Arura 2006

ARURA 06 was held in Dunluce School, Bushmills, North Coast, 22nd - 29th July 2006.

It’s 4pm Saturday afternoon July 22^nd 2006 and the campers are all arriving at Bushmills Northern Ireland  for the start of Arura.  All that is except for the bus from Armagh containing the Aussie visitors, some leaders and workers and some very excited campers, who have already been on the road for 3 ½ hrs. A fire in a hay truck has closed the bridge at Coleraine just a short distance from Bushmills and the bus has had to  make a major diversion adding another hour onto the journey. Eventually the bus arrives and we join the crowd at  Dunluce school for registration. We are immediately given our Arura packs which contain our Hoodie (to be worn on all excursions) A Bible (given to all at camp including leaders and workers) a Belfast City Badge,  and our Arura Information booklet, which tells where we sleep, eat and meet.

 The campers are housed in class rooms that have been transformed into dormitories in both Dunluce and Bushmills schools while the workers are housed in Bushmills Outdoor Education Centre where they also meet and eat.

 First night and the workers are called upon to help with the activities for the Fundarura. A night of fun and games where the campers rove in their groups from game to game using their allotted tickets to purchase turns.  

But first 500 balloons need to be filled with helium, tied and have a note attached with a number representing each camper. These are held in a net until after tea when they are to be released on mass. The note on the balloons has a phone number and throughout Arura as the balloons land in other parts of the world the campers number that has been phoned in is announced. The furthest balloon that was recorded landed in Inverness Scotland

 A typical day for the workers began at 7:30 with a prayer time and daily duites rosters with  Breakfast at 8:00. While the workers set about their tasks – security/kitchen/site services/other, the  campers had their devotional times in their age groups. Morning activities began at 10:45 with groups going  in all directions. Some stayed at Bushmills school to do their Arura Awards on the oval where their skills, speed,  style and strength were tested through a wide range of activities.  This day always finished with a waterslide on the plastic tarps.

 Some went off on the bus to do Impact. This consisted of community services projects where the campers had their chance to give something back by showing Gods love to others and doing something positive for the community. Groups performed such tasks as cleaning beaches, packing shopping bags at ASDA, while collecting for the Lifeboats charity (this group collected 660.00pounds on their day), or selling Helium balloons and face painting for Hospice.

 Another daily activity was Blast. Campers chose 2 options for the day, one for morning one for afternoon.   On offer were such things as Photography, Craft, Web design, Crazy Art, Football, Hockey, Rugby, Fencing,  Taebo, Ropes courses, DJ workshop, Song writing, Drama. Or maybe it was Activ8 day for the group.  More choices. This time - Rock climbing, Powerboating, Canoeing, Archery, Pony trekking, Banana boating or Skirmish.

 But Sunday, our first day, was Arura Exodus. So before we even had time to work things out  every one was going out. The Helter Skelters went to Watertop Farm for a boat trip, paddy wagon ride and  animal feeding. Rollercoasters were off to Giants Causeway. Dodgemns toCarrick-A-Rede Rope Bridge   and the Waltzers to Ballypatrick Forest Park.

 After kitchen duties and security rosters we had the afternoon off and were escorted to the Giants causeway by  Dothery Agnew who we found out attended the first Arura in Canberra in 1978. 

 Wednesday saw the whole camp go on Mass Exodus. This time it was to explore the coastline of Antrim on a  4 hour beach walk – well some of it was beach and some was more of a rock scramble. The day ended with a BBQ  Irish style and worship time at Portstewart church.

Each day ended with combined Worship and Talk Time before supper at 10:00ish.  Each night had a  different activity such as Arura Hunt where all the campers and leaders set off into Bushmills town (Just down the road)  to find 14 crazy characters lurking around the town. Each character had a code name that had to be found by the  campers. Some characters such as Spiderman were easy to spot but the bag lady and the street sweeper were so convincing  they were believed by some to be real and not imposters.

A band was bought in for the Rock show and the Air Guitar competition proved very popular. A night at the theatre  took on new meaning as campers were given a bag of items on entry to use to enhance the viewing of Shrek 2.   While all sorts of weird records were broken on Record Breakers night as campers tested their skills  against the recordings in the Genus book of records.

Saturday morning dawns again and it is time to pack up for the long journey home. But first the Awards  and Certificates must be handed out which is done in group areas and then the all important  handing over of the Arura flag by a young camper to the Australian representative  Jim O’Neill to make it’s long journey back to Australia for Aussie Arura 08. Jst 4 you.

Jim O’Neill, Director Rallies Aust.