Hi, I’m Will and I’m in Group ‘Star Lord’ for Project 23: the Hampshire marvellous European road trip. I am writing about the recent Trek Cart pull we all did to raise money for WSJ/ P23.
After months of planning, we all got together on the hottest weekend of the year so far. We set out with one goal – to pull a trek cart as far as we could around the New Forest. Why? To raise money for the opportunity of a lifetime. In the trek cart we would have to pull our tents, lots of water and a bags which weighed 120KG! As well as this we would have to navigate the whole route on our own with just a map and route cards.
On Friday, at around 6:00 PM, we left the scout Hut to avoid the hottest part of the day. We trekked through Bartley, Woodlands, and Woodlands enclosure, and then down the cycle track on Southampton Road before arriving at Lyndhurst. In a scary turn of events, the trek cart didn’t fit through the bars behind the Ferrari garage and we had to take the wheels off and lower it under. Luckily, we didn’t scratch any Ferraris. We put up three tents and had fish and chips for dinner.
The next day we had an early start of 6:30 AM to collapse the tents, pack them back into the trek cart and have a delicious, cooked breakfast. We started the pull on the second day at about 8:00 AM and it was my favourite day because there were no roads, so there were beautiful forest views as we travelled out of Lyndhurst and around Longdown enclosure. So close to the end of the day we came upon the biggest challenge we would face. Looming ahead of us was a hill so steep all of the team had to grab hold of the trek cart and push it together to get it into Ferny Crofts. Even though we left early, it still got very hot very quickly and we had to take frequent breaks. We set up camp before tucking into some brilliant bolognaise. We bedded down for the night, one of us even slept in a hammock, and we got a good night sleep to prepare for the next day the final pull.
On Sunday morning, breakfast was at 6:30 AM, before taking the tents down for the final time and leaving for the last big pull. Sunday was the longest journey and the hottest day. We went up from Ferny Crofts past Church Place enclosure and over Lyndhurst road. We then went back through Woodlands enclosure where we had to get that trek cart over a narrow bridge. My heart sunk as I realised, we could have journeyed all this way only to be defeated by a bridge. It was very tight and the sides of the car literally touched the bridge but we scrape through. We then stop for a quick lunch break, before using our last energy to pull it back through Woodlands and past Bartley school. Finally, we arrive back at the scout hut where we all enjoyed some refreshing ice creams. Even though it was the hottest weekend of the year we managed to pull through and I’m surprised that the 50 year old trek cart didn’t break.
Over the journey we were supported by our parents and leaders that helped us make it all happen. We would like to thank them and all the people who generously donated to the just giving page and everyone who stopped for a little chat to encourage us to keep going. In the end we managed to pull the trek cart 50 kilometres and we are so proud of our accomplishments.
In other news we have had a 12 member joined the WSJ/ P23 team from Stanley’s own. Oliver from Everett troop has been given a place on P23 and we are really pleased he joined the trek with us.