If you've ever been to an International Balloon Youth Camp, you'll probably always come
again.
At least this worked for me, and so, on August 1st this year, I took my model
balloons and drove to Wiehl near Cologne, where the German "Ballonsportjugend"
held their well-known International Youth Camp for the second time already.
What we experienced there can best be shown in a course of day, whereas the following
article might be no day in particular and yet any day of this absolutely unforgettable week... ;-)
(with almost no exaggerations... almost... *g*)
4:45, pitchdark night. "Aufstehen!!!" ("Get up!") Camp leader Kathrin's lovely voice echoes over the site. We want to go ballooning, so we have to get up early. Five minutes later, the washing rooms at the nearby sports home are overcrowded, ten miutes later, it's the breakfast table at the kitchen tent. Most of the people are satisfied with a quick coffee. Kathrin reads down the arrangements for the balloons and cars, and off we go.
5:20, still pitchdark. We meet at the town park, our launch site. The balloons are unpacked. Some of us discover a sleeping tramp on a park bench. At a closer look, he yet turns out as one of the camp participants, who had probably hoped to get some extra sleep here. However, a spontaneously organized collection brings in the enormous amount of seven Cent.
6:10, getting lighter... Forget about sleeping. The wind machines are turned
on. Within ten minutes, our chief pilots Dirk and Tomas put up the youth balloons
D-OBSJ and D-OFAJ.
Now it's time to go aboard! At half past six, the balloons
gently rise into the sky. The chase crews take to the cars.
7:20, somewhere between Wiehl and nowhere. The chase crews take a rest.
In our Ford Galaxy, it's party time. Front row: headbanging. Second row: dancing
wildly!
Only the third row shows absolutely no interest: Jerome and MiBi
are sleeping peacefully, despite Miss Aguilera's howling on the radio.
In the other cars, the atmosphere is quite similar. Frank in the blue Mercedes
Sprinter has found a country radio station, and the white Mercedes Sprinter is
shaking like hell -
since the youths have discovered the rocking abilities of that car, this seems to be its fate. Luckily, both of the Sprinters are rented...
7:55, somewhere in the "Bergischen Land". We got the balloons again,
they have landed safely on a field. The balloons are deflated and packed.
It is quite normal that some of the youths unintentionally get lost when packing
in the envelope - up to now, we found them all again, more or less crumpled...
"To the cars!" The ballons are in their trailers again. We get
on the road back to Wiehl.
9:30, back at the camp. It's breakfast time, now for sure. Even Jerome and
MiBi are awake again.
10:00. A noon rest 'til twelve o'clock is called out. Who doesn't want to
sleep can take part in one of the several creativity projects: Paint cups, draw
diary paintings for every day or paint his own head on a big tapestry with all the
participants.
10:45. Ruth is wet. I don't know how she does that, but every time a water
fight escalates somewhere, she's definitely the one to get her share. This time,
she picked a quarrel with Maze Höhl. Bad luck for her - he had the water
hose right in his hand... and as Theresa, Ruth's cousin, was also there, she
also got soaking wet.
11:00. Tomas, Maze and me think about a wet t-shirt contest as a fixed part
of every youth camp. At least, it should be compulsory for all B.P.I.C. nominees.
We can state that, as we are the jury.
12:45, scorching heat. Some of the kids play soccer in the hot afternoon
sun. We are waiting for the most spoken sentence of the camp. And yes, as
soon as Kathrin sees the kicking boys, you can hear it echoing over the site:
"Jerooooome, Mütze auf!!!"
13:15. A small yellow Smart comes driven along. Jo Willi Wagner from the
local balloon club "Bergische Ballonfahrer Wiehl" comes to look if
everything is fine with us. Honestly - the help and support of this balloon club
is really overwhelming, we haven't experienced anything like that before. We
wouldn't be surprised if Jo Willi had taken care of this wonderful weather as well.
14:00, still pretty hot. We are waiting for the departure to the lido.
Water bottles are carried from our cooling trailer to the cars. Some of us already
thought about spending the nights inside that trailer... :-)
After the last ones of us have boarded the cars with their towels and swimming
clothes, we can finally take to the road.
14:30, in the water. Here, anyone's thrown in or pushed down, no matter what age, sex or origin. However, there's a clear tendency that certain persons have to suffer more than others. Especially little children (the more sinewy, the worse) and girls (the prettier, the worse). And of course Tomas, our chief pilot.
15:00, on the lawn. Benni makes the terrible mistake to disturb Tomas while he is
reading his book "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire".
For that, he'll have to take a cold cold shower - with his clothes on.
Resistance is futile.
15:10, on the lawn. Theresa makes the next terrible mistake - I forgot
which one, but anyway. She is poured with water and then dragged through the nearby
beach-volleyball field.
Covered with sand, she heads for the next shower.
