After a kerfuffle with cancelled trains, I made it to Newport ready for my first ever national SSAGO camp. Luckily when I arrived on the campsite, our tents had been pre assembled due to the freshers arriving earlier with them. I unpacked before discovering dinner and then shortly the Quiz!!
Just as I settled into my tent, one of my tent buddies felt sick so we addressed this and got her to the first aid tent before heading to bed again. It was a very cold night and I was happy when I could wake up and grab a warm breakfast. However, luck was not on my side. When I reached the front of the queue, C and I got stopped as they needed to let those on the early coach through first (is it not there fault for waking up late?). When they finally let us go to the front of the queue they had ran out of beans and hashbrowns so we had a pity breakfast of bacon and eggs.
After breakfast we grabbed our lunches before waiting for the coach. We nearly got a lift on a minibus to the coach however the minibuses clutch failed and we started rolling backwards. We then walked to the coaches to head into Cardiff.
During Saturday morning, I partook in the monopoly run. I was in a group with other SSAGO clubs and we ran around Cardiff. Cardiff was heaving with people due to the Tonga v. Wales rugby match happening later that day and we saw the Tonga coach arrive.
At lunch, we sat and I spoke to some of my Scouting friends from home which I did not know were in SSAGO. This was very nice to catch up with them and it included one of my Jamboree friends.
After lunch, I booked onto the St Fagans Outdoor Museum. I fondly remember visiting here as a child and one of the houses had my nans old kitchen cupboards. I enjoyed exploring the museum and looking around the old buildings as well as hearing the stories behind them. As an afternoon snack, I bought a cheesy roll and it was gorgeous. I then visited a castle before catching the coach back to the campsite – I don’t remember this journey as I had a well deserved nap.
After arriving back at the campsite, we grabbed dinner before getting ready for the ceilidh (a highlight of any SSAGO camp). This was so so fun and the caller had been on Stacey and Gavin and worked with many cool clients. After the ceilidh, it was time for the silent disco before heading to bed after a midnight Welsh cake!
Sunday morning was a much better breakfast as I woke up early to head off to reps. Reps was full of all the SSAGO gossip news and election details. Following this was an EGM and I was running on behalf of the Oktoberfest rally committee. This would be held in Autumn 2023 and I had to speak and answer questions (see photo below of confident 84 in front of over 100 people!!).
After EGM it was time to pack away before we caught the last minibus (due to 3 minibuses breaking down over the weekend) and headed back to Newport. Here we headed to spoons before catching the train back to Uni.
It was a really enjoyable first rally and I am already looking forward to Centenarally in March next year (hopefully we will have received our Rali Cymru merch before then though – edit 12.3.23 ‘we still have not received our Rali Cymru merch’).