A practice holiday not too far from home...

To get Peggy used to travelling, she has been heading round the UK meeting other Brownies and Guides. This weekend, Peggy visited Lizz in High Wycombe! She had a busy week which included going for a walk as the sun set, going to a gig (aptly called Scouting for Girls - maybe it should have been renamed scouting for ducks?) and attending Brownie Pack Holiday where she became the protector of seven tearful little girls.

Pack Holiday was definitely the highlight of her week as she was very much loved by the Brownies and many of them were asking for hugs with Peggy and asking where she was! I'm sure all of the Brownie Parents will be quite surprised when they recieve a DVD with photos and videos of the weekend to find it is dominated by pictures of a duck! But then I think even the pack holiday assessor was quite surprised in February when she found at that a group of 16-26 year olds had a soft toy duck as their mascot!

On saturday evening all of the Brownies were rather tearful after a rather tiring day. After sharing a few ghost stories and a suspected sighting of what they thought was a rat, things became a little too much for the little Brownies. Peggy came to the rescue though! She was placed in the centre of the bedroom with Brownie bear and the Brownies were told that if anything came into their bedroom than they would have to get through Peggy first. And it worked! Soon all of the Brownies had fallen asleep and it was definatly Lizz's favourite moments when one of her youngest Brownies came up to her in the morning and told her that Peggy had scared of all the monsters. GO Peggy!

All in all a very eventful week but she has now been packaged and parcelled and is speeding towards Gem in first class at this very second.

Exploring the start of it all...

In 1907, Brownsea Island hosted the beginnings of a worldwide social movement. Boys from different social backgrounds participated from 1 August to 8 August 1907 in activities around camping, observation, woodcraft, chivalry, lifesaving and patriotism. Recognised as the world's first Scout camp, the event is regarded as the real origin of the worldwide Scout movement. Following this experimental camp, Baden-Powell published "Scouting for Boys". Small groups of girls, undaunted by the title, started 'Scout' activities too. Girls then 'gatecrashed' the first Boy Scout Rally at Crystal Palace, attracted the attention of Baden-Powell and asked him to offer 'something for girls too'. Thus the Girl Guide Association was formed in 1910, led by Baden-Powell's sister Agnes, and has gone from strength to strength since.



In 2010, Brownsea Island hosted the beginnings of an adventure for a little duck. Rowbarton Rangers took the Iceland Muddles Stampede team mascot, Peggy Bucket, with them on their day trip to the birthplace of scout and guiding as a practice for her stampede across Europe. Peggy captained a boat, took part in the Baden-Powell Challenge; building shelters, fires, seats and flagpoles - and somehow ended up in the cooking pot!! Luckily she was rescued, and in true centenary style she ended up featured in 100 photos. Such a hard life for a duck! She is now looking forward to her travels further afield.

100 days to go....

We finish our second planning weekend on the start of the 100 day countdown. We are now sorted on transport, thanks particularly to the lovely people at Orangeways Coaches (www.orangeways.com) who have been very kind to us. We will be using; train, bus, plane, bicycle, metro, boat, and segway to name but a few. We have also sorted all our hostel accommodation (although one night will be spent on a sleeper train, how exciting!). The afternoon was spent decorating the bed linen to use in the hostels - you certainly won't miss us!! Now we are looking at finalising itineraries and the specific sights to see and things to do in each city.

The challenges we need to complete in each country are:

• France - Take a boat ride on the River Seine
• Denmark - Say ‘Hello’ to the Little Mermaid
• Austria - Visit Salzburg and re-create a scene from the “Sound of Music”
• Czech Republic - Sing “Good King Wenceslas” in the square of that name.
• Slovakia - Visit a castle
• Hungary - Take a spa bath

Other challenges we have to do somewhere along the trip are:

• Arrange to meet up with local Guides or Scouts in one of the countries we are visiting.
• Take a group photograph with the National flag of each country we visit.
• Visit an environmentally-friendly or recycling project.
• Give ourselves an adrenalin rush - participate in an exciting activity that is “NEW” to the group.
• Spend a few hours giving some service in one of the places we visit (e.g. helping local people, participating in a local project, spending time doing something worthwhile, completing some conservation work etc.).
• Eat a traditional meal in one of our chosen countries and find out the recipe.
• Become a ‘local’ celebrity and get ourselves in the newspaper / on the radio to publicise what we are doing
• Try our hands at a traditional craft or game or perhaps learn a song - something that we can share with rainbows/ brownies/ guides / our own unit back home.
• Find a special place to “Renew your Promise” and say it in the language of one of the countries we visit.
• Have a “hands-on” experience at a Science and Technology establishment.
• Try fruit picking, fishing, visit a farm or a rural establishment and eat our rewards for tea!
• Visit a place of worship that is different to our own religion.

We have some very good ideas for these challenges but will keep them hush hush for the time being - don't want the other teams getting ideas! ;-) Watch this space...

Introducing.... Peggy Bucket

Iceland Muddles now has a team mascot (pre-event challenge number 3). Please may I introduce Peggy Bucket....

The next time you see her, will probably be in front of the Eiffel Tower!

Countries chosen!!

Following our first planning weekend we have now chosen which 5 countries we will stampede through. We spent ages looking at plane, train and bus timetables and considering the costs involved (quite a headache!!). It has been decided to visit...... *drumroll*

Paris - for the opening ceremony
Copenhagen (Denmark)
Vienna (Austria)
Salzburg (Austria)
Prague (Czech Republic)
Bratislava (Slovakia)
Budapest (Hungary)
Birmingham - for the closing ceremony

Watch this space as we start to plan further....

Centenary Stampede is Go!

The Iceland Muddles team have just received confirmation that they are successfully registered on the trip of a lifetime... Centenary Stampede Ultimate European Adventure (stampede from now on as far less of a mouthful!!).

The challenge is in four parts :
1. Pre-Event Challenges to complete as part of our planning.
2. Twelve Activity challenges to undertake during our trip. They may be completed in any of our chosen countries.
3. Five Country challenges – a specific challenge to complete in each of the five countries we visit.
4. Centenary ‘100’ Challenges based on doing ‘100’ tasks etc.

Over the next year, our team will choose which countries we want to visit (5 from the EU); book our own accommodation and make our own travel plans. We will manage our own budget and organise our own fundraising. In July 2010 the adventure will really start!

This trip is part of hundreds of centenary activities being celebrated across the UK and in other international trips. The Centenary is an opportunity to celebrate the impact that the organisation has made on the lives of girls and young women and how modern guiding continues to support over half a million members around the UK to make new friends, develop skills and achieve their full potential in a unique girl only space.