had the first round of the legendary Brother Virgilius Megaquiz which has been held on every camp since Stradbally in 1931 (well probably).

Settled In...

On Saturday each patrol started doing the various activities which Blackwell Court provides onsite; these include abseiling, archery, grass sledging, cork rifle range and rafting. These continued for the week until each patrol had got to take part in them. There were also a number of bases run by the leaders of the Unit including the Scoutskills base by Colm Ennis and Billy Collins which included bamboo pioneering, making of the Gilwell woggle, the triple bowline, the one handed bowline and a tug of war (to the death). Owen Riordan also ran an excellent survival skills base which included some spectacular backwoods cooking. On Saturday the patrols also prepared sketches for that night in the Marquee as well as taking part in the daily visit to the pool which included some fairly serious games of water polo (with a difference!). Two patrols also made their first cross country visit to Bromsgrove (and McDonalds) as the abseiling had to be cancelled due to the rain.

We got a bus to mass on Sunday which took half an hour (we later discovered we could have walked it in the same time), and where we tripled the congregation. When we got back Billy Collins stuck on his Good Morning Vietnam CD and we got into the mood to tackle the Assault Course. Under the watchful eye and muddy hand of the Venturers, each scout was timed on the course with Seamus Farnan of the 7th coming out on top. Seeing that the sun was splitting the rocks and that the Venturers were in the field, it ended with a water fight where we discovered (especially Terence) that St.Pauls don't like to get wet.

The Big Five Challenge

Alton Towers on the Monday was one of the major day trips of the week. On the bus journey over, the Big Five Challenge was laid down. It consisted of completing the five major roller coasters in the park including:
1. The Black Hole - The Black Hole is a space-age ride that spirals you upwards before hurling you down 50ft at 45mph with a G-Force of 2.5 - all in pitch blackness.
2. The Corkscrew - Famous for its double loop-the-loop along a hair raising half-mile track, this monster exerts a pull three times that of gravity.
3. Nemesis - In just 90 seconds you are whisked through a brain-buzzing 50mph barrel roll and a Zero-G turn where you experience four seconds of space-style weightlessness. Then there is a vertical loop at FOUR TIMES the force of gravity. And just when it seems you are doomed to crash to earth, you are whipped upwards again.It all happens without anything solid under your feet. Your legs dangle free from ski-lift style chairs.
4. Oblivion - Oblivion is the World's first vertical drop roller coaster. It has a drop of 180 feet into a tunnel deep underground. The ride lifts you to the top of it's steep lifthill and then holds you at around 45 degrees for four seconds over the steaming hole 90 feet below. You hear "Don't Look Down" and then you're off - plunging into Oblivion !
5. Ripsaw - It's bone shaking...... it's wild......it's wet...... With terrifying water effects and upto 5 stomach churning 360 degree spins, Ripsaw leaves you hanging upside down nearly fifty feet above the ground - it's a definate thrill fix.

Above: Don't look down - Members of the De La Salle Venturer Group before the drop on Oblivion including Bernard Cunningham, Gary Sinnott, Robert Windle, John Butler and Owen Riordan as well as Colm Ennis and Paul White from the 7th.

A record 25 people completed the challange and also went on numerous other rides including the Runaway Mine Train (a sneaky one as John O'Donohue found out), the Congo River Rapids, the Log Flume, the Waveswinger, the Entreprise and the Haunted House. There were as usual a few jibbers that made do with the Teacups, Storybook Land and the Squirrel Nutty Ride. Paul White of the 7th even managed to win a 4 foot high by 3 foot wide cow when he hit the bullseye playing darts. It was a wet day but when you're upside down and having a brilliant time, it doesn't really matter. Check out the Alton Towers Website

Shortcuts, Dreadlocks and Railway Lines

Tuesday and Wednesday saw the return of the good weather, more of the onsite activities as well as a few hikes thrown in for good measure. There are loads of way marked trails around the area and we got in a few fantastic walks around Barnt Green and the Lickey Hills. De La Salle leaders have long ago confessed that although their standard of navigation in the mountains is excellent, when it comes to roads and tracks they have a habit of becoming "misplaced". Not so ASL Colm Ennis, he always knew where he was on the map when he led a patrol or two on a shortcut across a high speed railway line. JD was not amused with news that we had been fined £200 x 14 people for this adventurous shortcut. Meanwhile the other two patrols had to find their way back to the site on their own as Colm had the only map. His brother, Aidan meanwhile was having difficulty fiding the site at all. Having travelled over from Ireland midweek he missed his train stop, then his bus stop and became hopelessly "misplaced" somewhere in the Birmingham countryside.

