23rd April 2025 - Explorer Belt 2025
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I have just returned from 10 rather long yet enjoyable days helping 12 
young people, 16 to 24, complete their Explorer Belt for Scouts. 

The Explorer Belt is an award which those who are 16 to 24 (Explorers 
and Network) can earn. They have to complete an expedition in a 
foreign country over 10 days with a focus on learning about culture, 
customs and other such aspects of that country. There are 10 minor 
projects and 1 major project to complete while being expected to be 
out and about for a minimum of 5 hours a day. At the end, the young 
people have to give a presentation about their projects and what they 
have found out. 

This expedition was to southern Spain and Gibralatar. We had decided 
to have fewer changes in location and thanks to a spot of 
non-communication from the Scouts in Spain and Gibraltar, we ended up 
in commerical accommodation. It forced us into 2 locations - San Pedro 
de Alcantara, near Marbella and Malaga. 

The flight out was with Ryanair and we had a bit of a surprise. We had 
flown for an hour before the pilot reported a fault which prevented 
the aircraft from reaching cruising altitude and so there was not 
enough fuel to reach Malaga. This meant a detour to Stanstead, London 
and a 2 hour, 45 minute delay. So close to the 3 hour limit for when 
airlines need to provide compensation. 

San Pedro was a typical Costa del Sol location without much of a soul. 
It was a good place to go and explore from but offered little beyond a 
beach and some restaurants. While the young people went out the 
explore, the leader team also got to explore. We ended up walking to 
Playa de Nagueles, exploring Puerto Banus and other bits like that. 
Puerto Banus has a nice marina although it did have several stupidly 
large yachts and large numbers of daft expensive cars. The young 
people seemed to have fun and went to places like Fuengirola and 
Marbella. 

We organised a day trip to Gibraltar for the group. This was due to 
needing to cross borders with passports, knowing young people will 
lose them and a fear of monkeys ripping faces off. The approach to 
Gibraltar is strange. You are on a large flat area and this huge rock 
just looms, getting bigger. You suddenly hit a border, get off the 
coach, trudge along through the security parts, whizz through the UK 
part and suddenly find yourself in a perverse UK. One where the 
weather is warm and people drive on the right handside. This isn't 
Britain but it sure looks like it could be. We ended up doing a tour 
which took us to Europa point, St Michael's cave and points to see 
monkeys. Europa point is the southern most tip and forms the northern 
part of the straits of Gibraltar. You can gaze at the Atlas mountains 
in Morocco at the other end of the straits. St Michael's cave is full 
of interesting formations. The info boards make a big thing about this 
being the classical entry to hell and home to Cerberus. It is easy to 
see why people thought that. We managed to see a fair few monkeys. One 
did steal someone's bag. Thankfully not one of my lot. That served as 
a great warning to them! The monkeys seem to pose. Almost suspiciously 
well. We did survive without any young person having their face ripped 
off or punching any monkeys. A great win! There was also an 
opportunity for exploring on our own. The streets are small and the 
place feels very Georgian. The territory is split between the part in 
the old defensive walls and the part on the reclaimed land. This gives 
a contrast of modern and Georgian. Thankfully, relations betwen Spain 
and the UK were sufficiently good to have a trouble free return until 
Spain. It was just slow. A complete lack of border security people 
made for plenty of queues! 

One of the bigger expenses was a hire car. We had it to be able to 
intervene and help if required. Thankfully, there was only a late 
night collection from a train station when planning was a litle 
insufficient. Seeing as we had the car, the leader team decided to 
head off to Ronda for a day trip. Ronda is a town which is in the 
mountains and has some truely spectacular views. It is well known for 
the bridge and for having the oldest bull fighting arena. Not sure 
about whether that is something to embrace but hey, they did. The 
views seem to capture the heart of many a famous person and it is easy 
to see why. This is a landscape which is hard to put into words. It 
was well worth a visit and I do want to return for a longer visit. 

