Roverway 2024

Roverway was my biggest challenge. I was selected to be a leader for this camp in April 2023 after attending a selection camp with North East England Girlguiding.

For this camp, I was in charge of a patrol of 7 girls, all aged 15-18, that the UK contingent was sending to Norway for an international camp. This was different from WSJ because we had to organise everything ourselves, which meant finding a way to get there and back. The event itself was 1 week on a chosen “pathway”, which was a more minor camp where we would do different activities depending on that pathway’s brief, then the second week was a jamboree-style camp with all sorts of activities.

Leading up to the camp, we had 2 patrol preparation camps and a patrol leaders weekend, throughout which the UK contingent helped us stay organised, ensured we booked all the necessary items, and answered many questions.

One of the big things I had to do for this was get my international going-away license, which would allow me to take my patrol to another country. Before we left, I had to complete my residential going away with a license first before I was able to add the international module, so I organised and ran 2 different camps, 1 indoors and one camping, to cover all the skills I needed to demonstrate to be signed off.

As a patrol, we had several online meetings to organise what we wanted to do and how we wanted to do it. We decided to fly to Oslo and spend a day there before we moved on to the start of the pathway we chose, called “Impact of Scouting”. The event would then organise for us to get between there and the main camp in Stavanger, before we would fly home from Stavanger airport.

When the time finally came, we met up at the airport early in the morning to fly. We got to Oslo and explored the city, splitting into 2 groups, half of us going for a wander round the town, meeting several other scouts from around Europe, and the other half sightseeing and visiting the seafront. Met up and went for dinner before we went back to the hostel we were staying at, very tired since it had been such a long day. We woke up the following morning to start our trip to our starting campsite in Vennesla. When we got there after a train ride to a coach station, to get on a long-distance coach, then changed onto a Local bus, and walked a long way down the Tømmerrenna timber slide, we set up camp and ate some food. Over the days we were there, we did a variety of activities, including making as many paper boats as we could in 10 minutes, going down the timber slide, and helping tidy up the timber left along the path. We enjoyed all these activities and learned lots of new skills and about Norwegian culture.

On the last day of our pathway, one of the members of my patrol fell and damaged her ankle, meaning she was unable to put any pressure on it or stand up for any period of time. The pathway leaders helped me take care of her and eventually decided that it was best to send her to the hospital. However, given our location and that the site was only accessible from the timber slide and was next to a train track, they decided it best to send an ambulance train that would take us to the road where they would put us on an ambulance, to the hospital, where we would be seen to about 3 hours later, we were released late at night when after discussions with the contingent, we were moved to stay with a pathway much closer by in a school where we slept the night before joining them on their coach to the central jamboree.

At the main event, we set up camp and, after discussions with the organisers, sourced a wheelchair for our injured member. Over the next week, I ensured this member could still get as much out of the camp as possible, so we visited the food stalls and the board games cafe and did many crafts. We had a good time, and while I didn’t get a chance to try the water activities (the water was cold, so I didn’t mind), I still had a great time. They hosted performances on a few of the nights we were there, where we listened to performances, shared stories and had an overall good time. On the last day, we packed up and flew home, tired and sad that we had to leave the friends we’d made.

This trip was really important for me because it proved to me that I can take responsibility for people better than I thought I could, and the first time I took someone to the hospital was in another country! I think it went well and I’m glad I got this opportunity