This page is for information and notices for members of the 2008 B-P contingent - for general information on the Blair Atholl Jamborette, see our other pages.
Last updated April 20th
Itinerary - Meeting Schedule - Payment Schedule
Here's the touring itinerary we set at our January meeting. It's still a bit tentative - I have to see what things will cost, arrange for housing, and so on - but hopefully it's pretty close to what we'll actually do. I've included links to detail pages for most of the sights, so you can learn more about them. I'll keep the itinerary here updated as things develop over the coming months...
| Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday |
| 15 Flight to Scotland Continental Airlines Flight 16 leaves Newark 7:30 PM - arrives Glasgow 7:30AM Wednesday morning |
16 West Coast Loch
Lomond Overnight in Portree Independent Hostel on Skye |
17 Isle of Skye Drive the Trotternish
Peninsula - hike to
the Old Man of Storr, visit Duntulm
Castle and the Overnight at Spean Bridge Community Centre |
18 The Great Glen Loch Ness Culloden
Battlefield Stay overnight at |
19 Speyside Scotch
distillery Stay overnight at Templars Park Scout Campsite |
||
| 20 Aberdeenshire Dunnottar
Castle Overnight in Edinburgh |
21 Edinburgh Royal Mile |
Blair Atholl Jamborette Home Visitation Leave Edinburgh August 5 @ 12:30PM |
||||
If you haven't applied for your passport yet, do it now!
April 20th:
We've got tickets for Mercat Tours' Ghost and Ghouls tour in Edinburgh.
I've added the flight details to our itinerary, above - we're flying Continental from Newark to Glasgow, and back home from Edinburgh.
Don't forget we'll need transportation to and from Newark - we'll be looking for parents to volunteer to drive either dropoff or pickup, as we can't afford to hire a bus with our reduced numbers from the last two trips.
See you all in a week!
April 15th:
We're booked into the Portree Independent Hostel on Skye for the night of July 16th. The hostel is the old Post Office, conveniently located in middle of the town, right on our touring itinerary for the next day.
I'm still hoping to bring the total cost in very close to estimated, but because we will have to pay a total of a bit over $36 for housing on both of the first two nights, we're probably going to have to increase the trip fee by $50-75 or so. I will have a final determination of the total cost by our May meeting.
April 14th:
Hamish has found us housing for Thursday night 17 July, at Spean Bridge. That's about 15 miles down the Great Glen from where the A87 road from Skye intersects the A82 road up the Glen, which fits our itinerary very well. .
Jerry and I looked into touring and hiking around Skye, and it looks like a drive on the Trotternish Peninsula loop from Portree north will work well. We can hike from the coast up to the Old Man of Storr, for spectacular views, and visit Duntulm Castle and the Museum of Island Life around the loop.
April 13th:
As I announced at our last meeting, the Scottish Council has asked us to divide into two patrols, so that they can keep the same number of Scottish patrols at the Jamborette. The two patrols were determined at the March meeting, as follows:
Jon (PL), Jordan, Brad, Kyle
Alec (PL), Ryan, Nathan
I've arranged for our road transport in Scotland. We'll be renting an 8-passenger minibus (VW Caravelle) and a small panel van (Ford Escort) for the gear. The rental company will meet us at Glasgow Airport with the vehicles.
You're going to need a Class 3 medical form for the trip. You can have the form signed any time now - I'll have them at our April meeting, or you can download it here.
March 21st:
Our travel agent contacted me about air fare - it appears that the airlines have announced a huge increase in fuel surcharges, which would increase our air fare by $300 or more. I've purchased our group tickets on my credit card to nail down our $1,050 fare - that makes it very important that everyone stick to the payment schedule, so we'll have the money to pay for the air fare when the credit card bill comes in.
With the air fare finalized, we've got the biggest parts of our costs (air fare and Jamborette fee) locked in. We're very close to the budgeted amount, plus or minus $25 or so. The exchange rate is going to be a big factor - and it's getting worse. So, consider the final payment to be a bit tentative, as we may need to increase it a bit to keep the trip in the black. More to follow.