After 4 nights in San Pedro, we moved to Malaga. Only issue was the 
accommodation was double booked. This was a bit of a nightmare as we 
had told the young people to arrive 30 minutes after us. Thankfully, 
the owner agreed it was their fault and we had booked through VRBO. 
They tried to find accommodation but were limited to their partner 
sites. We managed to get them to agree to refund us to a specific 
amount and booked into a 4 star hotel which was just below the limit. 
Well, it was the closest option and why not? It was all resolved with 
us all checked in to the new hotel within 1 and a half hours. Not bad! 

Malaga has some 40 odd parades over the week leading up to Easter. 
Each of these parades is held by a brotherhood attached to a church. 
Each brotherhood has a Jesus 'float' and a Mary 'float'. These are 
not floats in the usual sense. They are grand and ornate statues upon 
a platform which has steel beams through. Some 100 to 200 people stand 
'crotch to arse' with a beam on their shoulder to carry these through 
the streets. The largest weighs 5 tons! Alongside this, you have 2 
marching bands and a whole host of Nazareno. The Nazareno are rather 
alarming if you are not expecting them.. They are penitants who wear 
robes and pointed hats which cover their face. Yes, you may be 
thinking of the KKK now. These penitants are of any gender and a wide 
range of ages. They typically carry large candles. As the parades stop 
to give those poor sods who are carrying the platforms a rest, 
children come up to the Nazareno with balls. The Nazareno will then 
drip wax onto the balls. The robes for the Nazareno vary in colour 
depending on the Brotherhood. The parades are impressive and there are 
multiple each day. The parade we caught on the Thursday evening also 
came back around at 0330 in the morning. These are long for the 
participants! 

It was a strange affair to watch. You see the first of the Nazareno. 
They seem to take an age to come across but then you realise how many 
have passed by. A huge number! Then you start to hear brassy music and 
notice something large swaying. As it comes closer, you see Jesus 
carrying a cross. A huge Jesus. Then you realise there are people 
below the statue and they are the cause of the swaying. This passes 
and you are met with another hoard of Nazareno. Another huge swaying 
object appears and you see a huge Mary surrounded by a large amount of 
candles. I found myself wondering how often the candles lead to fires. 
Another band follows the Mary statue and then you had a hoard of 
people following the parade. It feels surreal seeing this and the 
large numbers of people taking part. I am used to congregations being 
rather small and constantly dwindling. It was lovely seeing the groups 
of very young Nazarene who kept struggling to hold their candles up 
right. I thought there were a few who were going to set someone 
alight. There was also one who was evidently bored. They kept lifting 
the robe, pointing out their shoe and dripping wax on it. We ended up  
catching another 3 parades. Sadly the Easter Sunday parade was  
cancelled due to rain. 

Malaga is a lovely city. We stayed in the old town and it is a rabbit 
warren of small streets and character. It was a lot of fun to explore 
with plenty to discover. The beaches were nice too. Expect lots of 
plazas acting as sun traps, street seating for cafes and bars, street 
performers and other such cliches. Delightful! Malaga is the 
birthplace of Picasso and so naturally, you have to go to see some of 
his work. We ended up going to the birth place museum as the Picasso 
museum always had long queues. The birth place is a great taster in 
fairness. It consists of mainly sketches but does a good job 
explaining his influences and what not. It does lack the whole 'why he 
is vaguely of interest' aspect. There are mentions of cubism but they 
are fleeting. A bit of a miss there I think. There was mention of how 
he was an utter bastard of a human at least. Even if it was currounded 
by mentions of how he thought himself a genius. 

Another Explorer Belt completed! This is my second. The first was in 
Malta 2 years ago. I was doing more of a support role while this was a 
clear lead role. I do love how you see the young people change over 
the 10 days. They realise they are the only ones who can make it 
happen and so they start to just do. It is also rather nice to be able 
to go out and explore, eat ice cream and find nice places instead of 
running activities on these events. It is a real change from the usual 
experience of being a Scout leader. 

I have already started thinking about the next one. Might be in 3 
years time rather than 2. Just got to think about where!