111–120 of 121 posts
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For the English speaking folks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak_processionary This particular caterpillar has seen explosionary growth and when it sheds its copious hairs, they cause extreme irritation.
Sounds like it needs a sign. Beware of attack caterpillars!
[1]: https://www.vienna.at/2018/05/eichen-wien-16-9-017650366-650...
Quite topical as Jamboree starts this week. I was flying out of Ecuador late last week and saw a bunch of excited scouts on their way to Jamboree and it made me smile. Are there any other bizarre coming-of-age scouting traditions that other countries follow? This article immediately made me think of USA’s similar tradition, the snipe hunt: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snipe_hunt
We had a tradition of sending new scouts over to other camps to ask for a "left-handed smoke shifter" to better control the smoke coming off of the camp fire. No such thing exists of course, but sending off new boys (and receiving similar new boys from other camps) was a hilarious tradition and a bit of light hazing that nobody ever broke. One older scout even crafted a piece of equipment he instructed the newbie to…
“with only a primitive GPS to indicate the right direction” ... so these kids are more at risk of being kidnapped than they are of getting lost. I’ll admit that I think it’s a bit weird to make kids walk home in the night, but the author does a terrible job of making it sound suspenseful. This activity has gotten a lot safer since GPS became widespread. I kind of feel bad for anyone that went through this in the 80’s…
Current Scout leader here. In the 80s we were sent out to knock on farmer's doors to ask for a place to sleep, and we did it just over the German border so we had to ask in a foreign language too. I actually want to reintroduce that (but farms have fewer places fit for a few sleeping bags). The fact they are in groups makes it super safe anyway.
i then adopted the idea for trips on my own travelling through europe. but instead of knocking on any door i'd search for local scout groups and ask them.
I too have fond memories of droppings in my boyscout times (Belgium) ... I remember a particular one where we had to find our way through a forest before midnight ... it was then followed-up by midnight (catholic) mass at an abbey close to the edge of a forest to calm us down (bummer) ... another one was a multi-day thing where we had to find our way in small groups. As described in the article there were adults obse…
"Night Infiltration" is one of the coolest activities I've had the pleasure of doing and I'm in my 30s now. I'm not sure how many troops do it. In my area, only our troop did it on our monthly camp out and I'm fairly certain our troop invented it, but that could be false. https://boyscouttrail.com/content/game/night_infiltration-42... The above blurb does it poor justice though. Imagine a boy-led troop with around 60…
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"Our entire country (The Netherlands) measures roughly 161mi by 93mi.....Consequently it's impossible to get really lost" You aren't really lost until you aren't in the country you thought you were in. Its possible to lose yourself to Greece say, without crossing a hard border. So the area to get lost in is quite a bit bigger.
It's really obvious when you cross the NL/BE or NL/DE borders though, signage becomes different, houses look different. So unless you cross the border in a wooded area, you will definitely know.
This remind me of the Wilderness Survival merit badge in the boy scouts. We had to survive a night in the woods with no gear except a pocket knife and the clothes on our backs.
Good call on that merit badge! I remember vividly we got to bring along a hot dog and a fire starter (maybe flint and steel?). We had rain so the forest was soaked. Despite our best efforts there was no fire and we dined on cold hot dog.
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"Night Infiltration" is one of the coolest activities I've had the pleasure of doing and I'm in my 30s now. I'm not sure how many troops do it. In my area, only our troop did it on our monthly camp out and I'm fairly certain our troop invented it, but that could be false. https://boyscouttrail.com/content/game/night_infiltration-42... The above blurb does it poor justice though. Imagine a boy-led troop with around 60…
in germany, games like these are common. though more often during the day than at night, and usually with an elaborate backstory. think LARP. also each game was usually developed new, either from scratch or as a variation of a previous game. rarely the same game was played multiple times, though some groups have developed traditions to play the same game at each camp.
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Just curious, does this density across all of the country lead to a desire amongst Dutch people to find true wilderness every once and a while? For example travelling to remote national parks in the US or Australia/NZ? Or does it lead to people preferring built environments and feeling anxious in true wilderness?
To both answers I would think no :) The Netherlands is very much a designed and architected country, there is no true wilderness here anymore. We don't seem to miss it, most people don't even talk about it as something they miss. We can go days and weeks out to the countryside, and call it a good holiday. There are people who like to travel to the true wilderness, like Australia or Canada or backpacking in Scotland,…
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Yeah same here, fond memories of the 'droppings' I did as a kid. It's probably worth pointing out that Belgian (and Dutch) woods are relatively safe: it would be difficult to get truly lost. The wooded areas are never more than a few km from civilization. I wonder if there is a spot that is more than 10 km from the nearest road/house/suburb. Also, there are (almost?) no acutely dangerous animals. The only thing we we…
We did 'escape and evasion' orienteering courses that ran 12hrs from 6pm to 6am from about 13 years old in the 90s. This was through bush and farmland in Australia. There were always incidents like cases of hyperthermia, being chased by wild pig, running into things blindly etc. But the 1000's of kids partaking always ended up ok at the end.
From who? Wow. I can’t read the article because I used up my free, so I don’t know if this is mentioned, but ee sounds paramilitary, and not just orienteering skill. What is the reason behind this?
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We did 'escape and evasion' orienteering courses that ran 12hrs from 6pm to 6am from about 13 years old in the 90s. This was through bush and farmland in Australia. There were always incidents like cases of hyperthermia, being chased by wild pig, running into things blindly etc. But the 1000's of kids partaking always ended up ok at the end.
>> ‘escape and evasion’ From who? Wow. I can’t read the article because I used up my free, so I don’t know if this is mentioned, but ee sounds paramilitary, and not just orienteering skill. What is the reason behind this?
