Reports from past OB events: June 2005 (Loch Eil and The Union Canal) by Anna Symeonides;June 2004 (Strathyre) by Anna Symeonides; October 2003 (Ullswater) by Kon Kibaris; March 2003 (Loch Eil) by Nevena Marjanovic; November 2002 (first UK-wide meeting at Eskdale) by Rania Panayi and Anne McKay.

The youth of St. Luke’s Church, in association with Outward Bound, have been very active around Scotland this summer. The older kids spent the weekend of 18th and 19th June exploring the Union Canal between Edinburgh and Falkirk.  The more junior members spent four days from the 24th June at the Outward Bound Centre, situated at Loch Eil.

The Union Canal was opened in 1822 as a 50km water-link between Edinburgh and Falkirk. After meeting our instructors, we all piled into the Outward Bound van and made the short journey to the Union Canal, trailing our canoes behind us. We packed our belongings into large barrels, tied them inside the canoes and made a shaky launch into the canal. With two people per canoe, we set out on our first few metres of the canal. Some of us demonstrated natural nautical ability, while some of us struggled with the basic paddle stroke and the subtle requirements of steering. I was certainly in the latter of these two categories! However, we made good progress and were enjoying the unusually warm and humid weather as we reached the Union Canal Centre of Linlithgow.  

This is a point from which tourists can take boat tours of the area or pause for a good old cup of tea. We tied up our canoes and stopped here briefly for rehydration and shade from the concentrated rays of the sun, as some of us were turning an unhealthy shade of pink! Onwards on our journey and we came across the Almond Aqueduct, which stands an impressive 75ft over the River Almond. This was certainly a Kodak moment as we floated so high above the ground, taking in the stunning scenery lying below. A few hours paddling later and we reached our campsite. The team split up to complete the tasks of putting up the tents and dinner preparation. I’m sure it’s only coincidence that the males headed to the tent-poles and the females to the kitchen…hehe. 

As the sun went down we played a murder mystery game, which was designed to encourage and develop our communication skills. Then we headed for our sleeping bags to get some rest, which proved quite challenging, despite the energy expended by our tired limbs.  This was due to the loud, incessant chatter of the nocturnal cows in the neighbouring field.  After cursing the noisy bovines we eventually snored our way through the night and woke up early and enthusiastic for another day’s paddling. We rolled up the tents, re-packed the barrels and we were off in the canoes again, on our second and last day on the canal.

Sunday was a duller day, but the humidity and occasional rain meant there was a jungle-like atmosphere to the canal. The highlight of this day, and probably the entire trip, was paddling through the only canal tunnel in Scotland. This tunnel is just on the outskirts of Falkirk, is 631m long and 3.6m high. It was carved and constructed through solid rock to appease a local landowner at the time who was not best pleased at the prospect of seeing a canal from the windows of his home, Callendar House. We entered the gloomy tunnel and took in the amazing sight of the rocky walls, the stalactites hanging from the ceiling and the shadows of our own boats in front of us. Exiting the tunnel, there was a constant gush of water from above which some of us successfully managed to avoid, and some others ‘accidentally’ had the misfortune to paddle through. So soaked and a little worse for wear, we paddled a little further down the canal to our end-point, where we dragged the canoes out of the water and piled into the van to drive up to the impressive Falkirk Wheel and back down south to Glasgow.

The weekend after this the younger kids of the church headed up north to Loch Eil, near Fort William, to the Outward Bound Centre. This is an awesome building with extensive, beautiful (but midge-infested) grounds and was previously a shooting lodge owned by Cameron clan chief, before its focus as a centre for outdoor sporting activities and team-building exercises. The children spent the first night familiarizing themselves with the building and settling in to their accommodation. 

Early the next morning, they were up and raring to go. Fueled up with a full breakfast, and lunch under their arms, they set out into the grounds of the centre, where they were involved in numerous team-reliant activities, such as using just 3 crates to cross a ‘lava-stream,’ and games requiring them to communicate without speaking. The kids were successful in all their tasks and this was a good introduction to the challenges ahead of them. In the afternoon, they faced a huge task: to build a raft using just 4 barrels, 6 poles and some rope. They were split into two teams to design a structure for the raft and presented their ideas to the other team. They joined together to decide upon the best design and went down to the shore of Loch Eil to build the structure. After much discussion and alterations, the only thing left to do was to put the raft to the test. So out they went, paddling around the loch and I’m pleased to announce the raft remained intact until it was time to take it apart and head back to the centre for dinner.  

There was no opportunity for the children to rest in the evening. Their instructor took them straight outside again for another task: a blind trail. The kids were required to hold on to and follow each other in one long line from the centre, through the nearby trees and around a pre-prepared assault course. ‘Easy!’ you say? Now consider the fact that they had to do this blindfolded. The children rose to the challenge and after a few incidents of letting go and losing the route, they triumphed and headed back to the centre and to a good night’s sleep. 

It was now Sunday morning and so time to pack up and prepare for the return to city-life. Before the drive back to Glasgow, they stopped for a spot of rock-climbing and abseiling at the foot of Ben Nevis. Everyone made a brave attempt at rock-climbing and was introduced to the responsibilities of supporting and b-laying the ropes for another climber. The abseiling proved much more challenging and everyone did well to inch their way down the slope or cheer on from the bottom. 

