Niall Tyler
Part 2 – During the event:
Part-2 – the Event:
I think that we all knew that the Great Woggle JOGLE would be quite hard work, especially in the early days whilst travelling through the more remote parts of Scotland and the North of England, but I think none of us had realised the effort required to get to John O’Groats in the first place!
Google Maps gives a distance of just under 700 miles by road between our starting point at the Scout Hut (#brickfieldsbigbuild), and 680 miles to our accommodation for the night before in Wick; throw in an overnight stop at Nottingham and this proved to be a very long journey indeed. It got to the point where we all agreed that driving the last couple of hundred miles past inverness and on to Wick in a marathon 5-hour non-stop drive was preferable to prolonging our journey even further by stopping!
At Wick we started to set up our tents in the garden of the Scout Hut, only for one of the leaders to arrive to let us into the Hut – cue much movement of tents and other kit – for which we were very grateful as we then had access to what would become probably the three most welcome things on the journey: a dry space for the tents, kitchen / cooking facilities, and toilets / washing facilities.
This brings me back to the issue of accommodation (see Part-1): during the 9-weeks of travelling the team stayed in many different Scout Huts, plus the odd Girl Guides and Sea Scout Hut, too. All of these provided the aforementioned amenities, but they also provided something else – a welcoming and secure base for the team. After a very wet day-2 (Thurso to Bettyhill) it became clear exactly how much it helped the team by having a warm, dry space to spend the night in.
We are very grateful to every Group that allowed us to use their facilities and would like to add a special “thank you” to those Groups that provided company, food, and entertainment. Having food provided occasionally made life a lot easier for the support team! However, we are especially grateful to the incredible families who made their homes available to us, providing food, showers, and laundry facilities to the team. You really have no idea how much having a hot shower and clean clothes can lift one’s spirits until you’ve been without either for a while!
Napoleon Bonaparte is often credited with the quote, “An Army marches on its stomach”, and it’s something that I think applied equally to the Great Woggle JOGLE team. The provision of food, including shopping and (ideally) cooking the evening meal, plus the delivery of lunch to the team en route, were key deliverables for the support crew, ensuring that the team could focus on the job in hand. Whilst it’s fair to say that the supply of the packed lunches didn’t go to plan on the first day (with the crate containing the packed lunches having been loaded into the van and not the car…), the whole process of preparing the packed lunches is something that the team became very slick at. I’m not sure who out of Ollie, Hattie, or Bethan came up with the idea of a double-decker sandwich, but it certainly went down well with the team.
The biggest challenge, however, was logistics. Physically moving the vehicles and kit between stopping points was a real issue, especially when there was only one support person and there were two vehicles to move. The issue was exacerbated in Scotland by two things: 1: the distances involved – up to 60km on some days – and 2: lack of direct roads between the start and finish points. However, with much to-ing and fro-ing and the occasional lift by third parties, the vehicles always made it to the finish point. A special mention to Dan for his efforts with the vehicles: moving one and then hopping on to his folding bike and cycling all the way back to collect the second. Well done, Dan!
When Emma and I again took on the role of support towards the end of the adventure, Sarah and Dan plus Elaine and Phil were around to help, too. This made the whole process a lot easier, especially when cooking for larger numbers of people – curry in a barn for 13, anyone?
Looking back on my time spent with the team I’ll remember many things, but these are just a few:
– The incredible beauty of the Scottish Highlands – especially when the sun came out after the rain
– The wonderful sunset over the Beauly Firth that I witnessed from Clachnaharry
– The strange familiarity of Scout Huts across the country – including the somewhat variable facilities
– The gentler beauty of the Gloucestershire / Somerset countryside
– The kindness of strangers to other members of the Scouting family
– And the rugged coastal scenery of Cornwall, including an incredible sunset at Porthtowan Beach.
But the team themselves also provided many abiding memories – some of them are:
– Witnessing Phil’s ever-improving skills at packing innumerable boxes into the van and multiple bikes onto the car
– Seeing Hattie’s confidence when riding a bike growing considerably
– Bethan quietly getting on with things (and having a “Yoga Brick” in her Crate…)
– Cara suffering with a painful knee but pushing-on anyway – and coming back for more
– I didn’t see Ollie taking a dip in the canal, but it sounds like something he’ll remember
– James applying for a job whilst “on the road” and, with a bit of to-ing and fro-ing, being interviewed and being offered said job (well done!)
– And watching Jennie continue to be the driving force of the adventure. Leading from the front and being up late most nights route-planning and Blogging, despite being obviously very tired.
When I left the team in Inverness at the end of the first week of The Great Woggle JOGLE (a day later than planned – thanks EasyJet!) I think that the enormity of the task ahead of the team had finally become clear, to me at least! In that first week they had all shown incredible resilience and had achieved much more that I thought they might (52km through the Highlands on bikes in the pouring rain – no problem!). Collectively they showed a determination to achieve their goal and they demonstrated the capabilities to do it, whatever the weather and terrain could throw at them. I was proud of them then and I’m very proud of them now. What they achieved is remarkable and I hope that they all remember their adventures for a very long time.
When we finally arrived at the Land’s End signpost to be greeted by John, ex-District Commissioner for the Scout Group, it brought the journey to a fitting end. John and I had both been at the start of the adventure in John O’Groats to see the team off at what seemed like an age ago and here we both were at the finish. The support team’s job was complete.
The support team: Niall, Emma, Dan, Sarah, John, Paul, Jayne, Neil, Jan, Christian, Olly (& Ethan), Phil, Helen, Elaine, and Phil – my apologies if I’ve forgotten anyone (Abi and Moby get an honourable mention, too). Thank you.
The end.