Summer 2001 meant Troop B's biggest adventure yet: ten days of excitement, exploratation and adventure in the spectacular Snowdonia National Park.

Our base was Cornel Scout Centre - a large camp site on the shore of Llyn Crafnant - a beautiful mountain lake. From here we were able to discover some of North Wales' delights and challenges.

You can read the whole page, or jump to a day by clicking on one of the links below (found throughout the page)

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Friday 24 August - Motorway, Gear & Tents
An early start to our travels saw our assortment of vehicles descend upon Betws-y-Coed (Snowdonia's tourist centre). The drizzle failed to dampen the bouyant mood and a quick blast of the town's many outdoor shops was obviously essential. It's safe to say that we must now be one of Cotswold's most valued customers.
Armed with rucsacs full of shiny new gear, the camp was ready to begin. The first task: turning a grassy green field into a comfortable home. Between the scouts and leaders we managed to get all the tents up and arranged fairly quickly, which left enough time to fit in an incident course around the lake. Patrols were faced with various tasks ranging from getting everybody off the ground to putting a tent up blindfold.
A BBQ and burgers provided a suitable finish to a long day as everybody retired to their sleeping bags in eager anticipation of the week ahead

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Saturday 25 August - Whitewater, Quads, Vertigo
After a brief full kit inspection we bundled on the bus and pointed it towards Bala. Forty minutes later and the staff at Canolfan Tryweryn (National Whitewater Centre) were going through the rituals of kitting up in wetsuits, helmets and paddles to get us ready for our two hour Raft Extravaganza. Essentially this was four descents of the river, tackling such infamous rapids as The Graveyard, Ski Slope, Fingers, Splatt Rock and Mrs Davidson's. The Tryweryn has been used for two world championships - so it's hardly an easy ride! Soaking, thrilling and an excellent start to the camp's adventurous activities.

Whilst the older scouts were white water rafting, our younger members had made the journey across to Porthmadog where they engaged in a quad trekking centre. Each on their own quad bike they navigated around a woodland course that provided plenty of mud, water drops and other obstacles.

Both groups converged a short distance away at the Ropeworks - one of the UK's best high ropes facilities. Scouts were able to pick their own challenges in an extended sesssion. Some traversed around the high ropes area - jumping across four foot gaps, walking along wires, balancing on a log - and all at a height of forty feet! Others jumped off the forty foot tower to enjoy an exhilirating whizz down the zip wire. Another highlight had to be the leap of faith - climb onto a small paltform at the top of a forty foot pole and leap off to grab the trapeze in front (even te hardest found this a bit intimidating). But the undisputed winner was the G3 swing - here you are suspended on a wire before being winched up by a crane. When you get to the tope you pull the rip cord and freefall to the ground, the swing kicks in and you find yourself hurled skywards. Excellent.

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Sunday 26th August - Sun & Sea Cliffs
A bit of problem solving today - sorting out the minibus tire and the hire company had inconveniently not provided us with a spare. The AA came to the rescue which meant that we got to do at least some of our sea cliff traversing session.
We arrived on the coast of Anglesea in weather that can only be described as Mediteranean - it was an absolute scorcher! The sea looked amazing - varying between green and clear - at least if we fell in it would be into quite a nice bit of surf!
Sea cliff traversing involves making your way horizontally along the sea cliffs, staying as close to the water as possible. Jumping across gaps, clambering along rocks with minute holds, a tyrollean traverse all added to the pleasure of being by the sea on an amazing day. For those that had managed to keep dry (boring plebs - you hadn't been trying hard enough!) there was always the opportunity to jump in at the end which most took full advantage of.

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Monday 27th August - Bristly, Rocky, Electricity
Today was the day for one of our mountain parties to take to the hills. Arran, Toby, David, Luke and Simon joined leaders Ed and Matt for a sensational day of mountain walking and scrambling on The Glyders. After the slog up from Ogwen corner it was a pleasant relief to enjoy lunch in the Tryfan saddle (a gap between two mountains). Ed and Matt informed the scouts of the route that was being proposed. Toby's response of "how on earth are we going to get up there?" was a pretty accurate analysis of what Bristly Ridge looks like from the bottom. In reality it is a tremendously exciting scramble requiring full use of your hands that brings you out on the summit of Glyder Fach. Sinister Gully and Great Pinacle Gap are the two cruxes of the route, but the whole ridge provides one of the best few hours of fun anywhere. What made it all even better was that the weather was about the best the area had experienced in months - bright sunshine and clear blue skies.
The ascent complete we made a traverse of the Glyders, stopping off at the cantilever and two summits and then blitzed down the scree and Devil's Kitchen to meet the minibus back at Ogwen to take us home.
The remainder of the camp party had enjoyed a fine day out at Electric Mountain - a fascinating tourist attraction in Llanberis.

