River

well oh my god, What an ordeal.

We arrived at a small lake, that we were told we had to cross. Well it was cold, we all stripped down to swimming shorts and put on some life jackets and told we had to cross the lake, we all had to work as a team as we crossed.

When you entered the watter it was so cold, and the coldness hit me so hard I found it a little hard to breath and just wanted to get to the other side as fast as I could. We did it, after a few minutes, but it was fun, just cold!

Wet

Well we woke today for breakfast at 7am and immediately after that we had a brief about what we were getting up to for the day, all we were told was to get waterproofs and boots and get some warm clothes on!

We headed out into the forest were we had lots of fun doing teaming building activites, some of them realy challenging.

It was constantly rainging so it was a little uncomfortable but it was OK, Could have been worse.

Here now

Well I'm here at the camp its a great place, quite a lot going on, theres a few buildings occupied by other scouts currently here, the hwole place surrounded by countryside, its lovely.

We had a meeting with a few managers and Country Leaders who have given us a prep-talk, gone through medial advice, and told us a bit more about what were going to be doing abroad.

Some of the things they mentioned, treking from the caribian coast to the pacific, building a primary school and working withing a nature reserve.

For tonight we will be sleeping in this building but tomorrow, we will be making out own shelter!

A long time there

Well it took about 5 hours to eventually get there, The gradstone Scout Camp was a real far distance to travel. I traveled through London and all the way to Essex a few hundred miles away from where I live.

We arrived shortly after 7 in the evening after a slow and tiring journey on the train, greeted my Raleigh Staff and taken to the Scout camp which wasn't that far away, It was a lovely area and our camp, was in the middle of a place called Forrest Row, and superb Forrest full old tracks and roads

Aerial View

Foresty

As you can see the camp is right in the centre of a forest!

Broadstone

I got a few details today of the place I'm going this weekend, 300 miles down south in the North of Sussex, midway between the South Coast and London. The site is almost 400 acres of mixed woodland, which is ideal for camping and getting a feel for the outdoors! Theres a lovely log cabin and theres even a swimming pool too!
I'm going to be there for 3 days two nights, and will get to know some of the team going away to Costa Rica, and get some good advice on the kit for going away, the only thing am not looking forward to is the 5 hour train ride there!

Rucksack

Today I managed to purchase a great ruck sack, which I'll be using for when I go away, its a great size over 80 Ltrs in total, full of pockets and it fits comfortably aswel, It didn't cost too much and I'll be using it this weekend to go away with!

Paralympics

Me, Debbie, Jenny and Gary went to Manchester yesterday to watch the Paralympics. The we watched Brazil vs. China and and Great Britan Game, it was such an eyeo-opener to watch disabled people in wheel chairs playing basketball, it was such an experience because you don't sometimes realise how much theny can do, I mean I wouldnt be able to do anything that thy were doing, and they put so much effort into it, it was Great! THere's some pictures below We spent most of the day there from about 12 until 5, and it was so lovely and sunny it was great, there was other games such a cycling but we didnt have time to watch those, China won the game we watched, so well done!

Sore Arm...

I had my vacciantion yesterday, 4 in total, but only two needles as yet, one in each arm, and it hurts :(

My arms feel so heavy and I didnt get a wink of sleep last night...I still got another 3 to go as-wel, am not looking forward to them...The nurse said to me; "I've never seen such a big wimp"!!!

Oh no, vaccinations!

Well we have hit the two month mark today, and there's still loads for us to do, we still need quite a bit of kit to get and money to raise, lucky enough the coastal walk has fit in perfectly in the schedule so that's in over two weeks!

This evening I will be visiting the doctors to get my vaccinations for the trip, I'm a bit anxious because there's quite a few I got to have so I'll have to put on a brave face even if am scared out of my wits!

I suppose its important to protect ourselves as some of these could prove nasty if I don't have the vaccinations.

Challenge Workshop

Well I mention a few weeks ago about a Challenge Workshop in East Grinstead, Sussex that I was ment to be going on, I have the dates now and its the 16th and 17th of this month.
This is a residential session specifically for Costa Rica, where we will meet other venturers coming on the expedition, learn more about your overseas projects, basic outdoor living, medical and kit advice. The place is another scout camp and will involve some camping as-wel which I'm looking forward to, its roughly 267 Miles from where we are now and hopefuly should be a lot of fun!

Our winnings

At the party there was a prize raffle to help raise money for "motivate" and there was 4 people from our table that won a prize (some say it was fixed) I won a motivate jumper, and Raleigh t-shirt and Debbie won a mobile phone, you can see the picture here, excuse the cheesy grin, that was Debbie taking a picture unexpectedly!

The picture

As posted below, me and Debbie attended a small celebration party on Tuesday to welcome back 4 young guys who had just got back from Costa Rica, We got to meet the mayor which was great as I've never met him before. He was keen to listen to what we had planned and he mentioned a few things we told him in his speech.