Camp with the Franconville Scouts - Day 1 - Sun 9th August

• Early start just after 5am! The packing of the van was done on Saturday.
• We drove to Newhaven to catch the ferry to Dieppe. The crossing was to take four hours.
• From Dieppe, there was a three and a half hour drive to Giels-Corteilles in Normandy where we were to meet our hosts.
• We found the Giel-don Bosco Agricutural College but NO SCOUTS! They were tucked away at the far side of the site.
• The camp site was lovely, a flat plateau next to the River L'Orne.
• There were three French Patrols, two of boys and one girls. Our three boys pitched their tent alongside one of the boys' patrol's and the girls set-up alongside the girls patrol.
• There were fifteen French Scouts and four leaders; we had six scouts and three leaders.
• The evening meal was cooked by the boys, washed up by the girls and was followed by a wide game in the woods above the site.
• The wide game involved a walk with incidents which included riddles and puzzles to be solved by the Scouts. The second hidden person and incident were not found and we returned to camp, rather late and feeling tired.
• Our hosts were from Argenteuil and the Group is linked with Franconville, the town twinned with Potters Bar. They are a Catholic Group and one of the leaders has links with the College.
• The camp was fairly 'basic' using natural materials where possible. The dining shelters, tables and seats were all made from wood and the cooking was all being done on French-style altar fires.
• There were en suite natural air conditioned 'stargazer' toilet facilities, too.

Submitted by Diane

Viernheim Camp, Overview

The 1st Cuffley Scouts recently completed another successful twinning project, this time with Potters Bar's German partners in Viernheim. The group of five spent a week in Viernheim, south-west Germany, joining in activities with Geman Scouts and a local youth project. Scout Leader Alex Bedwell said, "Viernheim is a very flat town but nonetheless very beautiful. There is a really good welcome in Viernheim for visitors and plenty to do for children."

The Scouts participated in the Viernheim youth project, which ran from Monday 20th to Friday 24th July and was entitled 'English Week'. This was one of three weeks which taught the children about their twin town. The Scouts enjoyed many sports and games during the week as well as a trip to the historic city of Heidelberg. One of the Scouts main tasks was to help their new German friends find out about England and Potters Bar. For one of the challenges the German children had to select one hundred words that they wanted to know in English. In reciprical fashion, the Potters Bar Scouts then chose words they wanted to know in German."Some of our younger Scouts, knew no German at all and so started with some basics such as school and sports vocabulary. The Germans had a harder time of it, as they all spoke rather good English!" Mr Bedwell commented. "The children then did their best to learn the words throughout the week. It then became rather competitive when I started learning them too!"

One other feature of the daily course was the menu, being tailored to be as English as possible. Mr Bedwell and the Scouts helped to prepare a full English breakfast on one day and even transported to Germany many bottles of 'proper English' vinegar for use on fish and chips. Scout Oliver Virtue remarked, "the chef loved the fried bread and continued to make it as a snack for the rest of the week!"

Twinning activities have been happening between the Scouts in Viernheim and Potters Bar since the 1970s and through the efforts of the 1st Cuffley Scouts supported by the Potters Bar Town Twinning Association, this has been rejuvinated.


EMMA CRACKNELL'S, SENIOR PATROL LEADER (AGE 14) Viernheim was an interesting experience. The weather was hot, if a little rainy at times, the people we stayed with, our hosts, were polite, understanding, funny and interesting people whose background in Scouting and being "outdoorsy" was obvious. The range of activities we participated in during the week was phenomenal, varying from football to 20- foot- high assault courses to town trips, experiencing German culture and education.

Several nights we cooked "Backwoods" style, over campfires, using traditional German ways of cooking, which differed from British Scouts in many ways, including the use of a swinging barbecue suspended from a tripod. One evening, however, we (the four British Scouts and Skip, our leader, cooked a proper three course meal, consisting of fish cakes (Fischküchen), stew (Eintopf) and chocolate cake (Schokoladeküchen), to allow them to sample "English cuisine".

Their campfire songs were also dfferent to ours, the words alternating due to the different laguage (obviously), despite using the same melodies.
We then introduced them to some of our songs, such as "The Penguin Song" and some chants like "Oggi Oggi Oggi". All in all, I thorougly enjoyed our excursion to Germany and wish to return there before too long.

Guest written by "Skip" Bedwell, SL.