On the way, she meets Tomas and Benni who ask her if she'd like to take a cold shower.
Sometimes, you just got bad bad luck.
16:45, camp site again. Volker from the local balloon club has brought along four selfmade cream cakes, which are now feeded to the youths. Whoever's not there - well pity him. How said the participant who was off to the toilet for five minutes: "You did have cake? Where???"
17:05. Ruth is wet. Don't know who made her (Jan?), but anyway, it's the
result that counts. Laughing, she leaves to her tent to change clothes for the
second time today.
17:30. "BRIIIIEEFIIIING!!!" Kathrin tenderly twitters across
the camp site. The "oh no, not ballooning again" of some of the participants
is gently ignored. Kathrin divides the participants into the balloons and cars.
This evening, René will follow the OBSJ balloon, as usual.
But he'll regret that in the end, I tell you...
18:30, in the well-known town park. The balloons are unpacked. Relaxed yet,
as it is still quite windy.
Today, we are supported by the local balloon clubs: Marcus Strauf, Thorsten Lepperhoff
and Markus Pieper have come with their balloons to fly with the camp participants.
19:05. MiBi just found out what a stimulating effect a wind machine has
on his figure. If he had more opportunities with the girls of the camp after
that? Well, we don't know.
19:10. Dirk has decided to rather use the wind machine to blow up the
OFAJ. MiBi's figure immediately shrinks to that of an ordinary swabian.
19:20. Liftoff. I'm lucky enough to be in one of the baskets this evening.
The city of Wiehl below us gets smaller and smaller. What an idyllic sight.
"So you poor guys have to go ballooning every day here?" says Thorsten,
our pilot, and it almost seems that he feels sorry for us. Do I look that tired?
Or did he yet recognize the shy yawning of one of our passengers?
20:00, high in the sky. Don't know what our pilot should feel sorry for. I
like it up here. The silence is so unique! To have even the worst chatterbox
gaze in silence... truly spectacular.
20:20. René's voice in the radio (cool as always): "By the way, where's
the youth balloon, anyone seen it?"
20:30, at tree's height. Thorsten has found a nice field to land the balloon. Between two burner blows, we can hear René on the radio set. He is still searching for "his" balloon, from which we only know that it disappeared somewhere behind the next forest.
20:50. We have packed our balloon, our chase crew is also there. Only René's
slightly panic voice can still be heard in the radio set:
"What do you mean you don't know where you landed?"
21:45, at the balloon garage of the local club. We have just finished refilling
the gas bottles. René arrives. After some searching, he has finally found the OBSJ and
his crew. All's well that ends well ;-)
22:00, at the camp site again. Our kitchen team Irmi and Norbert have
prepared a fantastic meal: Fried potatoes with noodle salad. The huge pan of
fried potatoes empties quicker than you can look!
Some of the participants decide thereon:
1. the kitchen team is booked again for next year and
2. then it's fried potatoes every day!
22:30. Actually, the kids should be tired now. At least that's what I feel like
by now. But that's out! They want to fly model balloon. Oh well. Out the balloon
and up in the night sky!
23:15. The model balloon is packed away again, the kids are happy. The relaxed part of the evening can begin. Timo from Finland shows us paper photos of his marriage in the hot air balloon. That's rare! The paper photos, I mean. At the table nearby, Jarno and Erik-Jan from the Netherlands have taken out their notebook to watch photos from the balloon meeting at Metz. Camp romanticism at it's best! ;-)
23:30. Christina Castelli is singing. The young lady from Italy is not only an excellent singer, but also a very good guitarist and paintress. Basti Geier is so fascinated by her that he, only minutes later, asks her to marry him. She laughs and smiles. And that's already all we know about her attitude towards that ;-)
23:55. Ruth is wet. This time, it was Ricardo, our Italian. According to him,
it was Ruth who started the fight. Anyway, it's the result that counts. I'm wondering
if she's got any dry clothes to wear... ;-)
00:30. I drop on my air mattress, dead tired. Before she went to bed, Kathrin
said that we want to go ballooning tomorrow morning. We? That's out of the
question. At least at the moment. But I know myself. Tomorrow morning, I'll jump
out of my sleeping bag in joyful anticipation when I hear her charming wake up call...
Of course, we did some more things that week as well, like visiting the stalactite cave of
Wiehl, play volleyball and fly model balloon in the town park or clean up the
balloon youth trailer.
On the last evening, camp leader and organizer Kathrin Irion was dismissed from her
function - this shall have been her last youth camp, on her own request. Well, if
it can't get any better, you should stop. Let's hope we'll find capable successors
next year.
In the end, we want say our heartfelt thanks to all helpers, assistants and sponsors
of this camp. Thanks to them, we all could spend this wonderful week, at which we still
look back today with pleasure.
Thank you all!