Day 13 - Thursday 30th

The contingent just messaged to say that they have arrived in London a few minutes ago.

YIS
Kevin

Day 12 - Wednesday 29th

As I update this post, most of the Roverway Campsite has been dismantled and packed away and many of the participants have started to leave the campsite.

The Maltese Contingent is in the main hall with all their gear packed. They will remain there until it is time to leave. Earlier today they went rafting and they sounded very excited about their adventure. Since there is no longer any internet on site, we will not be able to post any photos until they're back in Malta (or maybe they'll find a connection at the airport or in London...)

The contingent leaves the campsite at about 3am (Iceland time) to head to the airport for their return flight through London. Since they have a longish wait before catching the flight to Malta, they will probably catch a train to the centre of London for a spot of shopping.

I will post any updates as I receive them.

YIS
Kevin

Day 11 - Tuesday 28th

Today was the last official day of Roverway.

We woke up a bit late because there were no onsite activities. The closing ceremony was also held in the main arena and we all wore our uniforms and joined the rest of the participants.

There was a really nice atmosphere seeing all the scouts from 42 different countries celebrating the end of such an important adventure. All of us started feeling the absence of each other and even a few tears where shed.

In the afternoon both teams were shifted to a different campsite so that those remaining here will be situated in one site. Later tonight we will have a big bbq in a relaxed atmosphere.

Tomorrow we have an interesting excursion to a river rafting adventure and we are all looking forward to this event. The cold water might not help much but I am sure our adrenaline would be on the peak...





Yis
Edward

Day 10 - Monday 27th

Today both teams were involved in the village activities which consisted of a variety of events including raft building, climbing, assult course, paint ball, volleyball and much more.



In the viking village the participants had the opportunity to do different traditional crafts and experience the traditional way of Icelandic cooking.

In the night time a local band was on stage and a huge party was celebrated in the main arena. This was the last night for most of the participants and all of us had to make the best out of it.

The show ended very late but we all enjoyed dancing and singing :)



YIS
Edward

Day 9 -Sunday 26th (part 2)

After Dinner there was a special programme on the main stage where all people gathered to celebrate the night away.

Glen Catania from the St Venera Group offered to be the host DJ for the night and during this event and all people were partying with the music Glen played. Some of the Maltese girls also made it up to the stage and did a few co-ordinated dances together.

Day 9 -Sunday 26th

The day kicked off with a Holy Mass in the open air for all participants.

The mass was celebrated in various laguages to make sure that everyone participated fully in the prayers. A lot of singing was also done by various contingents.

For the rest of the morning the teams participated again in the activity villages, this time Team A at PSST while team B in the Sporty village. Actually most of the sporty village is run by the maltese International staff....

In the afternoon it was the carnival day and during this part of the day all contingents represented put up a stand to show to the others the culture and typical food that the country offers. At 3.30 the Maltese contingent managed to perform the Maltija dance on the main stage and one can easily say that the performace was simply amazing. Well done to all!!!

The video is still on the way but we promise you that we will put it on line somewhere!! lol.

The night will end by a massive party at the main stage..... the dj will be Glen.... and this is not a joke.... I am soon heading there cos it is nearly time... will give you more updates tomorrow.

YIS Edward

Day 8 - Saturday 25th

All Teams were instructed about how the camp will work and activity tickets were distributed to all participants.

Team A participated in the Party Village while Team B participated in the environmental area.

Each time had the opportunity to either make a small project or discuss certain interesting issues about scouting. In the afternoon Ian Fenech represented the contingent in a Forum for the improvement of the rover programme and later a presentation was done by all forum participants to all rover commissioners present on the campsite.

Before we set off to sleep we practiced the Maltija song because we had to perfom it the day after on the main stage.... ha naraw x-gej!!!!

YIS Edward

Day 7 - Friday 24th

All participants arrived from the journeys and settled in at the campsite. Each Journey stopped at a swimming pool on the way to the main campsite. This was done to avoid having 2500 ppl wanting to have a shower at one time!!

At the pool we had gr8 time. One cannot immagine swimming in a warm pool in a surrounding temperature of around 6 deg.

When we arrived at site we had an attack by thousands of flies (at first we thought they were mosquitos) and we were told that these insects does not bite but they
bother you a lot - surrounding your face in hundreds. They will dissappear
when the wind blows and - they soon did cos on that night the wind really
blew hard.

Around 9.30 an opening ceremony was held on the main stage and we maltese made ourselves heard by chanting popular maltese songs. Each contingent was represented by a flag and the offical roverway song was played.

YIS Edward

An Update from the ISTs

Roverway 09 ICELAND - IST Update
Monday 20thJuly to Thursday 23rd July 09

The 5 Maltese ISTs are: Claude Calleja, Mark Darmanin, Claudatte Magro, Mark O´Neill, Charmaine Sciberras.



Monday 20th – opening cermony & arrival at campsite
All theISTs were on the journeys’ depurture site at 6:30am. Their task was to assist the participants in loading all equipent and food on the buses allocated to each journey. There were 53 different journeys and these were divided into 15 collection points in a large parking area near market in the city we slept first two nights. Each tribe had the food and equipment packed nicely in marked boxes. After every tribe had departed to the opening cermony, the ists cleared the area and did all necessary duties. Then we also were taken by bus to the opening cermony. The opening cermony was held in front of Reykjavik univeristy. There was a great atmosphere of over 3000 scouts waving flags and chanting slogans in their own languages. Soon after the opening ceremony the Ists were given a packed lunch an then headed to collect their personal equipment before leaving for the Althingi campsite. Upon arrival the ISTs pitched their tents and soon after attended a familiarisation tour of the campsite. Soon after, dinner was served and then it was all free time for the ISTs to be able to socialise until it was time for all to go to bed - although one could still see some light in the sky as it never gets dark here.



Tuesday 21st – 1st IST training and Start of the Jobs
All the 300 ISTs were divided into 6 groups and each attended different workshops related to 6 different aspects of training and organization. The Maltese ISTs were all in group 6. Today we had the first three training sessions in the morning from 9 am to 12 pm. These were Camp Rules done in form of acting, The General program of roverway and description of the villages and the jobs to be done. The last workshop was conflict management and participation. Lunch and dinner during the roverway were prepared by kitchen on site so that ISTs could focus on their jobs. In the afternoon we were divided to 5 job groups. Four Maltese ISTs were assigned to the sporty village and one to the viking village. The rest of the afternoon was spent on general information of the villages and also preparation of the villages and workshops. Those ists at the sporty village built a small bridge and mud football ground on the sport village and other small tasks - as most of the equipment still needed to be delivered. After dinner we had time to socialise with other ists from all over Europe and also places like Korea etc. The Italans organised a very good campfire at the campfire site near the lake. Whilst observing the the sky colours, we sang and particiated in the sketches and songs presented.



Wednesday 22nd – 2nd IST training and continuation of the Jobs
In the moring the Maltese ISTs had another 3 interesting workshops. These were on how to survive the Icelandic weather, we then we had important session on first aid, and what to do in case of an emergency. The last workshop was on Earthquakes and fire, i.e. how to go about if fire occured or the unlikley event of an earthquake. After lunch we met again within our teams and continued the jobs needed to be done. We managed to set up the game invented by the Maltese ISTs - the bungy knights. It was liked very much by the leader of sporty village and it complimented the games in that area which were all related to very very wet Games. After dinner we had a presentation by WOSM on worldwide scouting events. These were the MOOT 2010 in Kenya, 22nd Jamboree in Sweden 2011, Eurolife 03 - a Waggs activity and 39th World Scout Conference in Brazil. Later we relaxed in the IST Cafe that was slowly taking shape.



Thursday 23rd – Outings at GEYSERS and finishing the Jobs
The Iceland team prepared a number of activities and excursions round the beautiful Icelandic country. These mainly included rafting, horse riding, high rope course, kayaking. swimming and visiting the Geyser direct. We chose to go and see the phenomenal Geysers located about 1 hour and half away from the campsite. We left the campsite at 9am and headed to the centre of iceland - seeing vast areas of landscapes. We saw a hydroletric plant and a number of spectacular mountain views. The first stop was near quite a large waterfall near the geysers. The weather today was very windy and cold - not like the rest of the days which were very sunny and calm. Then we headed to the Geysers and to a large souvenir shop. The splash of the geyser was impressive and a unique experience. Then we had the return trip which again gave us the opportunity to travel on gravel and dust roads of Iceland. We also saw wild horses running around. As we arrived at campsite round 1.30pm we had lunch in the IST dinner area. The afternoon was spent finalising jobs, as now most of the equipment had arrived. Now the campsite really lokked different with most of the equipment and tentage in place. After dinner we relaxed in the IST cafe. We were now eager for the arrival of the participants the following day in the afternoon. During these five days we were in constant communation with the two maltese tribes by sms and internet. They both seemed to have had great time.



Friday 24th – final Setup and arrival of Participants
The night was quite cold with the temperature going down to 5 degrees celcius at the campsite. Today we had to finish the final setup of the workshop we were assigned to. From 9am till lunch we did various jobs on the sporty village and viking village. After lunch we had an other two hours to set up the activities. Then at 4pm the leader of sporty village, Stephen took us on boat trip to a small island which its about 5 minutes away from the campsite by boat. Its was quite nice and we had the opportunity to see the wider view of the campsite. The campsite was quickly getting full up. The participants started to arrive at 10am. The Maltese Participants arrived in the afternoon. The sea rescue group arrived at about 5pm and the ice climbing group arrived at about 6pm. We met them and they gave us a brief update of the adventures and journeys – they all seemed to have had a great time. We also saw some of the photos that they took. At 9pm all those present gathered in the area near Gimle to assist to the Althingi opening cermony. There was a large screen displaying some photos of Iceland and also some pictures from the various journeys. We sang some campfire songs and also the offical Roverway 2009 song. We spent the rest of the night at the Gimle cafe as outside was quite cold. Tomorrow, the Ists will be busy for the first workshop session out of five till Monday.




YIS

Mark Darmanin
Momo D viking :-)

Day 6 - Thursday 23rd

Yesterday was a relaxing day !

We were taken to town to do some shopping and visit some places of interest. When we returned to the school we're staying at, we spent most of the evening chatting with a spanish group within our tribe.



Today we went to vist the Icelandic Coast Guard. First we went on board the Search and Rescue Training ship where we were given a tour of the ship.



As soon as we had some free time we managed to find a restaurant that make good hamburgers... and obviously we all ordered the biggest burger they had in the menu :)



In the afternoon we went to the airport where we were invited to see the newly purchased Search and Rescue aircraft.



YIS
Glen

An update from the Ice Climbing Journey Team

This is a quick update of what we have been up to during the Ice climbing journey...



Day 1... We travelled for 7 hours by coach to get to Skaftafell Park and when we arrived at our destination we pitched the tents and played a lot of scout games. The scenery here is amazing - we're surrounded by glaciers and mountains. The weather here changes every 15 minutes and we have all extremes.



Day 2... On this day we went for an 8hr hike in this wonderful park where we climbed up the mountain up to 900 meters and we were given the opportunity to enjoy the wonderful scenery.



Day 3... We went ice climbing and glacier walking. Early morning we were all geared up with the equipment and set off for a walk on the glaciers. This was a wonderful experience and soon after we managed to reach our destination.



The instructors rigged the ropes for us and we were provided with three Ice climbs. We can say that we really did well and the instructors were telling us that the Maltese contingent was one of the best teams which managed to reach the top. The weather was extremely cold up there but we managed to keep ourselves warm with thick clothes.



In the afternoon we were taken for a walk on the glaciers were we were shown even more spectacular scenes. The whiteness of the glaciers was amazing and this would be an unforgettable experience for all of us. The day ended up with a campfire where three tribes mixed together and everybody put on some stunts and songs followed by a short party.



Day 4... Today was the Service to the Community Day and we were taken by the volunteers of the campsite to one of the pathways along the walking tracks. We were spread along the pathways in a form of chain and we carried buckets full of soil to fix the walking tracks.



In the afternoon we have a swim in the outdoor pool. Can you imagine you dip in a pool in a 10 deg temperature surrounded by glacier mountains ?

That's all for now from our team.

YIS
Edward

Day 5 - Wednesday 22nd

Today both participant teams are out on their respective journeys and so they will be out of (internet) contact for some time. (No photos today sorry...)

BUT I just got a call from the IST team that are at the campsite and they gave me an update of what is happening there.

This morning the ISTs were given extensive training on Emergencies, First Aid and procedures in the case of an accident. After lunch Claudette and Charmaine had a little emergency with one of their tent poles - but the freshly trained expert - Mark Darmanin - soon came to the rescue with duct tape... The rest of the afternoon was spent setting up the campsite for the arrival of the participants in a few days time.

Some Maltese ISTs have been assigned to Sporty Village and will be responsible for the activities at "WaterWorld". The rest will be running the Maltese Contingent tent which will have tradtional games and activities running.

Tomorrow the IST team will be going off on an adventure of their own to visit the geysers in the locality.

More updates soon.

YIS
Kevin

Day 4 - Tuesday 21st

Last night we all finally managed to get a good night's sleep !

We covered the windows with whatever material we could find so that the room was dark :) Trying to sleep in a brightly sunlit room in the middle of the night is an interesting experience.



Today we visited the rescue boats and we were given a ride on their dinghy around the coast. At about noon we came back to school for lunch. Later in the afternoon did some voluntary work in the locality where we helped to change the grass in a public recreational area.



Tonight we have a BBQ on the beach and, obviously, we took the lead in cooking and providing the evening's entertainment.

More updates soon.

YIS
Glen

Day 3 - Monday 20th

Today we had the official opening of Roverway.

We started packing at about 6am this morning (8am your time) and we moved to the University grounds where the cermony was held. We were asked to form a human arrow... (don't ask me why !!). There were various speeches by the Camp Chief, Chief Scout of Iceland, Secretary General of WOSM and also the Prime Minister if Iceland.



After the opening, we all moved on to begin our journeys - and my group have the Search and Rescue Journey. The International Service Team staff moved down to the main campsite and from a phone call we had from Charmaine it seems that the site is amazing but full of mosquitos... lol



I'll keep you informed as our adventure progresses.

YIS
Glen

Day 2 - Sunday 19th

The first day was characterised by a site visit to the famous BLUE LAGOON which is a famous local touristic attraction. The contingent spent time relaxing after the long trip to come here.

The rest of the day seems to be filled with free time before the official opening of Roverway tomorrow morning.



Watch this space for more updates.

- Mark O'Neill

Day 1 - Saturday 18th

A contingent of 25 rovers has left the island to join the another 3000 scouts from a number of countries (mostly from Europe) for the 3rd Roverway Event which is being held in Iceland.

Silence was broken at the Malta international Airport at 5am as the contingent gathered to leave for Reykjevik via Heathrow, London. The voyage was quite long and this included a 3 hour flight to London and a 10 hour stay in London prior to another 3 hour flight from London to Iceland.

During our stay in England the contingent visited the centre of London and did some shopping. We arrived at our accommodation in Iceland at around 2am (4am in Malta) all of us visibly tired but looking forward for the rest of the stay.

- Mark O'Neill