53rd St Barnabas Scout Group
Roverway France 2nd - 14th August 2016.
Tuesday 2nd August. Day one: The Cyprus contingent arrived at 6:30 at the scout district building with heavy bags
and big smiles ready for Roverway 2016. We made our way to Larnaca airport, checked in and got on a plane
around 10:45 to head to Athens and from there to Paris. After collecting all our luggage successfully we started
looking for a way out of the Airport. Leaving the airport skip came across his first language barrier encounter with
our bus driver, who did not even speak a word of English and skip was talking to him in Greek.  We manage to get
to the train station where we said our goodbyes to the other groups and separated into teams. Skips team along
with another Cyprus team luckily made our way Amiens. Even though the sky and weather was a bit gloomy, our
spirits were held high when we ate good food at our first French restaurant and then proceeded to walk to our
campsite, which was 30 minutes away, in the dark and set up our tent and went to bed.  Eleni  
Wednesday 3rd August. Day two: We woke up to the sound of rain pouring onto our tent. We packed our bags and
took down the tents in the rain and rushed to the main scout building to have breakfast. Once we were “full” we
started walking to the town centre of Ameins where the opening ceremony was going to take place in the Arena.
Once we arrived, we were able to finally take off our backpacks and explore the unique French architecture and the
wide variety of fancy French foods in Carrefour. When we got back to the Arena there were more people for us to
mingle and play games with. At 3:30 we went in to the opening ceremony which was in the Circus Arena. The four
hours on speeches and songs gave us enough energy to continue singing on the bus all the way to the campsite
where we will be spending the next week at. Once we arrived we set up our tents, ate and went to bed excited to
start our path the next day. By Nich R.
Thursday 4th August. Day three: We woke up with a skip in our step and ready to
create our home for the next week. After we ate breakfast we split up into groups mixed
with the other countries and began building different structures. Though out the day we
built ; a five-pole flagpole, a gate, dinner table and chairs, a campfire area, a washing
up area and last but not least a fire table. The fire table was especially different for us
Cypriot scouts as we had no idea what it was (apparently it was for making fires on so
you were off the wet ground). That night we had an amazing campfire where  got to
meet everyone properly. Once the campfire finished some scouts went to sleep while
the rest of us played  games and looked for shooting stars, we saw six.  Arthur.
After having our tour by the Guarde de Corette we set off back to the camp for lunch where we
had ratatouille pasta and bread. Then we went to a world war one museum where we saw what
life was like in the trenches and things that were found, which was very interesting. We also saw
pictures that were taken during the war. Then we discovered the real trenches of one of the
battlefields where we took loads of pictures. After that we came back for dinner which was
cheesy potato and bacon. Later we had Norwegian themed campfire which was very fun and
then we went to bed. Anastasia
Saturday 6th August. Day five: We woke up at 7:30 to get on parade, it was Cyprus’s turn to do flag break. After
flag break and breakfast, we got on the bus to go to the first stop witch was Vimi, Where the battle between
Canadian Troops and Germany Troops took place. We went down into the bunker and then in the Trenches.
When we had finished we got on the bus and went to Arras to have a picnic in a park. We then walked into the
town centre and into Arras Cathedral. We went to the top of the Cathedral where we could see all of Arras. Then
we went underground to where they used to shelter civilians, store machines and Supplies during the war.
There were three levels; four metres, eight metres and twelve metres, below the surface. It was also used to
collect chalk to build foor tiles. After that we had three hours of free time in the town of Arras, So we went to
different church’s, A make shift Beach and a pastry shop  to get chocolate rats. Then we met up with everyone
with everyone to have dinner that is usually severed from a food truck. We then got back on the bus and came
back to the campsite to put down the flags, shower and head to bed. Stephanie
Sunday 7th August. Day Six: As usual we woke up at 7:30 in order to do flag break. Then we spit up
and some people went to Notre dame de Lorette for a church service while other stayed on camp
with the Guarde de Corette. The Guarde de Corette spoke about the lines of the war in world war
one, that passed though Ablan st.Nizaire and how the Germans occupied Notre Dame de Lorette.
