The Explorer Belt in a Nutshell:
- We’ll be dropped off in an unknown location somewhere in Germany
- It’ll be the middle of the night and we’ll only have a map
- We’ll have 10 days to walk a minimum of 200 km
- We’ll be carrying everything we need on our backs
- Will have to survive on a very limited budget (~€80 between us for the whole trip)
- We’ll have special challenges & tasks to complete en route
- We’ll have to keep a detailed log of everywhere we go, things we do and money we spend
- We’ll be relying on the generosity of those we meet
- And to top it off, neither of us speak very good German!
The Belt is an annual event organised by Scouting Ireland for Rovers (Irish Scouts aged between 18 and 26) and is one of the biggest challenges within Scouting Ireland.
We’ve made this blog to showcase our adventure and to hopefully inspire some more to follow in our steps in undertaking this adventure. We’re both Galway locals and are the first team of Galway Scouts in recent times to do take on the Belt and to the best of our knowledge (please correct us if we’re wrong on this!) – we may even be the first team of Galway Scouts to ever take part in the Explorer Belt.
It’s going to be no easy feat! We’ll have to train and fundraise a considerable amount beforehand. We’re going to do our best to do cut down our pack weight as much as possible. We’ll be sourcing gear as good as we can get and pushing ourselves to pull off an ultra-lightweight expedition. As a result, we’ll be doing up loads of reviews on the gear setup we use as well as providing people with more guidance and instruction when it comes to long distance trekking. To start with, we’re planning on leaving the tent behind and just using a tarp instead to cover ourselves with!
We have a minimum cost of €850 each to pay to take part as imposed by Scouting Ireland. We’ll be paying most of this ourselves, but we’re fundraising to help send us to represent Galway on this great challenge. We’re also hoping to use this to help out local charities, 20% of all the money we do fundraise will go to our chosen charities of the RNLI and Saint Vincent De Paul – two charities related to our groups. If we raise more than we need, the whole remainder will be split between these charities!
If you would like to help us and our charities out, feel free to donate some money to us or else please do come along to one of our fundraising events. Also, keep an eye on our blog for the latest updates on how we’re doing!