We have housing arranged for the evening of July 18th, at a Scout Hall in Keith (near Elgin in Aberdeenshire).
We have reservations for the Official Loch Ness Monster Centre - keep your tentacles crossed.
January 27th:
Our main task at the meeting was to set the itinerary for our six days' touring in Scotland. All of the suggestions were compiled and marked on a map, and we discussed the pros and cons of each. After weeding out the ones which weren't of general interest, and narrowing the castles down to two (Dunnottar and Urquhart), and deciding to give Glasgow a pass, we were still at least a day overtime. The consensus was to skip the Cairngorms area, since it's basically just north of Blair Atholl and we'll get to see that type of country at the Jamborette. The tentative itinerary we wound up with is shown above. I'll start looking into housing and budget, now, and see how close we can come to what we planned.
The air fare is proving to be a real challenge - the cheapest tickets our travel agent was able to find so far are $1,050 group rates, which requires ten people. The cheapest regular or student tickets on the days we need to fly are nearly $300 more. The increase in fares over last time is almost entirely due to fuel surcharges and a $100 "carbon tax" imposed by the UK.
If you haven't applied for your passport yet do so now!!!
See you in February!
Mike
I've sent the first two payments to Scotland for our seven-Scout and three-leader contingent. I've told the Scottish Council that we're releasing our last five spaces and they can give them to a waiting contingent. With our air tickets purchased, we're set.
Rick Steves ("Europe through the Back Door") has a number of podcasts about Scotland which might help you think about what you'd like to do. If you're using iTunes, just go to the iTunes store and look for his podcasts in the "Society and Culture" section of the podcasts directory. He's listed as a "Featured Provider". Look for the "Travel with Rick Steves" icon - they're free, and you can download whichever ones you want to listen to. If you're using some other software than iTunes, try this URL: http://podcasts.ricksteves.com/ricksteves.xml or go to http://www.ricksteves.com/radio/podcast.htm
One of my favorite Scottish folk groups, North Sea Gas, was in Ithaca in May 2007 to do the Bound for Glory radio show on WVBR. You can download and listen to the concert at: http://strato.nionex.net/nsg/
Scottish TV has a website with many interesting videos - http://www.scotlandontv.tv/ - but if that's not enough, they're running a reality TV show where contestants get to work at Blair Castle! The show's called "Conquer the Castle" http://www.stv.tv/content/tv/conquerthecastle/index.html You can watch excerpts from some of the episodes. The Castle Tour Guide segment was interesting to me -the contestant mostly got things wrong! Be sure to take my tour in July to get the real stories...
The group will meet on the last Sunday of each month (except December) at 7:00 PM at Mike Brown's house - click here for a Google map. .
Upcoming
Meeting Dates:
March 30th - April 27th - May 25th
- June 29th
There may be a campout in May or June – to be determined
| Date | For | Amount | Cumulative Payments |
| October | Initial deposit | $50.00 | $50.00 |
| November | First Jamborette Payment | 150.00 | 200.00 |
| February | Second Jamborette Payment, plus advance for misc. expenses, which need
to be sent to |
300.00 | 500.00 |
| March | (Stage payment just to even things out) | 300.00 | 800.00 |
| April | Air Fare | 700.00 | 1,500.00 |
| May | Final Jamborette Payment | 200.00 | 1,750.00 |
| June | Balance of fee | (?) 200.00 | (?) 1,950.00 |
Notes:
Please be sure to pay on time (and feel free to pay in advance if it’s easier for you).
Either bring the payment to our monthly meeting, or
if you won’t be there, mail the payment to: Mike Brown, 41Creamery Rd, Richford
, NY
The total fee will depend on final results on pre-jamboree touring and housing, and (to a large extent) the dollar/sterling exchange rate. Any excess after the trip will be refunded, of course. I'll make the final determination before the May meeting, which may change the amount of the final payment.
If you haven't already done so, apply for your passport now! You can fill out the form online here, and paper forms have been available at our monthly meetings.