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| Orchard Farm 2001 - Report by Turbo Dave |
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Friday 26th October 2001 – Sunday 28th October 2001 Friday: Arrived at hut around 4pm. Chaos as millions of parents / brothers & sisters gather to bid their cub / scout goodbye. Find out that the Ventures get the old dodgy “Hertfordshire Scouts” minibus. Left hut by 5pm. Worrying times ahead as radio aerial falls off at the end of Watermill Lane, and then we drove through torrential rain, hoping the tin roof will hold! Went via Derby to pick up Alison from the train station, well we ended up going the scenic way anyway thanks to lack of communication between navigator and driver, mentioning no names…James and Chas! Stopped off in Ashbourne for excellent fish ‘n’ chips. Midway through an interesting conversation on dissecting bowels, Woody makes a hugely amusing blunder, thinking our conversation has been based on owls, not bowels and therefore proving that the local Derbyshire air has obviously got to him! Woody’s n ew nickname is now “Owl”. Someone also points out the size of Sam’s sausage…! Arrived at Orchard Farm about 30 minutes before everyone else. Carefully selected our room, dumped our kit there, and escaped up the road to the pub as soon as the rabble appeared. Spent an hour, if not more, in “Ye Olde Worlde Pub”, taking advantage of low prices whilst being smoked out by the resident OAP, probably as old as the pub, sitting on his chair next to the bar with his pipe. |
| Walked back down the road to Orchard Farm, to find the cubs and scouts are anything but asleep. One could sense this was going to be a long night, which inevitably it turned out to be, despite attempts by Alison, Phil and Woody to shut them all up. However, Mike stole the show with his calm attitude and his first line, “guys…guys” obviously had some effect as minutes later, the place was much more quieter. Sleep at last… |
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Saturday: Woken up by noisy cubs, surprise surprise. Had breakfast, packed kit, and had departed in our minibus by 9:30am, destination unknown. 50 minutes later, after driving up and down hills, driving through towns such as Buxton and turning round a few times, we arrived at our start point for the day’s hike - a car park in the middle of nowhere! Split into two teams: Team 1 being Chas, Alison, Sam, Philippa and myself, whilst Team 2 was made up of James, Mike, Jules, Rob and Woody…oh, and not forgetting Sheila, Rob’s faithful stick either! Set off at a brisk pace with Sam starting off the map reading. Weather seemed to be nice as we followed paths, climbed hills, jumped over streams and in Phil’s case, fell over on a number of occasions for no apparent reason! Stopped off for a few breaks every now and again for drinks, sweets and to allow removal / addition of clothes or buffalos! As we set off again, Alison thought she heard a large number of people behind us, only to turn and discover it was the pocket radio tuned into Man Utd v Leeds! On we went, up and around these paths, until we decided to stop for lunch on the side of a hill, where we were promptly overtaken by a trio of keen walkers (obviously not the other group then!), consisting of a father carrying enough equipment to climb Mount Everest, and two young sons, one of whom was carrying an abundance of camping mats, whilst the other clambered up and about in wellies! Following lunch it was back to walking, and we soon reached the top, to be greeted by an area known as “Kinder Scout” which is mainly peat bog. After about half an hour of sliding / falling / jumping (delete as appropriate) around in this lovely terrain, still with the footy blaring out on the radio, we reached the object from which Sam had taken a bearing from – a black sheep! Our walk was concluded with the descent from this environment up high, but n ot before sighting “axe-wielding” people, falling over a few more times, jumping across large streams and watching Chas celebrate Luton’s 3-0 over Swansea! Had to wait for 20 minutes for the other group to finish – they all returned in one piece, even Sheila the Stick! |
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Fell asleep, as did most people, on the journey home, although we did have to stop off for five minutes for Mike to go walking around Buxton in bare feet looking for a bank! Experienced communal showers on our return to Orchard Farm, followed eventually by supper. The late evening’s activity was predictably summed up in one word, pub, although this time we were relegated to the opposite, less comfortable side of the bar. Chatted about the day’s escapades, ate, drank, played music in the music boxes and also got invaded by the local dog who seemed very friendly! Left long after closing time (was there a closing time for that pub?!) and returned to a much quieter than expected Orchard Farm for some much needed rest. |
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Sunday: Ventures turn to make breakfast, so Chas and James donned their chef hats and started cooking whilst the rest of us set out tables and served or distributed the food to the now fully awoken and hungry cubs and scouts. Left all the other leaders to do the washing up, as we set off again in our old minibus on another excursion. Ended up driving down this very steep hill and parking in the valley next to a river and a well-situated tearoom. Walked along the road for a short while and then started our ascent to these caves high up in these hills. Climbed around in the caves for a while then made our way back down the hill and back around the road to the tearoom for a well deserved ice cream! Drove back on another route, avoiding the really steep hill for fear of the minibus not being able to cope with such a climb! |
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Arrived back just in time for lunch followed by time to pack up our kit and place it in the bus. Whilst final checks / cleanups were being done, out came the football and spectators were dazzled as Woody, Rob, Mike and myself took the cubs and scouts to the cleaners with our sublime skill. Once group photos were completed, it was back on board the minibus and off home to Hertfordshire, via Derby once more to drop off Alison. A few petrol stations, a McDonalds and several hours later, we had arrived back in Bengeo. Overall, a good trip that will be remembered amongst other things for an owl, a buffalo and of course, Sam’s sausage! Roll on the next trip… See more photos of this trip here.
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