They also showed us pictures taken during the war. After gathering information we had been told we
all got together to create a quiz which we are going to give children tomorrow. When the others came
back from church we split into five groups and each group came up with questions for the quiz. We
then had a few hours for free time to rest. Then the Finnish taught us a few games that they play and
had a relay race that they do yearly. For dinner the Spanish cooked for us and we had some potato
pie thing. We then had campfire and got an early night sleep. Christianna
Monday 8th August. Day seven: Our day started how it usually did with flag break, breakfast and fifteen minutes of culture time up
at the Frenchie tent, where we discovered celebrities from each country. Then each country went shopping to prepare a snack for
the children who were going to play the world war one game we created. Portugal cooked us a fish dish speciality for lunch. Then
the children arrived and tried out our game which was followed by a snack from each country. Norway and Italy managed to wow
the children with their tiramisu and Norwegian games so they won the prize of candy. Then our programme continued with dinner,
followed by campfire led by the one and only Cypriots and then it was lights out so we can have energy for our next day. Eleni
Tuesday 9th August. Day eight: It was an early wakeup call as our team was going to go to a French boulangerie to see how they make baguettes. We had to be awake at 5:15 and
ready to go. Seeing as we are Cypriot, we woke up at 5:20. Skip shook mine and stie’s tent saying ‘Nat, Stie, Wake up, we’re late for the bakery!’ Me and Stie immediately shot out of
bed, slipped on our hiking boots and ran down the hill without even tying our laces. Thankfully, one of our path leaders knew that we would be a bit late because we are Cypriots and so
he waited for us. We then set off for the bakery and saw how they make French baguettes, croissants and other different types of bread. Later on, before breakfast we went to visit a
cathedral in the village which was bombed by the French in world war one.    In the afternoon we then spilt into individual good and prepared mini presentation about our road which we
would have to show other people when we got to jamb Ville. The Finnish people then showed us a few games, one was called ‘wife carrying’ which was also an actual traditional sport.
The man who would finish the race would get a beer weighing the size of the woman he carried. We then had dinner and ended the day with a campfire.  Natalie
Wednesday 10th August. Day nine: Deme, Nik and Alex went on a different road to the rest of the 53rd team.
Our route was about…. We started our journey by going to a village called Mours, located in Paris, and spent
the first day setting up camp, building tables, washing are and sleeping area. The next few days is where we
got to know each other, played games and have a tour around Paris. On the 5th day they visited refugees and
built tables and benches so their families have a place to sit when they visit them as they are allowed to meet
them in the centre. They also helped them clean their garden and planted a few edible plants for them.
Unfortunately they were only able to go for one day as the rest of the days the area was too dangerous. Once
they completed their project, they packed their bags and came to jamville
.
Friday 5th August. Day four: We woke up early in the morning, we did flag break and then had breakfast, then we all set off
walking to Notre Dame d’Lorette where many of the world war one graves of the northern France and Allies are. We also
went to the ring of memory, where over 500,000 names are written of people from all nationalities that died in the war.
Thursday 11th August. Day ten: We woke up early in the morning to
the freezing cold  shower and get ready for our first day at jambville.
After getting dressed and sorting ourselves out we went to an activity
area called ‘making choices’ where we did leadership workshop
and learnt some fun games. After that we came back for lunch, and
then we went to discover the campsite, find the roverbank, rovershop
and silent disco. After dinner, we all went to the silent disco where
we had a great time with our road friends.  Anastasia
Sunday 14th August.  Day thirteen: We woke up early in the morning to start packing our stuff and taking our tents down. At around eight we had breakfast
and after that were briefed by our district leaders on what was going to happen with our departures after gathering our things in one big pile, we went to
the closing ceremony at the main stage, which was our last few moments with our road friends. After getting our lunches and saying our goodbyes we
went on our bus to the ‘le gare nora’ in Paris, where we took a metro to our hotel. After many hours of walking up and down around Paris we finally found
our hotel and went to relax. We then went too look for somewhere to eat which was of course our tradition of eating Mc Donalds in a new country. After that
we went to the Eiffel tower. It was so amazing and the best part was we saw it twinkle too. We also went up it to the second floor and were amazed  by a
magnificent view. After buying souvenirs we started to make our way back to the hotel on the metro as it had been a very long day. Anastasia
Monday 15th August. Day fourteen: Today was our only full day in Paris. We all went for breakfast at the
hotel at 8:30 after a good nights rest in a proper bed. After breakfast, we took the metro into the centre of
Paris where we took the hop on hop off bus around the city. It was such a lovely hot day that we all sat on
the top deck of the bus. The first route that we took went past places such as Mont Martre, The Royal Opera
house and Moulin Rouge. We got off at the end of the route and walked to the louve where we also had
lunch. During our hour at the food court of the louvre, a few of us needed the toilet and so we walked into
one of the most unusual but clean bathrooms. There was toilet paper of all colours hanging on the walls
and all the cubicles looked like a five star hotel room. After lunch, we took the bus  and stopped off at the arc
de Triumph on the famous avenue, Champs Elysees and took photos . We also had two hours of free time
to shop. We then took the hop on hop off buss to the Eiffel tower where we had more free time. After that  we
met up with Veera, a girl from Finland who was on our path and by coincidence, we also bumped into a few
of our Portuguese friends from the path. In the evening, we went on a boat trip along the river Seine which
was very beautiful and straight after that we jumped onto the metro and made our way to Sack Cocur at the
top of Mont Martre. The metro station stops at the bottom of Mont Matre and so we had to drag our
exhausted bodies up approximately 200 steps to get to the top. At the end of our exhausting journey we
were rewarded with a delicious burger which we had at a nearby restaurant. At last, we headed back to the
hotel and went straight to bed . Natalie