AJ2019 Jamboree bits and pieces

Jamborees are big. Really big. There were about 10000 people attending this one, which means lots of logistics, lots of food, and lots of tents. Here is an aerial view of the Jamboree site (and, yes, a trip to the loo involves a bit of a walk, which is always a hassle when there’s an urgent middle-of-the-night need!).

Our Scouts and the rest of my troop’s leaders arrived on 3 January … and started naming all the extra goodies that needed to be distributed (hat, shirt, lunchbox, scarf, woggle, drink bottle and information book (so … 7 x 39 = 273 names … no wonder it took a while!)).

We managed to get the entire 200+ Tasmanian contingent together for a photo at one stage (yes, our bright shirts match our contingent bags).

The Scout carrying the Tasmanian flag for the opening ceremony (fourth from left, standing) is from my home troop.

After the formalities of the opening there was a band and some dancing (yes, the leaders released their inner dancers as well).

And then the activities got underway. Some were messy,

some were wet,

some were celebratory (we had three birthdays to celebrate, including two on the same day … which was a little challenging for cake consumption because one-third of the troop was off-site at this stage),

some allowed the Scouts to develop new skills,

some involved “relaxation” (there is a long tradition of playing the fast-and-furious card game “Spit” at Jamborees; see, for example, this post from back in 2010),

some involved sleeping (the leaders work very hard),

some involved feeding the masses (this is a the duty patrol doing the food run for the day),

and, in case you hadn’t noticed, they all involved a lot of dust (this was a very dusty Jamboree, and probably out-dusted the 2007 Jamboree in Elmore, which had already passed into folklore as a dusty event).