This one had to be organized ourselves with a little help from the leaders. We went to Caerdydd! (Cardiff)

We all met up at the hut for 6pm on the 5th of December. After packing all our 'lightweight bags' in to the minibus we headed off in the hands of Moz's driving in the minibus we'd got from Adams mum.

On the way to Cardiff, we stopped at a petrol station in Hereford for a toilet break. One of the shop assistants came out to us and asked if any of us had remembered to pay for the £60 odd of petrol we had just purchased. Butcher walked back in.

After about 3½ hours we arrived at the hut, unpacked all our stuff and all the explorers (except Kris and Rebecca) went to Asda. It was about midnight now. After painting personalised mugs and having a good play on children's bikes we went to bed.

I was woken up by the Butcher snoring! I went out of my room and smiled at the thought of being the first one up. Then I saw two beds empty. Jake and Danny were already up. Damn! We went to IKEA for breakfast. Most of us had full English that was only £1. Not surprised, Moz described the scrabbled egg as not even containing egg. We then got lost trekking around IKEA. Adam bought a towel and Butcher bought a back scratcher/shoehorn.

First we went to Asda to buy the weekends food. We had problems but got there in the end. We then went ice skating, Sam became quite ill after falling over 18 times. We then got the bus into the centre of Cardiff, met the leaders and headed into the Millennium stadium. It was HUGE! The first performances were a stunt man, 'The Fuel Girls', dancers on balloons and the new pop band 'The Saturdays'. Then we watched cars whizz around the track against the clock. Also biker Valentino Rossi had a go at driving a race car. We became quite cold and got the bus back to the hut.

We had Pizza and chips for tea then settled down to watch 'Hancock and 'Be Kind Rewind' on the projector. It was the size of a cinema screen in the hall. Rebecca and I had fallen asleep and I was awoken with laughing, cameras and a frozen fish glaring into my face. I chucked my sleeping bag, ran into a shower block and locked myself in there for at least 20 minutes.

People started to settle down for the night and the next morning had soon arrived. I was one of the last to get up this time. We went to IKEA for breakfast. This time people chose food that was a little different to yesterday. When we got back we found a dead mouse that had died and froze. Danny placed an advertisement next to him that said 'Accident? Ring this number for help'.

We packed our bags and loaded the minibus. We met a former explorer scout named Alwyn (I think) and we followed him to Cardiff centre. We had a couple of hours of shopping, had dinner then got back on the minibus to go home. Butcher was driving this time.

The minibus broke down a couple of times and sometimes we could only go 30mph maximum. We stopped at a service station where Moz bought Butcher a good luck card for the driving home. We all signed it and many added 'Good Luck with Woolworths'. After singing many Christmas songs that always ended in 'Five Gold Rings' we got back to the hut, all got off and went home!

It was a cracking weekend! The Forum, Moz, Butcher and Adam all deserve a big Thank You. I hope we have another camp as good or better than this soon! :)

Will - ''It was a once in a lifetime trip. I'll never forget the memories that we forged there.''

Rebecca - ''Ardèche was fantastic! It was so much fun with loads of things to do and I would definitely go again.''

Danny - ''I thought the Ardèche was good because it gave me the chance as an Explorer Scout to see a different country from a different way, I also went to Vallon where I saw other French Scouts doing the same as me.''

Paddy - ''It was one of the best times of my life and I thought that it was amazing how everyone got to know everyone and made new friends!''

Eddie - ''Visiting France was an amazing experience which opened up new opportunities for me that I could never have experienced without Explorer Scouts. I had the chance to do new activities and visit a foreign country with friends my own age.''

Stuart - ''The Ardèche was a place of outstanding natural beauty. It was truly spectacular.''

Kris - ''Fantastic two weeks, great experience, a real adventure.''

Sam - ''Best experience EVER.''

This weekend K2 went down to Cox Wood for a district camp. There were lots of Cubs, Scouts and Explorer camping over.

When we got there we had to pitch our tents up in the mud which was horrible it was everywhere, but that didn't drown our sprits. When all of K2 had put up their tents and had our tea, we then went to the opening ceremony where we sang songs which included 'oh fluffy sheep', 'singing in the rain' and others. We all loved it and joined in all the songs including Butch. When it had finished we had a talk about what we were meant to be doing and the boring stuff. When we got back to our tents, some of us went to bed and others stayed up to talk, I went to bed as i was shattered.

