Cover Photo: Jure Pučnik
Text: Francisca Dias
Edit: Mike Dent, Sophie Spickenbom
If you saw a tiny group of Guides and Scouts at your Path just scavenging around, documenting your arrivals and making conversation, you might just have stumbled upon one of our Path Patrols! Made up of writers, photographers and videographers, these units have been going around some of the Paths in the areas of Bergen, Oslo and Stavanger capturing your most adventurous, candid and thrilling moments.
As a member of the Oslo Path Patrol, we got to go around an incredible total of 12 Paths! We felt thankful for this opportunity, how great the environment around Paths was, and also immensely happy and proud of our work.
The day on Path Patrol started as early as 7:00 (or 6:30 if you intended to take a hot shower). After waking up, we got ready to start the day. How breakfast worked really depended on the Path where we spent our night and could consist of whatever the Participants were having, or whatever we felt like putting on the bread we bought from the supermarket.
Going around Paths as Path Patrol has been a very diverse experience: I’ve truly fueled my creativity while enjoying writing stories on the Paths and I also got to take a lot of videos and photos for Roverway’s Social Media! Besides all that, one of my other tasks was collecting information about really anything so that the other members of the Text Team could create the most exciting content for you.
On Wednesday (July 24), the day started a bit differently! While the Participants were having their breakfast, I took the chance to interview one of their Path leaders. We chatted for a bit about their work and also about what’s special about the Path, just enough to get some info for the article on Path leaders.
After collecting a few more shots and taking a last glance at the biggest ski ramp in the world (the one in Lillehammer), we finally left the day’s first Path. To ease our burning desires for something sweet and to make sure we had food to cook a meal we headed straight to the supermarket. There we got ourselves some pasta and whatever else we felt was needed and thus, our journey for the day finally began.
With all the travelling we were doing, playing games during the ride or even stopping to film deers on the road and cows on the pastures are always welcomed activities.
Getting to the second Path of the day got everyone very excited. We discovered there were actually two different Paths there: one creating the environment of a mini Jamboree and another one emulating the experience of a true Norwegian bootcamp. And not only that, it so happened that their location was Nordtangen. This is the Scout camp in Gran, where the first Marketing & Communications Department gathering took place, back in February of this year. I was personally pretty hyped to see the camp again (this time snowless) as well as relive the warm memories from there.
While checking out the lake on site, I was met with quite a strange view. On the shallow part of the bay, there were two girls with their heads bent down washing their hair with metal pots. There were also other Guides and Scouts just finishing their water activities and getting their canoes out of the water and to the shore. A Portuguese Adult Patrol Leader (APL) was there making sure everyone was safe on the water (as she is also a lifeguard), and once everyone was out, we had a little chat that soon turned into a big hangout around the fireplace. More Guides and Scouts kept joining us and just started sharing stories about the couple of first days on Path.
After lunch, which the Rovers prepared themselves, a Slovenian Patrol began building a traditional wooden build, usually done on Slovenian camp, called ajanje. The name comes from its “A” shape and it is intended to help you get across a body of water.
The other patrols were engaged in the “skill building” part of their programme for the day. That encompasses all kinds of different activities as long as they involve some kind of cultural exchange. In turns, they played games, sang songs and taught each other dances. That way, every country had a chance to have fun sharing their own traditions. All our Path Patrol had such a hectic (but really fun) time just running around trying to catch the best moments amidst everything that was happening at the same time.
As soon as the Rovers finished their activities, so did we. There was so much happening there that we had decided to stay there longer, so it was getting really late and we needed to get to the last Path of the day, where we would set up camp, work for a while, and then call it a day.
We took in the gorgeous view as we approached the peninsula of Halsnes, the location of Path ØS23. The Path leaders there were already waiting and steadily came up to us, as we parked our car. They were so welcoming! After showing us around they offered us dinner. We ate it all together at a table, just like a family would. That warmed my heart, as sharing a meal together is really important to me as a Portuguese person, and it made me think of home.
After that, as we were heading to our office, the designated cleaning patrol burst into the kitchen singing and literally partying all in between us. We joined them as they went outside and created an even bigger uproar. The unity between Rovers all from different nations was palpable. What a beautiful thing to witness!
As tiredness started to set in, people began dispersing, and while some started getting ready to sleep, others were chatting the night away by the fireplace. I was there for a bit, enjoying the atmosphere both the warm flames and the bright Rovers provided, before going back to writing. That was just how that ecstatic day ended.
How was your full experience at Path? I know I had a blast, and hopefully you did too! Here, I shared a bit of my experience, so why don’t you let us know some of your own too? I’m sure you enjoyed hilarious situations and outstanding sights! Tell us about it by interacting directly with our Social Media or by sharing it directly with us through this link!
Enjoy the Main Camp, Rovers!