In the summer of 2008 16 members of Bude ESU attended the Irish jamboree at Punchestown. It was the unit’s first trip abroad.
We were part of the venture subcamp called Tara. The subcamps took their names from historical features across Ireland. The Jamboree lasted 10 days.
Each day was themed on an element. There was Spirit, Neon, Fire, Earth, Air and then Choice. Each day was filled with activities.
To kick off the Jamboree there was an opening ceremony where our Jamboree Chief was delivered in a box by helicopter!
The first main day the explorers went treking in the Wiklow mountains and we had a campfire in the evening made from a table and rope lights. H+S wouldn’t let us use real fires! The second day was based around science. It was also Roberts birthday so we had a little party in the evening. Whilst the explorers were off doing activities the leaders went into Naas. It was also the first night of the subcamp games. The third day day the morning was spent climbing and checking out the faith and beliefs zone. During the afternoon and explorers were doing fire based activites. Our gnomes also got kidnapped!!! In the evening Shrek and Fiona entertained the crowds, along with a dragon to celebrate Irish Scoutings centenary. The fourth day was very very wet and we all volunteerd to staff as there were beavers visiting the Jamboree and more help was needed. During the evening there was a concert and we got our gnomes back 
The fifth day the explorers went off site to Tribal Island for the night and the leaders went into Dublin with some Canadians. On the sixth day when the explorers got back we did a few onsite activities and got a ride in a helicopter!! The evening was spent playing subcamp games. The seventh day in the morning we went and took part in some of the MPSE activities, by lunchtime though the heavens opened and wouldn’t stop. It got to the point where everyone was evacuated and we had to spend the night indoors. Our kitchen tent was incredably muddy and had a river of water flowing through it. Many people including ourselves had dug trenches around the tents to divert water. The next day everyone left so we volunterd to help around around the site. It was also our last day with the two Swedes we adopted. They were at the Jamboree on their own so we took them under our wing.
The weather finally cleared up for the day we left. We made quite an impretion on our subcamp and our subcamp chief gave us all t-shirts and the leaders staff neckers, as well as an industrial sized bag of popcorn for the trip home.
Everyone enjoyed themselves and it was a real experiance, especially for those of us who’s first time it was at an event like that. Were very much looking forward to going to another Jamboree in Ireland.
We have plenty of pictures on our photo page on the right side in the links and there is also video on our youtube page, again on the right side in the links.
Thankyou to everyone who helped us fundraise for the trip 
