Two members of Crawley Network, Courtney Palmer-Jones and Allen Heath, attended Intercamp 2025 as IST (International Service Team) in Baumholder, Germany, from the 5th to 9th June. Intercamp is held each year in a different European country and provides participants (10-16 year olds) with the opportunity to take part in a variety of activities including hikes, public service, and games. In the evenings, attendees are encouraged to meet and make friends with people from across the world, including the classic tradition of swaps and trades of commodities such as badges and scarves. This year there were around 2500 people attending!
Courtney was part of the hikes and first aid teams, spending the daytime in the forest running activities for hike participants, and evenings in the first aid tent providing crucial support to the site. This came with long days but endless opportunities to mingle with people across the world, even if it was to remove a tick!
On site, participants explored different decades of activities, and Allen was on the 1970s programme, running creative story telling where the young people create and tell a story of their nature – many including an American first aid team member who became infamous across the weekend!
The Saturday evening entertainment consists of a ‘potluck’ food market with all participants presenting offerings of their country’s national or best loved foodstuffs! The UK contingent brought items such as biscuits, Vimto, Marmite sandwiches, and even Irn-Bru from the Scottish members!
The UK IST contingent grew in numbers this year and it was great to see old and new faces come together to support this event. Both Allen and Courtney drove to Germany and made the most of exploring neighbouring countries such as France, Belgium and Luxembourg on the way there and back! Next year, Intercamp will be in the Czech Republic where they’re hoping to host around 4,500 participants! If you want to find out more or take part in future Intercamps, please visit their Facebook page; Scouts and Explorers groups can also attend as participants.