As the children descended from Ben Nevis, so their Outward Bound journey came to an end and they returned to St. Luke’s to meet their parents.

So we’ve had two very successful outdoor adventures this summer for the Hellenic youth of Glasgow. We are very grateful to the Stavros Niarchos Foundation for the experience and the opportunity to partake in these activities, which we would not usually have the chance to do, and thank our Outward Bound instructors for looking after us.

In June 2004, the youths of St. Luke’s Greek Orthodox Church embarked on an action-packed weekend away to Strathyre, near Callander. Our weekend began auspiciously with the Greek football team triumphing against France in the quarterfinals of Euro 2004.

In high spirits, our first day away from the city found us older members of the crew kayaking amongst the Scottish wildlife. Walking down to the river and actually entering our boats turned out to be the most challenging elements in this activity.  We needed to pull our efforts together to tackle the marsh, the wire fences and slippery kayaks that stood in our way and this prepared us for the challenges ahead.  The younger members embarked on an orienteering expedition. Drenched in rain and river water, we hopped on to some mountain bikes to check out the local scenery.  Beautiful views and camaraderie discussion as how to use our gears and brakes when tackling different terrains led to a very successful outing.

The evening consisted of a traditional Greek feast with copious amounts of freshly prepared food and Greek dancing:  a perfect conclusion to an exhausting day.

The next morning we were confronted with the task of rock-climbing.  We learnt most aspects of climbing: how to strap our harnesses; how to feed rope to a fellow climber; how to ‘spot’ the rope-feeder to ensure their safety and how to climb.  This activity concluded our Outward Bound expedition and really highlighted the importance of trust and competence within the group dynamic.  [Picture: from left: Anna, with fellow OB'ers Rania, Thenna and Nevena]

For the second time now, Outward Bound has provided a memorable experience for members of the Greek dancing group. This time, Kon, Thenna, John and Nevena were the participants. From our Loch Eil weekend we knew to expect a lot of difficult stamina building exercises and tasks, and in the first day we were not disappointed. We started with a brisk walk up a local hill at the Ullswater Centre, followed by a pitch black 40 minute navigation through an underground tunnel matrix. Finally there was just enough time before lunch to do the "trapeze", involving climbing up a 30 foot telegraph pole and standing on the top before jumping out to catch a trapeze in front of you. Since our last trip to Outward Bound saw us doing many of these things already, we asked for it to be made a little more challenging—we didn’t expect to be doing it blindfolded, but most of the time to face a fear and come out of it alive is an exhilarating adrenaline rush, and we enjoyed every minute of it. 

However, our surprise was yet to come. All being veterans of the Outward Bund experience, it was decided that we should become mentors for two groups of Greek children from the London Greek school we were in contact with. Our main goal for the weekend was to have each group build a raft and get everyone in each group out on it at the one time. Needless to say, building a raft to fit a group of 12 people isn’t easy, a tight squeeze in fact. So it was hard not to fall in, but everyone jumped in afterwards anyway so as not to miss out on the fun. Fun? Did I say fun? It was very... very cold. Showing them the ropes was quite a challenge - they were a lively bunch, but everyone got on just fine and it looks to be a good bond made with another group of Greeks and Greek dancers.

Excellent! That is the first word that springs to mind to describe the Outward Bound Weekend we enjoyed in March. Not only were there the obvious advantages such as getting away from the parents and the urban lands of Glasgow, but others, such as spending a challenging weekend with friends, old and new. Some were acting quite cool and others apprehensive. Rania had been to one of these before, so she knew what to expect. John was waiting to see what it and we were like. Kon, Cammy and Jim were cool all the way and all I could think about was the parachute jump.

As we reported in our first newsletter back in November 2002, the Stavros S Niarchos foundation has donated a sum of money to the Outward Bound Trust, with a specific focus on young Greek/Cypriot people in the UK. Glasgow events in the Outward Bound programme first phase involved a total of 35 young people who are members of our community. Similar events also took place in the Birmingham and London communities, but only Glasgow has continued the programme into a second phase with the 2005 programme.

It all began in November 2002 with a taster weekend for Greek youth leaders and young people from communities across the UK at Outward Bound Eskdale in the Lake District. Here Rania Panayi and youth leader Anne McKay each report on their experience.  

The voice of youth - Rania Panayi

Since 1941, the national charity, The Outward Bound Trust, has sought to inspire young people to fulfil their potential through challenging outdoor activities. The Charity’s founder, Kurt Hahn said: “We are all better than we know. If only we can be brought to realise this, we may never be prepared to settle for anything less”.

Now, young Greeks between the ages of 14 and 24 from communities all over the UK are to be given the opportunity to take part in Outward Bound activities and experience some of the teamwork and adventure the Trust’s schemes can offer. The Trust has been awarded a grant from The Stavros Niarchos Foundation to be spent on young people of Greek origin in the UK. The plans include support for individual bursaries, special courses for small groups from the Glasgow and Edinburgh communities, and a programme for larger groups of young people coming together from Greek communities all over the UK. The first phase of the programme ended at the end of June 2004. 

The Niarchos Foundation, which was established in the name of the famous Greek shipping magnate, is based in Liechtenstein and supports a variety of international activities, including some directed towards education and science. It has been responsible for donations all over the world – from concert halls, library systems and fire-fighting engines in Greece, to U.S. marine biological and oceanographic research, and robotic systems for handling suspicious devices at Athens International Airport.