1962 - Corsica: Beauty and Squalor Side by Side

Beauty and Squalor Side by Side in the Holiday Isle

Paisley Scouts’ Memorable Visit to Corsica

[First published Paisley Daily Express, Weds, August 29, 1962]

Outlined dimly against the early-morning sky, the island of Corsica lay before us, rugged and dark. As we watched, the sun illuminated the topmost peaks, and the light quickly moved down to sea-level, revealing more and more of the island we had travelled 1200 miles to visit. With the steamer gliding slowly into Ajaccio harbour, the twelve of us in the party - eleven from the 7th Paisley (John Neilson) and one from the 18th (Coats’ Memorial) Scout Troup - breathed an audible sigh of relief, and reflected on the five days of travelling behind us...

We had left Paisley by Starlight Special on Friday, August 3 - to the “Good luck!” of a small crowd of well-wishers and the skirl of the pipes - and arrived in London shortly after 8 o’clock the following morning.  After leaving the rucksacks at the new Scout hostel, Baden-Powell House - and noting with pleasure that it was being used, as B.P. himself would have wished, as a meeting place for Scouts from all over the world - we spent the Saturday in London, and left from Victoria on the 9 pm train for Newhaven. The Channel crossing to Dieppe was uneventful, and we were soon speeding through the darkness towards Paris, which we reached at 6.15 am.

After breakfast we visited the Elysee Palace, residence of President de Gaulle, and were followed round the block by two conscientious members of the Garde Republicain, armed with sub-machine guns. Two bus-loads of troops and a riot-wagon also lay handy. Paris is a lovely city: but, seen on an overcast day through eyes half-closed with sleep, it tends to lose some of its romantic appeal. Three of us, in fact, spend the afternoon on British soil - or rather, British carpets - in the British Embassy, explaining about a lost passport and having an emergency one made out.

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1964 - Andorra: Through the Pyrenees in Pink Pyjamas

Through the Pyrenees in Pink Pyjamas

Paisley Scouts’ Adventures in Andorra

[First published Paisley Daily Express, Tues, Sept 1, 1964] 

Grinding down into a still lower gear,  the driver worked the bus round yet another hairpin bend on the mountain road. As the vehicle groaned and protested, and stones dislodged by its wheels cascaded down the mountainside, he gesticulated wildly with his hands and announced that the French Frontier Post was round the next corner. Rounding the turn, the bus drew to a halt by the barrier, and the passengers dismounted to have their passports checked by the French officials. Fifty yards further on, the words “Andorra Control”, and the blue, yellow and red flag fluttering in the slight breeze indicated that in a few moments we would be entering one of the smallest and strangest countries in Europe:  Andorra, set high up in the Pyrenees between France and Spain.

As we stood shivering in the cool air at 7.500 feet, while the irksome frontier formalities were carried out, our party - fifteen Scouts and three Scouters from the 7th Paisley (John Neilson) Scout Troop - thought back on the months of planning and the three days travel which had culminated in our arrival at the Andorran frontier, the Pas de la Casa.

Down Journey

A large gathering of parents, friends and well-wishers had assembled at the Scout Hall in Arthur Street on the evening of Friday, July 31, and while the Scouters ensured that everyone’s kit was correct and passports in order, tea and buns were served. Finally, with bagpipes giving us a real Scots send off, the expedition was transported to Glasgow by car, to board the train for London. In London, we left the rucksacks at Baden-Powell House, the international Scout hostel, and after breakfast explored London and managed to sleep through a demonstration in the Planetarium. After an evening meal at BP House with some Dutch Sea Scouts, we installed ourselves in the Paris train at Victoria. The sea-crossing Newhaven-Dieppe was without incident, and by 6.30 on Sunday morning we had arrived in Paris. Spending the rest of the day in the French capital enabled us to see the usual round of tourist sights, and we left from the Gare d’Austerlitz at 8 pm.

By morning, the train was climbing slowly up one of the valleys leading into the mountains, and we eventually alighted at the station nearest to Andorra to await the bus which, according to our information, connected with the train. However, half of France seemed to want to go to Andorra at the same time, and it was the fourth bus before we managed to load the rucksacks on to the roof pile inside, and begin the long haul up over the mountains. The frontier was a mere five miles distant, but it took the bus the best part of an hour to negotiate the snake-like bends and steep gradients of the road. Cars with over-heated engines were parked along the verges every 250 yards or so, testifying to the difficulties of the highest pass in the Pyrenees open to motor transport.

And so to the Andorra-France frontier...

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1967 - Expedition Report: Overland to the Middle-East

Excerpts from expedition report for Renfrewshire Educational Trust, dated 13th December, 1967

Original Plan

The original plan involved driving overland from Port Glasgow to Jordan in two long wheel base land rovers or similar vehicles. By taking the full month of July this would have given the party ten days in Jordan.

An interesting and exciting programme had been arranged, including a trip across the desert to the newly formed Nature Reserve at Azraq Oasis, a visit to the Gulf of Arabia, the Dead Sea and Jerusalem. It had even been arranged that our visit would finish with an audience with King Hussein at Amman.

Change of Plan

A deteriorating political situation and a threat of war caused us to abandon the Jordan trip within five weeks of our planned departure. An alternative expedition to North Africa, involving a journey deep into the Sahara Desert was arranged. However, the outbreak of the Arab-Israeli War, and the consequent anti-British feeling in all Arab countries, made the North African journey too inadvisable.

With only three weeks till departure time, the plans were changed again. The original route would be followed as far as Istanbul, from where the expedition would head east through Turkey and if time allowed into Persia.

Personnel

The party was made up of fifteen boys from Seconday III and IV - Senior Secondary classes. All had previous experience of outdoor activities through local youth organisations, school outdoor activities, and Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme. They were well warned that this would not be a normal school outing, but would demand great physical and mental stamina on their part.

Cost

The members of the party paid £60 each, a further £20 each being raised by the pupils from dances, concerts, work parties etc. 
The grant of £150 from the Renfrewshire Educational Trust assisted greatly.

Conclusion

What had we achieved?

Firstly, a journey of nearly 8,000 miles into a remote corner of a little known part of the world. The conditions - physical and mental - faced by the boys on the venture would have finished many an adult. With few exceptions, morale was high, and although being cooped up in confined spaces in great heat and dust is not conducive to even tempers, personal relations were good.

The boys were treated at all times as responsible members of a team, and were given responsibility for cooking, finance, gear storage and records.

The planning took some eighteen months, and, although obviously disappointed that war made our original Jordan plan impossible, I feel that we can be proud of having broken new ground as far as Scottish State Scools are concerned.

John T. K. Barr
Expedition Leader
Port Glasgow High School 

1976 - Hannibal's Route Across the Cottian Alps from France into Italy

Text of Part 1 of the expedition write up by JTK Barr

The Hannibal Trail (Part 1)
[First published in the Paisley Daily Express, 24 September 1976]

As we rounded the corner of the poorly surfaced road, the prospect facing us was, to say the least, daunting.

Beyond the pines still clothing the steep valley sides. the immense bulk of Mount Vise soared 12,600ft. into the blue sky, its lower slopes steep and rocky, its upper regions clothed in snow-fields and glaciers.

This peak was the highest in the region, but a jagged ridge, marking the border between France and Italy, ran from the mountain in a north-westerly direction and averaging 11,000ft. in height.

Somewhere along that ridge, but hidden from us by a bend in the valley, would be the pass we had come to cross - the 10.000ft. Col de la Traversette.

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