We started the ceremony by meeting our hosts, and then building a bivvi for Ethan and I to sleep in.  We ate our meal and then joined the others by the fire. The ceremony was oficially opened at 9PM and we then sang German camp fire songs (and a few English ones as well) until 11PM when Ethan and I went to bed.

We were woken at 02:00 and had to break the bivvi and start hiking to the ceremony site, after a walk of approx 18 KM and a climb of approx 200M we arrived at the site where we were going to do our promises, it was a beautiful lookout point approx 350M ASL and we had a brilliant view of the horizon (they did it at actual sunrise rather than as 08:00 like the rest of the world did).

The German promise is not a 'fixed' affair like ours, but is something that is individual to the person saying it, most strange I thought.

We then sang a rousing song and back tracked to the place where we were going to have breakfast (bread, cheese and some meat (I was looking forward to bacon and eggs but when in Rome and all that....))

After Brekky, we said our goodbyes and set out on the hike to the nearest town to the railway station where Bine and I had arranged to meet. I was told that it was 1KM at most... Blooming liars, it was at least another 4 or 5, but managed to get Bine to pick us up by the side of the road.
 

Made a few friends along the way, gave them by business card, so we will see what it brings.

They did not seem interested in swapping badges and they thought that my camp blanket with all the badges on it was rather quaint.

It was an interesting event, Ethan hiked throughout the night, along with a number of very young wolf cubs (Their Beavers) and was chatting away to some of the littluns in pidgeon German.

We were introduced at the start of the affair and it was pointed out to us that our attendance there constituted an international gathering, which was something that they were rather proud of, so I am going to get 2 Union flag badges for Ethan and I and will attach them to our uniforms.

Andy and Ethan.