Madrid British Scouts and St Albans Scouts Lockdown Virtual Hike.

Since the schools closed In Madrid on the 11th of March and a State of Emergency was declared on the 15th of March, it’s been hard for Scouts to do what the like to do best; get out into the countryside and hike.

With the UK following suit a few weeks after, though under different conditions, 4th St Albans and 1st Madrid troops joined up with a plan to keep everyone active.

Starting on Easter Monday both troops would add their steps on a pedometer on mobile phones or watch and convert them to the 1505km needed to reach each other.

With the wider community in mind, Scouts decided to reach out to family and friends or anyone who might feel isolated at this time, and ask them to join in and get moving. We have even managed to persuade Madrid Metropolitan’s own Jenny Osborne to put a team together called the Mad Belles.

Each night everyone texts their team totals via their group chats to Group Scout Leader Catherine Fenton, who converts total to approximate kilometres and plots a course.

Scouts are required to research an interesting fact about each town they reach. At this moment 1st Madrid have just left Nantes, birthplace of Jules Verne, and are heading towards the ferry at Ouitreheim to Portsmouth. 156035 steps!