An early start on Saturday, meant that we arrived in Cardiff mid-morning, and were able to orientate ourselves in our new surroundings. We had lunch near the Gorsydd Stone Circle in Bute Park, and then went to visit Cardiff Castle – the girls particularly enjoyed the wartime tunnels and climbing up the steep, steep steps to the top of the keep. We then went to the National Museum where our mascot Dippy the dopey dancing diplodocus dinosaur) was reunited with some of his distant and long-since extinct cousins. We explored Cardiff centre before catching the bus to the Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay, where we were staying in the Urdd youth/children’s hostel. After dinner we did our preparation for the Cluedo Wide Game on Sunday. Sunday – the big day! Our Cluedo detectives met with the other 350 participants in Callaghan Square to start the game.
To solve the mystery, we had to visit the six (traditional) Cluedo Characters at bases around the City Centre and Cardiff Bay. Each of them set us a challenge, and on completion we were shown which cards they held to mark off on our Cluedo detective notes.
Firstly, we visited Mrs White and learned some Welsh (and maybe a few not-so Welsh words) by matching them with the English. It was then on to see Reverend Green, where we enjoyed a game of Leek Lobbing. Think caber tossing in Scotland, but with a giant knitted leek. Great fun – and Saribel was by far the best leek lobber.
Mrs Peacock set us a quiz all about Wales. We sat to eat our lunch on the museum steps whilst we worked out how many castles in Wales, the percentage of people who speak Welsh every day etc. We scored 100% and set off to find Miss Scarlett.
With Miss Scarlett, we also found our Region Chief Commissioner – Amanda Teasel, and she was delighted to hear Saribel and Freya make their Guide promise and sign their certificates. Meantime we designed new Rugby kits for our Cluedo challenge.
Having completed all the challenges in the city, we headed down to the bay to find Colonel Mustard at the Millennium Centre. We made tassels of kindness with red, green and white of the Welsh flag,
with positive messages written on them to give out as random acts of kindness. Ellie was the first to give hers to the receptionist in our accommodation. Finally, we visited Professor Plum, where we mastered Cats Cradle and made the witch’s broomstick. Along the way we had also been given clues to solve to work out the 9 locations – and at each we had to answer questions.
We were also given photo tasks – each of the Cluedo objects needed to appear in all our photos:
A sleeping bag,
Pippa the Potato Masher
Peggy the tent peg
The Bucket
Silly Sally Saucepan (Frying pan)
The flag
and of course, our Mascot Dippy.
Our solution: Reverend Green, with the Frying Pan, at the Norwegian Church!
We successfully solved Cluedo!
We earned ourselves a rest and dinner, and then the leaders offered to take the girls bowling. It’s the first-time girls have ever set the leaders a curfew – they wanted to know if they would be back in time for bed!
A relaxed evening at Hollywood Bowl – champion Elysia. Willow told us she would get better as the game progressed, and she wasn’t wrong, but not quite early enough to catch up but it was an impressive comeback.
Monday’s weather was nowhere near as kind as Saturday and Sunday, and we couldn’t even see across the bay.
After tidying our rooms and packing, we went to visit the Pierhead Building, part of the Welsh Senedd. We followed the Cardiff Bay trail in the pouring rain. We saw Roald Dahl’s enormous crocodile and the Cardiff Barrage, and even saw the Barrage road lifted to allow the Challenge Wales boat pass through.
Wet through we caught a bus to the city centre, went for lunch in McDonalds to dry out, and then headed back to the bay to pick up our bags before our journey home. Just before setting off on the train, we popped up to the park to see the new Paddington statue which we had forgotten to check in on earlier in the weekend.
A long and tiring weekend, but one of many successes. All our Cluedo detectives earned their Be Prepared Interest Badges. For Elysia, Ellie and Chloe this enabled them to complete their Take Action theme award and for Chloe her Bronze award, and Ellie her Silver award. Freya completed her first night away badge.
We are now super excited to be planning next year’s region adventure to Amsterdam. Who’s in?
Paddock Wood Guides
