PAGE 6
GGEW NEWS
Duck Tour for
Hornchurch thanks
to Jack Petchey
Leader Award
ast year I was
chosen to
receive a Jack
Petchey Leader
award. To have
your effort and
commitment
recognised is
L
always nice; it is
not why you do these things, but it is
good to know that others think it worthwhile too.
Well, the day that the Jack Petchey award part funded was
definitely evidence of how worthwhile it is.
2012 was a very good year for Great Britain. Our Queen was
celebrating her Diamond Jubilee and we where hosts to the
Olympic Games. What a great time to be in London?
So we took our Guides to London to see the Changing of
the Guard at Buckingham Palace during the Olympic Games.
To experience the wonderful feeling of being in the Capital
City of our country as Britain was collecting Olympic Medals
not so very far
away in the
Olympic sites
around
London was
amazing.
Later in the
year went for
an overnight
stay at
ICANDO, which
was really good fun, the novelty of travelling to London and
staying the night there was a great experience as were the
activities we did whilst there. The following day we went to
see the state rooms at the palace.
It was whilst doing these things that the idea of how we
wanted to spend our Leader Award Grant from Jack Petchey
Foundation was decided on. Having been part of the
wonderful experiences of London during such an
unrepeatable very special time we wanted something to
round off the year in real style.
As we walked around London we kept seeing these large
yellow, very basic “buses”.
On investigation these turned out not only to be a very
novel way of seeing sights of London by road but they
actually went into the Thames too! As with most things in
London to take a family of four on the tour is not cheap and
for some would definitely not be possible, our Jack Petchey
Award meant that all of our guides had the opportunity to go
on the Duck!
The excitement grew as we waited to board. All of the buses
are named after characters from Shakespearian plays, ours
was Miranda. One of the most important things you need to
know about Duck travel is that when you see another Duck
SUMMER 2013
it must be acknowledged! It did not take very many “practices” for our Guides to perfect to the Tour Guides call of
“Duck, duck,
duck” the
Guides
response of
“Quack,
quack,
quack!”
(Please note,
repsponse is
to be
accompanied by
simultaneous arm flapping movements!).
The Duck set off, taking in many of the main sites in
London including the Palace, Wellington Barracks, Houses of
Parliament, and Piccadilly, to name but a few.
Our Tour Guide gave us many interesting facts about them
all; I think MI5 and MI6 buildings held a great amount of interest for our young ladies, along with the various filming that
had taken place here and there. We were suitably corrected
on the Tower that houses Big Ben. It is not St Stephens Tower
but the Elizabeth Tower. If you would like to know all about it,
may I suggest Google, unless of course you too are as lucky
as we and can go on the Duck Tour?
The highlight of our trip had to be when the Duck took to
water as all good Ducks do, with a waddle and splash.
Please note that the excitement of entering the water is
greatly increased by the state of the tide, low tide seems to
allow an almost rollercoaster entry to the Thames!
As we plunged down the ramp leading to the beach and
river there was a big scream of delight that often
accompanies fairground rides, the Guides loved it! The Tour
continued with more interesting facts about the sites of
London as we passed, the River view of these was excellent.
Each Guide seemed to have a different favourite part of the
trip, the entry and exit of the Thames always seemed though
to be on their list, as did the MI5 and MI6 buildings.
That they had been to the Palace gave them a chance to
tell the Tour Guide just what was behind those walls, as they
had strolled around the garden not so very long before.
All in all it was a most fantastic day; without doubt the Duck
Tour was the perfect finale to our most excellent advent ure of
Celebrating in London an unrepeatable series of national
events.
All that remains to say is thank you Jack Petchey
Foundation for making this possible for us. Thank you for
acknowledging that there is a lot of good things happening
through our young people, in their organisations, at schools,
and in clubs. So often the bad news is most prominent. Thank
you Jack Petchey Foundation for making many more good
things happen and investing in our Young People.
Nicola Street
Do you have a story, perhaps even a picture, you would like to share? Please let the GGEW have them so
we can include them in our next newsletter and put them on the website for everyone to see and enjoy.
Also, please let David Henderson know your plans for Unit/District/Division events which can be included on our
website calendar - email address on the front of the newsletter. It might even be possible for David to come along
to the event to take pictures for the newsletter and website,
We would like to include articles from all corners of Essex West so please let us know.
GGEW NEWS SUMMER 2013
PAGE 3
We challenged Jan Knight, our
County Commissioner, to
climb over the O2 with us
and she said “Yes”.
But when we arrived at
the ‘Up at the O2 experience’ Jan explained
with shock that it was
not what she was
Ongar Senior
Section Challenge the
County Commissioner
expecting!
“I thought it was going to be like a normal bridge, I didn’t realise we had to get
into climbing suits and harnesses etc”
After a safety film and being suited, booted and harnesses being checked we
started the climb, attaching ourselves as we went . The climb to the summit was
steep but once we had got there we unclipped from the safety wire and walked
around and took photos. We recognized landmarks such as Canary Wharf,
Historic Royal Greenwich and the Olympic Park.
The way down was again steep and we had to stop ourselves wanting to
bounce on the walk way. Once at the bottom we awarded Jan an O2 climbers
medal. Jan was happy to of conquered the O2 and we all thought that having
the County Commissioner accept our challenge was cool.
Upminster
Brownie and Guide
Leaders also took up
the challenge to climb
the O2
n Sunday 19th May 2013 the Leaders, Young Leaders and Pack
Leaders of the 4th Upminster Brownies and Guides went to
conquer the climb over the O2 in celebration of one of the Leaders
birthdays.
As our group consisted of 19 people
we had to be split into two groups
for the climb, we were given a safety
talk followed by the climbing suits and
harnesses.
We had to attach ourselves to a
safety wire before we could start our
climb, it was very steep and wobbly
underfoot.
At the top there is a viewing platform
with a great views over London, there
is a map telling you at each point what
you are looking at. After that, the
descent!
Amazingly steep slope down. We all
had a wonderful afternoon which we
finished off with a few refreshments
before heading home.
O
Susan Jolly (4th Upminster Brownies - Brown Owl)
Website: www.girlguidingessexwest.org.uk