When we woke up the next morning we all made our breakfast, well some of us as others weren't even up at 8 o'clock. I went to help the Scouts with breakfast, they had sausage and beans for their breakfast along with cereal and juice. We then all went to do our activities. Me and Leah went to do circus skills with a some people from the circus, then we went to do abseiling down this wall, we got into the safety kit and went to climb up to go to the top but were really scared as we didn't realise that it was ladders not stairs, when we finally got to the top we looked down and I really felt sick but wanted to show people in K2 that i wasn't scared. I had to watch this lad cry all the way down which made me feel really nervous. It was my turn to go down, I stepped over the edge and was getting really scared but with everyone from K2 watching I had to do it. When I was going down I felt okay and actually relaxed and it wasn't that bad after all.

We then went to bmxing, I hated that as I like a proper bike, archery was really good. We then met up with Robyn, Will, Alex and Aaron and went to the bouncy castle which was awesome. Will got loads of scratches and got a plastic burn from the castle, it was fun when we threw Aaron onto the bouncy castle, that was really funny! We went to have some dinner at 12.30, me and Jake went to help with the Scouts dinner which turned out really good. When we all had dinner and then went back to the activities to have even more fun!

When it got to 6 we had to go back to our tents to have dinner before the disco. Me and Robyn went together to the disco and danced all the time it was fun, even Butch was dancing sometimes, Moz wasn't, was too busy taking photos, but the fun stopped when Will and Leah went missed in the wood, we had to go looking for them we found Leah who didn't know where Will had got to, we went all round the wood and when we got back he was there waiting for us to come back had been to the disco and come back to see us that was NOT funny!!!

When the disco ended we all went back to our tents where some of us played truth or dare, this was really fun, finally at 3 in the morning we went to bed to awake the next morning.

On Sunday it was raining, great, but this didn't put us off! We had to invest 2 of our new members, Sam and Leah. Before all that could happen we had some team activities on for each troop. We went first to do line dancing which was so funny and so much fun even though some people we not very co-ordinated, like me! We also did this volleyball or something with a ball and ground sheets that was funny, the girls (Rebecca, Robyn, Alex and Leah) and the lads (Eddie, Stuart, Sam) I think anyway, the girls were leading until the lads took over us. When we had done that the girls went for a break, to get cleaned up as we had been covered in mud from the game, we met up with Will and 1st Moss Scouts and we were helping with them until we broke up for lunch this was the last time we helped with the Scouts but we made it fun.

We had to go do our costumes for our tibet monks outfit for the parade, we just finished our costumers ready for the parade. We paraded down to the tent that we were having the service, where I volunteered to read about what St. George's day is all about. I was really nervous about this but did it as i wanted to. When we had renewed our promises and finished the service and invested Sam and Leah it was time to go back our tents to pack all our stuff away which all that night had been raining so it was all covered in mud and all of us were covered in mud. When we had packed our stuff and tents away it was time to go home to our parents delight, well not so much delight when they saw how muddy we were!!

It was a really good camp and I think that everyone who went really enjoyed themselves and I hope to go on another one again!!

Last weekend I set off with 5 other Explorers from my Unit on our first practise D of E Expedition from Llandegla. There was a little bit of rain just creeping through the grey clouds, but we were all happy even through it was 8am.

We set off with our carefully packed kits and went wrong at the first hurdle. We were supposed to turn right up onto a farm track but we went straight on and by the time we had turned around after noticing our little mistake the Bronze Final group had caught us up and were now ahead. We went across field after field but then one field stuck out from the rest as there was a bull amongst a herd of cows! Richard and Stuart took a direct slow approach, where as the rest off us waited for the bull to go.

After lunch we set off on our final stretch and made our way across the moors to Cae Clwyd. We pitched our tents and went for a stroll around the campsite. Phil, one of the Leaders then asked to see our route cards. We ended up drawing out on the map where we had just walked from and the things we had done wrong.

We put our tea on which was abit of a disaster as we had crammed it all into one pan but it was only luke warm. Everyone else started to have their tea and soon there was a campfire up and roaring with every body wrapped around it for the warmth. We all went to bed at about 11pm as it was starting to snow.

The next morning, we woke up to a snow covered tent and ground. We had breakfast, re-packed our kit bags and struck camp. There was a bit of a wait to start walking as the snow meant a new route for the day. After we were given the all clear we started walking back down the steep hill that the previous day we struggled up, but today we simply just bounced down it happily.

After we had walked for a bit we come across a new-born lamb which was baa-ing its heart out but there was no sign of its mother. So Rebecca approached it and started stroking it and like 'sheep' we all started one after another stroking it.

We carried on walking along the footpaths to Nant Mill where we had a small rest. After our rest, the next big checkpoint was Bersham Iron works. We made a big push for here as this was where our group had chosen to have our lunch.

We followed the Clywedog trail through Erddig and across the last few mud filled fields and awkward stiles to our final destination of Marchwiel where we had a de-brief off Phil and went home.

