The concept of this expedition was to undertake a trip abroad without vehicle support. The majority of previous expeditions abroad had seen us with at least one Mini-bus and trailer which was available for trips away from camp, and menial tasks such as popping into town to buy provisions, not to mention transporting all of our kit. This time we planned to use public transport and carry EVERYTHING we would need.
Our planning meetings involved much WWW
searching by the Scouts / Ventures / Leaders and at an early stage it had been
decided the trip would be open to those in the Group who would be over 14 years
old at the time of the trip. This way we should only be taking the older ones
with some Scouting / Camping experience.
Getting out of the Country at the end of June proved to be a problem as England appeared to be going on holiday and the majority of Ferry Connections etc. were fully booked or very expensive. However WWW searching took us to Ryan Air, flying from Prestwick to Hahn in Germany - about 60 miles from our desired destination of Luxembourg, where we planned to meet up with some Dutch Scouts in Wiltz. More WWW searching and e-mail contacts eventually saw our plans come together.
We (13 Scouts / Ventures and 3 Leaders) gathered at
Cupar Railway Station on Sunday 30-JUL-2000 where we boarded the train for
Edinburgh. Quite a sight as we left in glorious weather, all in full uniform,
inc. kilts, and carrying our worldly goods on our backs.
Thankfully the Ryan Air baggage limit was 20 Kgs with one additional piece of hand luggage at 6 Kgs. This focused the mind on really only taking the essentials. However after a short period of walking with full kit on the back, many were glad they had not tried to take more!
We arrived at Haymarket Railway Station, Edinburgh, then had a quick dash to the Glasgow bound platform to catch our connection to Glasgow. Today's trains are not designed for accommodating Scouts with their fully camping kit!
We arrived at Glasgow's Queen Street Station then had to load up with our kit and hike through the streets to Glasgow Central Station where we caught the train to Troon.
David Mathieson, the 28th (Troon) Ayrshire Scout Group's G.S.L, had kindly arranged for us to get the use of their hall, literally a stones throw from the railway station so we had accommodation for the night before leaving after breakfast on Monday to catch the train to Prestwick Airport - a 5 minute train journey.
Ryan Air were excellent and the only hic-up was when the Airport Security Staff were X-raying our kit they came across the Coleman Duel Fuel Cookers. These were empty and we had "declared" them, however when one looks at them through the X-ray device, they sure looked suspicious!
Great flight and arrived at Hahn, Germany, on time and to a welcome of glorious sunshine and an awaiting Coach - virtually Brand New - to transport us the 60 miles or so to our first camp site, just outside Luxembourg (city).
We were only at this site for one night before catching the local
bus into Luxembourg (city) and getting off at the main railway station to catch
the internal train to Wiltz.
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