Bennettswood Raskal Guides

From the 24th to the 26th of August 2007, the Raskals packed up and came to Smarties Camp, at Tynong Nth Campsite. It turned out to be a fantastic weekend since the themes were colour and chocolate! We practiced our independence and caught the train to and from the campsite.

Friday Night was spent drinking Milo and playing Monopoly. Saturday morning we all tie-dyed various items and built our own clothesline to hang them on. Alex's suprise activity turned out to be the hardest game of Guiding Trivia we'd ever seen. Try naming 5 countrie in the Arab Region! Through all the hard work though, we earned our fondue ingredinets and enojyed a yummy afternoon tea! Alex's assessor visited us at this time; perfect timing! The afternoon was full of eating even more chocolate, cooking dinner and a sprinkling of homework. We filled our night by chatting round the campfire and eating chocolate pudding!

Sadly, Sunday came and we all had to go home. we attended a fantastically prepared Guides Own by Gemma themed around colours, cleaned up all our mess and made some coloured and scented playdough before heading home. Another leader with camping qualifications and a great weekend had by all!

By Alex - L.I.C. at Smarties Camp

Recently some of the members of the Unit went on an exciting exchange trip to our sister city, Matsudo in Japan. Tracey, Jess G, Allison and Gemma spent 8 days discovering the delights that Japan has to offer. Here the girls share their thoughts on the experince:

Gemma: I had such an awesome time in Japan. My host family were soooo good to me and I had a blast!!! In fact all the girls, leaders and basically everyone we met were amazingly nice and generous. Some highlights of the trip for me were the day when we met the Mayor of Matsudo, ate lunch at a 6 story McDonalds and went shopping in Tokyo, the 15 hour long trip to Disneyland and The Farewell Party. Everybody was amazing and I had a blast. I am really looking forward to the return trip from the Japanese girls in 2009 and potentially going back in 2011. P.S. I don't actually speack Japanese, I went with about 3 words and I came back with a vocab of about 8. My favourite word was "KA-WI-EE" which means cute.

Allison: Japan is definetly one of the best things that has happened to me in my relativley short life. Things that I have learnt, such as how to slurp noodles but not pasta and the delicate art of chopsticks will stay with me forever.I enjoyed the cultural side of the trip, such as the temples and the food side of the trip, Like sushi, the most I think. I just learnt so much and made so many friendsthat it was even worth the ten hour plane trip to get over there. I am extremely grateful to all those who made the trip possible. I would never have done it without you!

Tracey, Allison and Jess G at the Wlcome BBQ in Japan.

Click here to view a Photo_Album from the girls Trip.

Other girls recounts will be posted soon.

In January our Unit went on an adventure across the ocean to Tassie. After over 2 years hard work fundraising and planning we had an absolute ball!! One of our girls wrote this report after collecting everybody's thoughts and memories from the trip:

In May 2005, the Bennettswood Raskals decided it was time to go "overseas". So it was decided that Tasmania would be a great choice. Finally in January of this year (2007), the Raskals left Victoria on their grandest adventure yet!

The journey started of with a night on the Spirit of Tasmania II. It was like spending the night on a washing machine! The next morning, after getting our land legs back, Alex told us that we were going to look after boiled eggs for the next 24 hours (yes, boiled eggs, like the ones you might eat for breakfast!) We were to care for them as if they were a baby, un-hatched penguin. Over the next few days we got lost in seven mazes, experienced the aquatically enjoyable Seahorse World, ate ourselves silly at the Cadbury Factory, sang along to the Beatles and Playschool and attempted to hug Australia's largest tree, the aptly named "Big Tree" (Sadly it was roped off). And that was only the beginning.

None of us will ever forget our bus, even though it was sometimes spider infested. Another thing no one will ever forget is the Launceston Ghost Tour. With slamming coffins, spooky rooms and tales of murder, it was definitely the creepiest part of our trip. Some of us ended up with bruises from scared girls holding too tight! And who could forget the Cadbury Factory! We learnt about chocolate, bought chocolate, bought chocolate and of course, ate chocolate.

We all had a great time, but we couldn't have done it without our great leaders Tracey and Lisa and lots of help from Toni. Thank you to all of them, for making our trip happen!! A condensed report of the Raskals memories compiled by Allison

Click here to view a photo album from our trip.