On Saturday 29th June, 16 Brownies from 4th Welling went on an adventure in London. We called it the Transport Day because of all the different types of transport we were going to use during the day.

Brown Owl (Alexis), Barney Owl (Jacqui), Wise Owl (Pat R), Kestrel (Doreen F), Lauren and a couple of mums were all raring to go as we gathered together in the back hall at 9am. Everyone arrived with pack lunches full of goodies, cameras and of course wet weather gear (just in case).

We started off catching the 89 Bus to Lewisham – the bus driver was an extremely jovial chap but I don’t think he’d ever had a brownie pack on his bus before, judging by the look on his face as he pulled up at the bus stop!

Having arrived at Lewisham bus garage we trooped over to the Docklands Light Railway station to catch our next mode of transport to Tower Hill. There’s no driver on the DLR and I think the girls were a bit bemused by that. We had to change at Shadwell but by now the sun was shining and it looked like it was going to be a great day so every one was getting excited.

We arrived at Tower Hill and used another form of transport to get across Tower Bridge to the South Bank – our feet! As usual we got pointed at and comments from tourists about how sweet we looked all walking in a long line – and moans from Londoners in their usual hurry to get to their destination.

Our next stop was the HMS Belfast, a decommissioned Battleship that is now a museum moored by Tower Bridge (free for children under 16). We split into groups of four and all took off in different directions to explore. The girls were able to sit in the gunners seats on deck and operate the guns which would have been used to shoot at enemy aircraft – took a lot more elbow grease than anyone was expecting! Throughout the ship were displays using dummies and tape recordings which made the whole experience feel very real (and a little bit scary) on more than one occasion I apologised to a stuffed dummy. The operating theatre even had realistic smells – yuk! We were able to listen to tapes of people who had actually served on the ship during the war and were recounting their experiences.

Having gone up and down as many ladders and steps as possible it was time to go back over Tower Bridge to catch the River Boat down to Westminster. The captain gave us lots of information and pointed out anything of interest, from the Traitors Gate at the Tower of London to the strange ‘artwork’ outside the Tate Modern.

We hoofed it over Westminster Bridge and along to our next port of call – the London Eye. We were set to fly at 2.30 so we sat in the park and had some lunch before joining the queue for our flight.

We were very lucky and got a capsule to ourselves which was great because when we reached the highest point our newest Brownie, Robyn, made her Brownie Promise, and became a fully fledged Brownie. We then sang a few rousing campfire songs (without the campfire obviously) whilst overlooking the greatest city in the world - a truly memorable experience.

Once our feet were back on terra firma we went back to the park and the girls went into the playground whilst the leaders and helpers had a well earned rest and cup of tea. Visits to the souvenir shop were made and a relay to the ice cream vendor began for 23 different flavoured ice creams - to help cool down as the sun was shining brilliantly in the sky.

At this point we had planned to catch the tube to London Bridge but as it was such a lovely day we changed our plan and walked across the new footbridge at the side of Charing Cross railway bridge. Whilst walking across the bridge we had a bit of a sing song with a loud rendition of “Everywhere we go…..” once again raising a few smiles from fellow pedestrians, but that’s what Brownies is all about!

We had just missed the train from Charing Cross to Welling so decided to get the next train to Lewisham and change back on to the trusted No 89 bus – which we did, very successfully.

We arrived back at the church at 5.45 and I think it can safely be said that everyone had thoroughly enjoyed themselves. We’d managed to use 6 different forms of transport; bus, train, DLR, boat, feet and flight - the challenge is out there for someone to do better!

I love being a Brown Owl!

Alexis Freeman