Two local Network Scouts have just left rainy Bedford for a three week adventure in the Mongolian desert. Planned for almost two years, the action-packed trip will take in the Chinese Terra Cotta army, a hike down part of the Great Wall of China, a train journey on the Trans Siberian Railway across the Gobi desert and two weeks living in makeshift yurt tents while looking after the feral street children of the Mongolian capital Ulan Bator.

Six foot six inch tall Ed Jenns (24), a Dane from Harrold, started planning the life changing adventure after the World Scout Jamboree in 2007. He was one of the pioneers of the 70-strong Three Nations team from around the UK who organised the trip to support the work of UNICEF in Mongolia.

His fellow explorer, Katy Eagle (20) from Kempston, shared his enthusiasm but had to wait until April 2009 for a last minute space. She brings hard-won overseas experience to the partnership. Just 18 months ago she started a two month’s work experience project as a care worker at a school in central India. She said, “The young children I cared for were so delightful I almost brought two home with me.”

Like most seasoned travellers Ed and Katy have a laid back attitude to foreign trips. “If we haven’t got it, we’ll make do,” says Ed. They work on the basis that their main luggage will not arrive with them and carry bare essentials in a small rucksack. Their inoculations read like a list of some of the worst diseases you can imagine from rabies and typhoid to cholera and Hepatitus A and B. The cost of their trip is £2100 each but with extra for medical and visa expenses the total comes to nearly £3000.

Ed Jenns has served his time in the Scouts rising form a young Beaver Scout at the age of eight through Scouts to his present roll as a Network Scout. He is keen to complete his Queen’s Scout Award before his 25th birthday next May and this expedition will clinch it.

Katy is a late recruit for the Scouts after spending her younger years with the Guides. She admitted, “I just wanted a change and the Jamboree was the ideal opportunity. It was an awesome experience and I was hooked.”

The familiar surroundings of Bedford are now a distant memory for the two as they live an extraordinary life as nomadic travellers in a remote country caring for wild youngsters who don’t speak English. Their experiences will be enough to write a book if they can fit that in before their next adventure.

[Back to News Front Page]