DJC social trip to Drakes Island
A wise German woman once said to me ''Do you know ze way to make a successful Judo Club? Get out of ze dojo''
With that thought in mind DJC headed off for a guided tour of Drakes island, a privately owned island which has been inaccessible to the public for in reality the last 500 years,
Its sits only a few hundred meters off the shore and has a number of buildings which are visible, I have personal dream of one day holding a Drake Open Tournament on Drakes island, similar to the one in 'Enter the Dragon' though I'm not sure the BJA will agree to the 'to the death' stipulation
Anyway despite the weather being quite bad in the morning by the early afternoon it had cleared up considerably, 27 of us plus one dog set off from Mountbatten Pier, with the boat taking only 5 or 10 mins to reach the island
After landing we proceeded to have a guided tour which was very good, Bob the tour guide clearly has a passion for the island and its history which was evident in the depth of knowledge he had, we explored the buildings and looked over the huge guns which formed part of the fortifications,
Im not going to attempt to re-tell any of the stories but those who are curious can read Bob's blog which goes into detail including stories of smuggling, births and deaths on the island and Mutiny! www.historyofdrakesisland.com
I would say that perhaps children wont get a huge amount out of the trip unless they are history motivated but for adults its extremely interesting plus giving views which for obvious reasons are not usually accessible.
We were however determined to be the first people to do any sort of Judo on the island, It was mixed results to say the least
So another successful social trip done, if anyone has any ideas for future social trips please feel free to let me know, we currently have Dan's beach day and Daisy's Ice Cream Sundae which we have held previously so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated