This episode’s vocabulary
Rambling
adj. — too long and confused.
Knackering
adj. — making you feel very tired.
Inlet
noun — a narrow strip of water that goes from a sea or lake into the land or between islands.
Badge
noun — a small piece of metal or plastic with words or a picture on it, that you carry with you or fasten to your clothing or something else, in order to show who you are, that you are a member of a group, etc.
On offer
phrase — available to be bought or used.
To soldier on
phrasal verb — to continue doing something although it is difficult.
To moan
verb — to make a long, low sound of pain, suffering, or another strong emotion.
Cramp
noun — a sudden painful tightening in a muscle, often after a lot of exercise, that limits movement.
Dehydrated
adj. — not having the normal amount of water in your body so that you feel ill or weak.
Questions and answers
Oh God, this is a while back. But when I was at Scout camp well over 20 years ago, I remember we went on this long rambling walk through the countryside that seemed to go on forever. And that was quite knackering. If memory serves, I think we were in a place called Lunan Bay. That's an inlet in Scotland, which predictably has a castle, and we were camping there for the weekend as part of one of our Cub Scout badges. Those are like challenges, you have to complete a certain number of things and then they give you a badge. And so spending the night at this camp was one of the challenges you had to do. Anyway, one of the activities for this camp was a walk along the beach and back through the countryside. I managed to walk there, like along the beach to the end fine, but it must have been miles and I wasn't the most physically fit of kids. So it was pretty rough on my legs and feet going back. As for the reason I took parts, I pretty much had no choice. There was a great range of activities on offer, so I just had to cope as best I could. I think I did pretty well and just kept soldiering on. But being a young person, I'm sure I probably moaned more than a little bit. And now I think about it. I'm sure there are some rules about forced marches of children. But this was the late 90s. So things were a little more relaxed then. I remember towards the end, my legs were stiff to the point of cramping up and I was really dehydrated. To make matters worse, I was bored half to death. So I'm sure I started just making up stories in my head to pass the time. You can only really appreciate endless Scottish countryside for so long before that happens. To be honest, I could have done without this experience. And I think I'd much rather have done something else like sitting on my PlayStation all weekend at home. However, I suppose it built some character, even if it was an aspect of my character that I didn't want to build.
And what about your friends? Did they enjoy the experience?
I didn't have friends with me at that time. It was just people in my troop.
So what about people in your troop then? Did they enjoy it?
I don't think they were particularly thrilled either, to be honest. It wasn't very well organized.