Explorer Belt Leadership Team

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1 We hope that you enjoyed the first meeting, it was great to meet you all and see that everyone is excited to get this adventure started! Bulletin 2 will recap the key points that were presented at the first meeting, as well as other important pieces of information. As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please do get in touch with us (explorerbelt@catvog.org) and a member of the team will be happy to help! Joey, Sean, Ruth, Rhys, Jeremy, Kim, Jasper, Adam Explorer Belt Leadership Team Remember to save the dates for our next three UK-based training events. These are designed to get you ready for the Explorer Belt with training, opportunities to get to know your team and to build excitement before we travel! This weekend will be a key opportunity for you to learn the essential expedition skills, as well as thinking about how your team would like to spend their time in the Czech Republic. It s also a chance to get to know each other a bit better! We ll be putting the training into practice on this weekend. It s a chance to practice navigating and walking with your pack, as well as taking part in some mini-challenges which will be both fun and good practice for the Czech Republic.

2 This will be the final chance for everyone to get together before travelling to the Czech Republic! It will be a fun weekend where we ll focus on the cultural aspects of the Explorer Belt as well as a celebration of the hard work so far! Thanks to everyone for paying their deposits if you are yet to do so, please pay this as soon as possible. If this (or indeed any payments) are a barrier to your participation, please explorerbelt@catvog.org in confidence. Here is a reminder of the payment deadlines for the Explorer Belt. Please note that the deadline for the second payment has been extended to 30th November 2016, rather than the end of October. The payment deadlines are as follows: deposit - Due th November th February th March th June 2017 Payments should be made electronically to the Explorer Belt Bank Account. If this is a problem for you, please let us know. Here are the details: Account Name: CATVOG Explorer Belt 2017 Account Number: Sort Code: Please remember to reference payments!! It makes it much easier for us to keep track of your payments!

3 Money worries shouldn t be a barrier to adventure. There are several opportunities for financial support for Participants. The International Fund is a grant-giving fund to enable adults and young people in hardship to travel abroad and access activities to support the global programme within Scouting. Applicants could receive up to 200 to support their Explorer Belt payments. Full details on who can apply and the application form can be found here: The Harold Meredith Travel Fund assists young people to access international travel within Scouting. Applicants can receive grants of up to 100. Full details on who can apply and the application form can be found here: The Melvin Skidmore Fund is available to young people who are a member of a Group/ Unit within the Cardiff East and South District. The fund aims to support all aspects of Scouting for local members of the District. For more information on how to apply, please memorialfund@eastandsouth.org.uk Please remember that all of these grants should be applied for by individuals. However, if you would like support in filling in an application, please do get in touch with the Leadership Team. We re aware that Thursday 17th August (the final day of the expedition) is AS/ A-level Results Day. The individuals that need to access UCAS will be given the opportunity to do so to confirm their University offers. If you need anything further to help this day to pass smoothly, please let us know! To confirm, GCSE results day is a week later (24th August) and we are back in the UK for this.

4 Several of you have now formed teams; this will be the team that you complete your expedition with so we recommend that between now and August 2017 you spend time bonding as a team and working on your own physical fitness. Do not rely solely on the pre-events as being adequate for all of your training needs; they are designed to give you the basics and an overview of what you will need to know it is down to you as individuals, and as members of the team, to ensure you are ready for the expedition. Do not worry if you are not in a team yet, there is plenty of time to get sorted! The Leadership team have a list of individuals/pairs that need to form teams; we will help with this and will be in contact with you in the next month. In Bulletin 1 we requested that all Participants completed The Scout Association Explorer Belt registration. This is to ensure that your award is official once you have completed all of the requirements! Thanks to the few that have already done this, but if you are yet to register, please do so sooner rather than later - click here. A few weeks ago Joey and Rhys set off to the region of the Czech Republic that we will be travelling to in order to get a feel for the place, spot potential expedition routes, and scout out the availability of key expedition resources! It s fair to say that they weren't disappointed - the Český Krumlov town was described as being like a fairytale, and a particular highlight being the impressive castle built on top of the cliff overlooking the town! There is plenty to do in Prague and not much time to do it in. We suggest you do a bit of research to identify the things you d like to do once there more information about Prague will be given at the February training weekend. Transport to and from the airport in country is easy and we are confirming the route from Prague to Český Krumlov as well as the hostels we plan to stay in: Joey and Rhys stayed in them and have chosen them because they meet the level of comfort you d expect from the UK they also have free wifi, breakfast and are in great locations! There are plenty of campsites around the Lake Lipno area, as well as good walking routes, transport links and villages/towns. We have also sourced some excellent maps which clearly have routes and campsites marked on them.

5 More guidance about route planning as well as expected costs of food will be provided at the February training weekend. Joey and Rhys are confident that everything you ll need in-country can be easily obtained with the allocated budgets; the Český Krumlov area appears to lend itself well to an Explorer Belt expedition! Here s a few photos from Český Krumlov: Bulletin 3 will be issued in 2017, with full details about the training weekend in February. Remember we re available on (explorerbelt@catvog.org) if you have any questions!