Explorer Belt
The Explorer Belt is the challenge of a lifetime that is available to Explorer Scouts aged over 16 and members of the Scout Network. As part of the recent trip to Holland, the teams have to email in their experiences - here are a few
Explorer Belt Red Team
We as team of three (Simon, Nick & Jacob) are on course to completing our Explorer Belt Challenge and we have chosen a main/major project to do which is to based on & around windmills and the canal district of Holland (Amsterdam & Rotterdam), we have been set minor challenges along the way to keep us occupied, one was to email you when we find or come across a public libary, which we have done (of course!), so we have to give a breif report of where we are and what we have been doing.
Yesterday we arrived at Schipol airport in Amsterdam and we began to make our way to our first location of stay that we chose to take, with doing this we arrived at gaasperl camping, which we have pitched for two night to travel around the city of amsterdam, with taking a flight to amsterdam we had a problem with not being allowed to take gas on board the plane so when we pitched up, our first thing on the too do list was to find gas, (which we couldnt find) so we headed back to the campsite and chose our many minor challeneges to do in holland.
today we started on our minor projects by going to central amsterdam and went forward to the tourist information to find out about places to visit for our major and minor projects, with this help we completed three minors, which were visit one or more craftsman, finding an unusual mode of transport which was a three wheel carry bike/taxi, we have also decided to to choose our own projects which one was history of amsterdam to were we had a small ride with history. which then this will be completing the fourth minor project out of 12 by emailing you all about our journey so far. to help us complete the challenges is our mascot Darcy which is a bear/elephant, which is in every picture on our journey to make our achievement.
Yours in Scouting
Red Team Simon,Nick,Jacob,Darcy.
Explorer Belt Blue Team
We've found a library in a town called Soesterberg, between Amersfoort and Utrecht. We're going to try and find a local working windmill and see if we can get in touch with the local fire department for a tour, also for our minor projects. We've had some very nice dutch cheese for lunch today and also spoken to a few people about the minor projects on our list and had very mixed responces, although no-one's as yet had a very strong or controversial view. We've managed plenty for our main project, WW2 and the Nazi Occupation, taken pictures of lots of plaques and memorials and today we went to the Dutch Airforce Museum so we've learnt a lot about the role of the Dutch Airforce during WW2.
Everyone is going along ok with only minor injuries and sore feet (Sam cut his finger slicing the cheese) but apart from that we're bright and cheerful. Hope you and the other groups are happy and cheerfull as well,
Sam, Adam, Jimmy and Jack: Blue Team.
Explorer Belt White Team - Hello from the Netherlands!
This is White Team (Hugh, Ben, Emily, Ellie) emailing you just to tell you how we are getting on.
We've had an excellent couple of days out here, though the weather is a little too hot for this type of expedition - it's not great fun having a 15kilo pack on your back in 25 degree heat! We are currently in Hoorn, north of Amsterdam, and we plan to head off to Alkmaar for Friday to visit the cheese market. So far, we have visited a tulip museum in Amsterdam and discovered the rumour is actually true about just how many bikes there are over here.
Yesterday we visited the Zaanse Schans museum which is a collection of museums dedicated to different traditional crafts. We especially enjoyed visiting the many different types of windmill, as there were 6 on site, all dedicated to manufacturing a different product. We met a Dutch man called Hanz, who played the accordian, told us stories of his scouting past and taught us a Dutch song and dance, which was very interesting.
Yesterday was scorching so we went for a swim in a fresh water lake called Markenmeer, which is huge and is a result of the land reclamation project.
Hope all is well in the UK.
For further information on Explorer belt please contact Steve at explorer.belt@gmescouts.org.uk