After a long car journey into the welsh mountains on increasingly tight and twisty roads we reached Cornel. The weather had closed in and the winds swatted round the valley causing the trees to sway alarmingly. Andrew and I got out of the car with our bags on our backs, only after checking every conceivable way in realised that no one else was there yet, so we retreated to the car and sat talking and listened to the radio.

The sweep of lights on the road heralded the arrival of Mat, Ollie and Pad. We all piled into the back of Pads Dads car. Russell arrived at 7.30pm after being held up in traffic, and opened the building and we all went inside and grabbed a bed.

We sat around and talked until Moz arrived and then sat in the kitchen and ate crackers. After that we went to bed and the Scouts went to their tents, in the high wind and lashing rain we didn't envy them, we felt rather smug as we sat in our centrally heated room.

The next day we got up and cooked our breakfast in one of the out buildings washed up and then prepared for the walk. With bags packed and routes planned we set off circling round the glacial ribbon lake in the valley and climbing the far side through some woodland and stopping at a waterfall, we continued up the slope onto the saddle of the hill and then after a short rise down a very steep heather covered slope which because you couldn't see your feet was more a leap of faith.

We continued in this fashion until we reached the dam and water pipeline. On the dam with such a wide expanse of water to swoop across the wind was very strong, so we all sheltered like soldiers in a trench behind a low wall on the dam. Here we invested Andrew and Ricky, Ollie and I held the flag which was trying to start a new life as a hang glider, and we all stood around and made the scout sign and Moz invested Andrew and Ricky.

A short while and some butties later we headed off the dam and onto the hills we followed a dirt track that zigzagged up the slope and then across the heather. This was really energy sapping as it dragged at your feet every step we took, we climbed onto an erratic while we waited for Russell who was struggling under the weight of a full pack as he was training for his Explorer Belt expedition. We kept climbing up the slope until we reached a saddle between the main hill and the smaller one we where on. The Scouts caught up and we surveyed the weather, it was closing in around the summit, the decision was made to go down instead of continuing, as getting trapped by the weather would have been quite bad.

Half way down a plane wreck was found, I took a large chunk with me as a souvenir we continued a short way and then sat for lunch. After this we walked along the reservoir trying to reach the valley head. We walked through ankle deep water with frogspawn in it. We climbed out of the valley and onto open moorland and waited for Russell, in the end the decision was made to leave him as he had a tent if the worst came to the worst, (he arrived back at Cornel at 7.30am the next morning).

When we got back to Cornel we all cooked our own tea, and watched 'The Big Bus' movie (we didn't think 'Touching the void' would be appropriate with Russell still on the Mountain.)

The next day we went round Betws-y-coed, looked at the shops and spent a long time messing with the cameras, making a photo with the same person on it more then once. When we got back to Cornel there was the usual mad rush to pack up and clean the building. There was time for one last hike around another lake and when we got back our parents were waiting to take us home. We all agreed it was a great weekend.

K2 ESU and a few of 1st Rhosnesney went to London on the train on the night of the 23rd November 2007 and we some how missed our interchanging train from Birmingham to London but never the less this didn't dampen our spirits. So as this had happened it gave us all time to go to the toilet and freshen ourselves up a bit (even through we had to pay 50p to go to the toilet), we were back on our journey to London within about 35 mins. We finally got to London and on the tube at probably around 10.35pm but we pressed on and arrived in Bounds Green at 11pm. After a short walk we were at Scout Park our campsite for the weekend where we set up camp and had a hot drink and went to bed.

The next morning we were all up bright and early as it was so, so cold everybody was absolutely freezing. We left camp to go to London for a sight-seeing filled adventure and about 10.30am, we went to all the normal London tourist attractions (e.g Buckingham Palace) after about 4 hours of looking around London and after looking in Lamborghini London's Showroom I must say. We went for our lunch in a very nice local Pizza place, after our meal the Explorers were allowed to go to where we wanted to in London on our own and the Scouts went with the two leaders for our London weekend (who were both very kind in doing all they did for us on that weekend) Moz and Russell.

We had now been around most of London and we had all met up again outside the National History Museum and walked to the nearest tube station and headed for Greenwich to go to the O2 Arena and watched the show we got to the arena a bit early and went around the activities there. We got into the actual Arena about 40 mins before the show but after a few chants of Fluffy Sheep and OGI OGI OGI as of course CYMRU-AM-BYTH in English WELSH AND PROUD!

The show started and by now every single one of us was in party mode and right into the swing of the atmosphere in the arena we watched with excitement and even when it was time the interval we stayed in our seats, which were in a very good place for us to but our unit banner and my Wales flag as we were on the right-hand side top balcony. The finished and we left the arena again cheering and chanting as we left onto the streets of London, back onto the tube a quick stop off for tea at a McDonalds somewhere in the big city of London. We got back to Bounds Green at about 1.30 am in the morning and went straight to bed.

