Renewal of Promise at BP's Grave

We arrived at Outspan a little later than we expected, so it was a case of dump your bags in the rooms and back to the coach for the short journey to the BP centre and the graveyard.

We were greeted by two local representatives of the local Kenyan Boy Scouts who were to be our contacts during the work at the centre.

The sun was just beginning to set as we entered

the grave yard and made our way to the graveside of Baden Powell and his wife Olave, entering through the small white picket gate in the hedge surrounding the grave we were all aware that something special was about to occur.

With the light fading quickly Roy started the small service reminding us of some of the words written by Baden Powell in the 1920’s that were as true now as they were when they were written. It was following these words that Roy asked Ann, Anne and Eleanor to step forward and placed a wreath on behalf of the guides and re-new their Guide promise.

Paul Hegerty then stepped forward to lay a wreath on behalf of the Scouts and Roy asked us to re-new our Scout promise. As the light finally left the sky Roy finished the short but unforgettable service with another short reading, this was followed by an unplanned and

Following this and the

photographs it was time to travel back to Outspan and explore the rooms, hotel and have dinner.

To our knowledge we are the first but possibly not the last to have held our St Georges Day promise renewal on the 23^rd April at the graveside, it was certainly a first for the Kenyan Boys Scout Leaders that were with us that evening.

A summary of the renewal of our promises at the graveside of our founder .............. Special.