Barry Neal's orifice
Group One by Andy Boulcott
We got up at 8:00 and got washed, had breakfast and got our bags ready. We left our campsite at 9:45 and set off to Poprad, the local town, although we had to stop for Marlene as she wanted to take a picture of a bird nest (old bird watcher!). We then got to Poprad at about 10:30’ish where we took a picture of the sign of Poprad with the Beaver banner against it. Once we got off the coach we set off into groups of 2 - 4 and had a look round, then we came back after half-an hour to get some money as Steve Fenn & Co. had to get more out from the Bank.
Once we had collected our money the groups set off shopping!! Then we all met back at the coach at about 1:00 p.m. carrying bags full of chocolates, lollipops the size of footballs, Walkmans, wine, beer etc. Once Jumpers got back at about 1:15 p.m. we set off to the mountains where we went hiking. The troop was split up into a pussy group and a hard group (Jon Neal the only Highcliffe PL not in our hard group) and we went our different ways. The pussy group went up to a lake where they had a fishing compo (FUN!), Swimming in the lake, and then they played football, whereas the ‘ard’ group went on an adventure hike.
We first walked up a river for about 20 minutes and we then hacked across Slovak vegetation where we had lunch next to a place which was once where Slovak Scouts met about 20 years ago when it was illegal to be a Scout. After lunch we set off up a river again where we encountered waterfalls, bridges and 30m high vertical ladders. During this hike Rob Nichols managed to slip and got a bit wet. Rob Neal fell into a river taking a photo of the ‘ard’ group and we had a water fight. It took us about 2 hours to get to the top where we had a rest and drink stop. We then found out that the Slovak top is in the middle in English as we had to keep on walking up for another mile or two until we found the real top. Once we had looked at a few trees from the top we started to walk down slowly but surely - killing our feet. It took us another 2 hours to walk down the mountain where we met up with the coach at 6:30 p.m. Perfect timing! On the way back to the camp site we stopped at a Post Office where we posted about 200 postcards!! After this we went back to the camp site where we got washed and changed ready for the evening meal.
We left the campsite at 8:20 p.m. and got to the Restaurant at 8:30 p.m. For starters we had noodle soup with vegetables which was very nice. We then had some traditional Slovak goats cheese which was covered with breadcrumbs, then fried. With this there was also chips, garlic sauce, herbs and more cheese wrapped with pastry. For dessert there were some coconut fingers. After the meal (which was very nice) we headed back to the campsite where we had some chocolate and sang some songs with the Slovaks as it was our last night, during which some people made right idiots of themselves.
We then eventually went back to bed at about midnight.
Football, Fishing and swimming at the lake
The people who did the shorter hike, hiked up to a lake which took about 15 minutes.
When we got there we had a competition to see who would make the most original fishing rod which Gavin, Lee and Andrew won. Then we hiked back to the coach and went to a field and had a football tournament which John Neil’s team won. Then we went and picked up the other group.