Derbyshire
April 2005

The scouts are always asking when we are next going to Alton Towers. We made ourselves popular with those in year 9 by deciding that the next time we were going was to be the week before their SATS. So off we headed on a mid-April weekend to enjoy all the thrills and spills that the Towers had to offer, that and a traditional late night abseil on the Miller's Dale viaduct.

Follow that car
Our journey to Spitewinter was relatively hassle free, apart from a detour in Chesterfield which confused Ed and we ended up following a white car round an estate and all the way to their front drive. They looked slightly concerned, but we eventually found our way.

An early start
We started early on Saturday morning, as the scouts were keen to make opening time at Alton Towers. Unfortunately they spent more time being noisy than they did getting ready, so we had to settle for a 9.30 arrival.

Alton Towers
Alton Towers never fails to amuse. There are loads of world class rides and it is a really fun day out. The scouts were allowed to go off in groups, with everybody meeting together at lunch time. Several of the scouts had been before, so knew exactly where to go, others had a great time exploring.

Rides galore
We went on everything - Air, Nemesis, Oblivion, the water rides, Hex, even the rally cars. It was pretty exhausting but you can see why these places are so popular.

Rita
The new ride for this year was Rita: Queen of Speed - going from 0-100kph in under 2.5 seconds. That's seriously fast and despite the massive queues, everybody agreed it was one of the best rides they had ever been on.

Abseil
We finished the day in style, abseiling from the Miller's Dale viaduct in the dark. Some scouts must have done this several times now. For novices it presents quite a challenge. James, Ollie and Rupert all tried a rap-run, which was voted as one of the scariest things they had ever done.

Make the parade
We got organised on Sunday morning and made it back for our district St. George's Day Parade with plenty of time to spare.