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Tuesday 28th August - Rock Climbing & Orienteering
Tuesday morning saw Crib Goch and Tryfan patrols embark on an assault of Beddgelert Forest's orienteering course, whilst Ogwen and Cnicht enjoyed a session of climbing at nearby Tremadog - home of some of the most demanding routes in the area.
The orienteering course in Beddgelert is well arranged and really sees you exploring the area and working as a team to get around. The climbing was challenging for all with some interesting problems on both routes that we used - but all the scouts gave it a go and saw their way up te rock.
Once again, the storming sunshine was a joy and the views across to the surrounding mountains and out to the sea were astounding. After lunch the patrols swapped over in order to enjoy both activities.

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Wednesday 29th August - Moel Siabod, Blind Drop
Another day on the hill for one of the mountain parties. This time it was an ascent of Moel Siabod for Jonny, Martin, Paul, Jasper and Josh along with Neil and Ed. The views as we made our way up from Capel Curig didn't stop getting better and we trod the path that meanders up between lakes and quarries to the tremendous amphitheatre of rock at the foot of the mountain. It wasn't long before we were on the final ridge to the summit, with scouts taking turns in picking a line on the scramble to the summit. For many this was the first taste of a proper mountain day and Siabod offered an excellent introduction with some challenging scrambling to the top.
Lunch at the summit shelter in the bright sun was quite an experience with the backdrop of all the mountains clearly all around. Spirits was at a very high level and we rock hopped our way along the summit ridge taking in the spectacular view and drops that abounded. It was just a shame that we had to descent and make our way back down to Capel Curig.
Meanwhile the remaining scouts had split into two groups for a blind drop hike. Here the scouts were blindfolded from the camp site and dropped at an unknown location in the surrounding area. It was up to them to work out where they were ad then navigate their way back to the camp site, which both groups did successfully. On route they passed through some very dramatic Snowdonia scenery.

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Thursday 30th August - National Park Wardens, Mountain Rescue, Rafts
The brilliant weather had to end at some point and today the cloud closed in, though, to be honest, it was something of a relief to have an afternoon of not sweltering!
It didn't particularly bother us anyway as we were off to meet the National Park Wardens today and the mountain rescue.
We went to one of the bases at Nant Peris, at the foot of Snowdon where two of the wardens took us through the background and work of the National Park Authority and answered plenty of questions that the scouts threw at them.
Shortly after we made our way through to the mountain rescue base where we discovered plethora of information on the mountain rescue as well as sampling some of their equipment. A really good and interesting few hours. The weather perked up nicely for our raft building session, utilising the small river that flowed along the edge of the campsite.
With varying degrees of success, patrols constructed a small raft out of staves and barrels to transport their members across the water. As you might imagine, this was one of the funniest moments of the camp with arms and legs everywhere - needless to say some finished the activity distinctly damp.

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Friday 31st August - Mountain Biking & Gorge Walking
Coed y Brenin is the home of mountain biking. Purpose built one-way trails with no walkers or horsed - perfect. We split into two groups and headed rapidly around the MBR trail - a brilliant trail through the woodland packed with fast flowing singletrack, drop offs, rooty downhills and switchbacks. It is sponsored by MBR magazine and is the newest of the forest's MTB trails (Karrimor and Red Bull also sponsor routes) - the scouts did tremendously well to get around it and with such ease.
When not biking, one of the groups were gorge walking at the not too far away Abergonolwyn gorge. Plenty of interest here scrambling up water falls, diving head first down water chutes, jumping into plunge pools, slipping over rocks and sitting under cascading waterfalls. All in all, a great activity. Others in the troop spent some time finding out about the legend of the bridge! (Don't ask...)

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Saturday 1st September - Rock Traverse, Abseil, Tyrollean, Mine & Zip Wire
A full day in a quarry today in the small town of Friog.
Activity one was a rock traverse. Clip yourself onto the protective wire and make your way across a section of rock with tricky holds and moves. To make it more interesting, you're fifty foot off the quarry floor. Next up was a tyrollean traverse, where you simply make your way along a wire suspended fifty or so foot in the air. This was followed by an eighty foot abseil down the steeply inclining quarry wall.
Three exciting activities out of the way and it was time for lunch. With that out of the way we geared up with head torches and helmets for a bit of time underground in an old working slate mine. Abseiling and climbing underground is pretty unique and something that adds a new dimension to an old favourite activity.
The final part of the day, and one of the biggest rushes of the camp, was the awesome zip wire. Stepping off an eighty foot cliff and freefalling towards the lake at the bottom of the quarry. The wire does its stuff and breaks your descent so that you end gently(!) with a large splash in the lake itself. Breathtaking and leaving everybody with a heck of a buzz.
We rounded the last full day of the camp off with fish and chips, then returned pretty exhausted to the campsite.

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Sunday 2nd September - Travel Home
The final day of the camp essentially involved packing up and travelling home. It didn't seem to matter as everybody was on quite a high following a week of outstanding activities and fun.
It is a credit to the scouts in the troop that they gave every activity a go and the week was generally incident free.
Safe to say that everybody is raring to go on next year's camp, wherever it may take us!

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Catch the latest on SC2002 here!

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Why not check out the SC2001 additions to "Colin Time"?

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