Venturer Eric Whelan (shown above) also had an adventurous camp when he decided to get on the wrong side of the "Gigantic Pushball" as the 8 foot diameter beach ball is known. Already famous for causing multiple injuries it almost dislocated his shoulder. This necessitated a trip to the hospital but unfortunately they didn't have to shave off his dreadlocks which were now being accused of being a health risk. We also had a few more injuries (the hallmark of an active camp) including Mark Bardgett with a sprained ankle and Kenneth Rouse made a good attempt at slicing his finger off.

Trains, Armageddon and Chocolate

On Thursday we headed into Birmingham city centre by train. The ticket collecter experienced the famous "70 scouts are too hard to count so there must be only 40 " phenomenon and eventually we arrived at New Street Station where we divided up into groups of 4-5, each with a leader who headed off around Birmingham for the day. Everybody spent a bucketload of money and managed not to get too lost or too ripped off in the process. By that stage the games league was coming to the end with Seamus Farnan's patrol from the 7th winning the Volleyball and Alan Johnstons patrol from St.Pauls winning the Soccer. The basketball was a draw between two patrols. Friday morning saw the last of the onsite activities and since everybody was getting tired and world war three was at risk of breaking out, we decided to head into the cinema in Birmingham for a bit of relaxation. We went to see Armageddon which wasn't bad though all 50 of us as well as 20 from St.Pauls in the non air conditioned cinema on a hot day meant we couldn't breathe. Meanwhile the Venturers were getting in a bit of rock climbing at the nearby climbing wall centre.

Above: Brian Casey of the 13th on the guitar prepares for the campfire assisted by Craig O'Brien (Ollie) on the egg flip.

That night we held a campfire which we had been practicing for over a couple of nights. "Aon Focail Eile" went down very well as did the acoustic set by Brian Casey and Paul Cunningham. Aidan Ennis also provided his legendary version of the "Bear Hunt". After that the last night supper was held in the Marquee and people eventually started to go to bed. Well most people did anyway, although Michael Flynn's patrol tent did mysteriously fall down in the middle of the night and John Kinsella did get in a bit of electrical work outside the tuck shop. On Saturday morning we broke camp and got all the gear loaded on the container before going for a last swim in the pool. After the swim there was an award ceremony. Paul McSweeney's patrol won the Interpatrol Challange, Terence O'Neill got the special award for having the biggest mouth, the Big Five Challange prizes were handed out and Paul White won the prize for "winning the biggest cow at a game of darts". Before we set out for Waterford we stopped at Cadbury's World so that we could buy chocolate which would melt on the bus. It was a hot day and instead of turning on the token air conditioning, the bus driver mistakenly turned on the heat. He discovered this two hours down the road but not before we had all nearly passed out.

Above: Gavin Cooke of the 7th tries his hand at archery as Kevin Jones, the warden of Blackwell Court looks on.

By the time we reached Pembroke everybody was half asleep which allowed us to scribble down all the things which we promised we wouldn't mention about Camp 98 - Derek Ryan and co. (half the Melvin team) getting lost on the way to the train for Cadbury's world; John O'Donohue and co. getting lost on the way back from Bromsgrove; Eric Whelan and the caravan; Paschal forgetting to bring his wetgear jacket; the boarding passes; those train tickets; lap dancing and singing of "Bingo the Dog" in Birmingham city centre; Paul White in Pikes Pool and all those other things that combined with the site, the activities and the atmosphere went towards making Blackwell Court '98 our most successful and enjoyable camp for many years.

Epilogue

We arrived back at the Mayor's Walk at 8.30am on Sunday the 9th and everybody was completely wrecked after the travel and especially after such an active camp which will be talked about for years to come. In 1999 we headed to Lough Dan in Co. Wicklow which you can read about on our Camp '99 page.

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