Hikes, Drawings, and Toilets - 8th August post camp update

Bit of an odd combination, but all will become clear, the Camp theme was Cartoon your camp.

On the Tuesday we set out on the Hikes day, and on this day the weather was beging to show some signs of improvement, in that the heavy torrential downpours of rain were becoming less frequent, it was however still incredibly windy, and quite cool as well with temperatures only reaching around 13-14c.
 Most of Eccleshall Scouts completed the 40km drop off Punisher hike, with Melbourne and some from Eccleshall completing the Polder hike.
 We originally had 3 From Melbourne down to do the Punsisher hike, however after they found out a little more about the punisher they decided to switch to the shorter 14.5 mile long Polder hike, which was a cricular route to and from the campsite.
 First of that morning was the punisher hike, leaving site at around 7:15am towards the bus pick up point at Gate B, it woudnt be until later that evening they returned.

At the slightly later ( and more social ) time of 9:30 Melbourne and some from Eccleshall reported to the Hikes team tent complete with the required list of all those on the hike which was handed in to the Hikes team, there was then a safety briefing road safety - footpath/Cycle path/Road - kit check and a few other bits before we were handed the hike route.

This being the Haarlem Jamborette it wasnt  map with a route, Grid references or anything approaching 'normal' what we got was a a set of drwaings depicting junctions and bridges,

 

 

This was followed by by some pictures of the local landscape, where the photo showed the direction of travel, then the colour route

followed by a story route - Check your e-mail ( if your on the mail list ) for the full Polder Hike, it basicaly worked along the lines of as the story was read out, you followed the route the main character(s) took in that story, heres an excerpt of that story

Not very much is known about Claes; he must have lived from the late 13th and early 14th century. In fact, the only official record is of him visiting England in 1296, in the company of a small party of Dutch noblemen who probably invited him along to impress their hosts. His appearance had been described as ugly and fearsome; children wouldn’t dare to look at him, but he was known to be a friendly guy, a gentle giant, a BFG avant la lettre so to say.

So its someone from the late 1300’the story continues.....

At first he met quite some noisy traffic up there so he had to be careful. After a quarter mile the traffic all turned left into the Houtrak, so the man decided to just continue on top and go straight on. He kept riding until on his right he saw a bunch of red and white barriers with flashy lights, and some big noisy machine rushed by on seemingly endless iron rods.

Hike Drawing challenge

Along the route there were various check points and some head counts, some checkpionts had a few simple challenges, and at the central checkpoint ( under a lift bridge ) the Task, in line with the camp theme "Cartoon your camp" was to draw a cartoon, or a cell to form a comic strip, on a long roll of paper where the next group could only see what the previous two had drawn, this was then un-rolled and displayed in the Redington' Harbour subcamp tent for all to see...

So there it is, the picture roll laid out across the Subcamp tent, moving form Left to Right, we have 1st Brussels, and 1st Stavanger (Brittish) Scouts drawing, nothing odd there, and then 1st Eccleshall and 1st Melbournes Drawing ( under the marquee hire companys logo ) again nothing unusual there, but from then on it started to get weird, with a distinct toilet theme creeping in, South Marches declaring that "My Poo is bigger than your poo" after that things didnt exactly improve on the toilet / poo/sh*t references - all proudly displayed in the subcamp tent, starting in the food supply area so it was impossible not to notice it..

 But why the obsession with piles of poo???, its something that the Scouts from Melbourne, Eccelshall, or Zharki didnt mention or pick up on - although at the start of the camp some trekked all the way to subcamp Green village in order to use the English Style toilets that exisited over there.

Some people will be aware of Squat toilets, some may have even experienced them, however theres another toilet type - and the Drawing displayed proudly in the subcamp tent only became clear after talking to the Leaders from other Groups

The Dutch Style Toilet

Toilets in the UK, and in most other places are pretty straight forward, you do your business and it drops down into water, however this straight drop toilet we are all oh-so familiar with is not universal, theres another type ( at least), one with what can best be described as having an inspection shelf inside.
 Instead of landing in water, your droppings fall onto a shelf, see below:

Initially it looks quite normal, however the bit inside the bowl at the back is horizontal, it is in fact a ledge and whatever you drop onto this ledge sits there exposed the open air until you get up, push the flush button, and a jet of water sends it down to the front and from there underneath and onwards and away into the sewers.
In effect your droppings pile up on the shelf, hence the drawings about my poo being bigger than yours., there is, beleive it or not a practical reason for this, as it can be possible to tell if you have any ailments from the state of your droppings
Fortunately the cubicle doors opened straight out into the open air, with sinks+soap provided at each end of each  toilet block.

So there is is, Hikes, Drawings and Toilets. Another post camp update tomorrow - if your on the email list you should also receive a pdf copy of the Polder hike