The next day we again got up early packed our rucksack and were off site for am prompt (well ish 8.30am) on to the Piccadilly line for the last time and then off the tube links and onto our Virgin train to go back home past Wembley etc and were in Birmingham after 3 changes onto our arriva train to Shrewsbury after arriving at Shrewsbury we waited for 35mins for the next train to come we left for our home destination WREXHAM!! we arrived in Wrexham General just after the local football Derby match between Wrexham and Chester but we had luckily missed for fans going home then after our quite mind blowing trip to London we all went home.

I would like to thank all the people who made this weekend work for us in the London the cast of the show, the presenters everyone thanks!!!

On Friday 26th October Ollie, Emma, Alex and me arrived at a secluded Cox Wood to start the Halloween Horror camp. As the sun went down the tents went up and we waited for Moz, Dean and Ashley to arrive. With camp set up we had supper and chilled out for the rest of the night.

The next morning we made a quick trip to Sainsbury's to stock up on food and returned to camp to start carving our pumpkins. As there was a low turn-out and Dean had left the previous night, most of us had a pumpkin each. We decided not to eat the inners but to save them for our silly games which were shortly to follow.

These commenced with apple bobbing and then fishing a jelly baby out of flour with our mouths. This, as you could imagine, turned quite sticky and messy. However, not as sticky as the next game where the challenge was to get a penny out of golden syrup with your teeth and then another jelly baby out of oatmeal! We decided we had punished our faces enough, what with fake wounds, glue, flour, water, syrup, and moved on to our hands. This was where the pumpkin inners came in HAND-y as we fished around for the penny amongst the seeds and goo.

After the games we went to the classroom to watch the eagerly awaited Candy Man. There wasn't a single Explorer not scared by this great film and afterwards I plucked up the courage to say it 5 times in the mirror. At which point Russell, being Russell banged on the wall and it was fair to say I sprinted out of there. Finally we watched the Blair Witch Project which was not the best but had an amazing ending...

Last weekend, Josh, Kris, Eddy and me went on a Bronze D of E practice hike.

We met at Felin Puleston at 10am on Saturday. All together there were 4 groups, each with four people in. We went through a talk and Phil (the person in charge) checked we had the right equipment. After that we were ready to go, we left Felin Puleston at about 11 o'clock, it was a frosty crisp morning that refreshed and got you awake.

The four of us started our hike by following the Clywedog Trail (river path), when we got to Nant Mill we met up with the others for dinner. We stayed there for an hour and then began our hike again down the country lanes. We eventually reached Cae Llwyd campsite about 5pm.

We set up our tents as soon as we got there and then had a talk on food and they asked us what food we had to cook for tea. The four of us went to collect fire wood for the campfire we were having later. We then played a game of reactions, where we stood in a circle and Phil threw a rugby ball at us randomly and if we dropped it we had to run round the circle, after that we played duck duck goose which was a laugh because everyone keep slipping over.

After that we went round and started talking to the other groups and getting to know them. In one of the groups were our fellow K2 members Steven and Jethro.

Everyone was getting hungry so we decided to start making tea, I had Mutton Stew (yummm), Kris had pasta carbonie, Eddy had Pot Noodle and Josh had Super Noodles. For pudding me and Kris had boil in the bag chocolate moose which was extremly nice even though we added too much water. After tea we light the campfire and sat round it for a bit.

While we were round the fire they told us that we would need a survival bag in a bit. We all went and collected our survival bags and they took us on a night hike, then we suddenly stopped on top of this big hill and they told us all to get into our survival bags and in groups of four sit back to back. The leaders then left us there for half an hour lying under the clear nights sky looking up at the stars.

Half an hour went and the leaders came to get us, we got out of our survival bags and it is suprising how warm they are. We headed back to camp and had a hot drink the hit the tents for a night.

We woke up the next morining at 6am, yes 6am. Me and Kris then went for a jog round the whole campsite which woke us up. Me, Ed and Kris were the first people up, I know its hard to believe. Eventually Josh got up and so did everybody else, we had breakfast and then struck camp.

We left the site at 9:30, this was the challenging day of the expedition. Lots of mapwork that had to be spot on. Me made our way over the moors and came down at World's End for lunch about 12 o'clock. We then carried on our hike at about 1 o'clock, through lots of woodland with many paths. After a few more hours of hiking we finally made it to Valle Crusis Abbey our finishing point.

It was a great weekend and I thoroughly enjoyed it and I'm sure everyone else did.