6th Newport trip to Brownsea Island

6th Newport Scout Group had an outing to Brownsea Island, the site of the first ever Scout Camp. We started by piling on a coach then going on a Red Funnel Ferry. 

Julie works for Red Funnel and she arranged to cordon off part of the main cabin so that we could all sit together. She also arranged a fantastic suprise.....

We all got to visit the bridge, where the captain showed us how to drive the ferry.

Everybody had a chance to see the amazing view from the wheelhouse, including the leaders and our own VIP.  Vik, wearing the dark shirt, was our driver for the day. She works for Southern Vectis, the Island Bus company, so she's a very good driver!

Me and GIJoe stood on the control desk.

We also sat on the Captain's chair. "Why doesn't he want to sit on it", asked GIJoe. "Simple", I told him. "He's at the other end of the wheelhouse..... 'cos the boat is going the other way......"

When we got to Poole groups of people had their photos taken by the statue of Lord Robert Baden Powell, the founder of Scouting.

As you can imagine, SOME people tended to giggle a lot about being next to BP!

When we got to Brownsea we found another statue of BP. And MaC lost Hatty, his hat, for a few minutes. We wondered WHO had put Hatty on BP..... But it does suit him!

At 8am on the 1st August 1907 BP blew his Kudu horn to summon 20 boys to the first experimental Scout camp for boys. We won't go into the discussions about who/how many/......

Anyway, MaC brought his Kudu horn and everyone tried to blow it (he also brought a load of sanitizing wipes to use between blowers).

Of course, there had to be one person who could produce more than the sound of a wet raspberry. Step forward ex-bugler Janet.

Time to quickly invest the newest Explorer Scout

Then time for group photos. GIJoe and I managed to get in on some of those.

Hatty got into some of the photos too! Yep! We're there!

"Wow"said GIJoe, "a real Trek Cart. Can we build an us-sized trek cart when we get home, Sid"? Why not" I said. "With Lego you can build almost anything"!

The shop roof is covered with scarves left by visiting Scouts.

We were walking along a path, and GIJoe had his nose in the map of the Island, when we came upon this little beauty.  "Oh! Deer!" I said.  "What's wrong", said GIJoe. "No, I said. Oh! (pause) Deer". "Oh! I see", said GIJoe, laughing.

There were loads of birds in the nature reserve. "Cormorants and Gulls", I think, said GIJoe.

We waited for the others to catch us up to get the boat, coach, ferry and coach home,

"It's strange to think of that first camp here over 110 years ago, and we're only about 15 miles from the Needles on the end of the Isle of Wight", said GIJoe.

"Yes", I said, "and a huge thanks to 6th Newport for bringing us on this brilliant day out".