The last day of the jamboree was…one to remember. I went rafting for the first time! We had a whale of a time rafting down the river, surrounded by greenery with a bright blue sky and the hot sun shining overhead. As soon as the rafting ended though, it was back to a sad reality as we had to start packing up what had been our home for the last 11 days.

Then, it was time to get ready for the closing ceremony, and we set off in high spirits through the trees (the bridge was closed so we had to use an alternate trail) with our flags waving high and our voices carrying the melodies of cypriot songs. I made the most of my time once we arrived at the stadium, by saying goodbye to two other global ambassadors who, as I’m writing this back home, already miss a lot! Mike, my Lebanese friend (and Global Ambassador) came by and we exchanged neckers and contingent badges, and he gave me another small gift related an inside joke, which made me begin to cry. Mikey, I hope this time it won’t be 2 years until I see you again! Then after we’d taken some lovely photos and I’d stopped crying, it was time to say goodbye to the Australian Global Ambassador Toby, who lives on the other side of the world, which makes us meeting again a little difficult. There were so many people i wanted to say goodbye to, but finding them in a crowd of 50,000 people is tricky!

With the goodbyes taken care of and the tears shed, it was time for the show to begin! We all had a blast at this last show, shouting “JAMBOREE” everytime the word was mentioned onstage (so…about every minute!). There was a collective sad “awwww” that rang through the stadium when the 24th World Scout Jamboree was officially declared closed, and as the Jamboree dream team handed over responsibilities to the Korean dream team of the 25th World Scout Jamboree. But we never finish on a sad note, so Pentatonix (!!!) lightened up the mood by singing and leading a couple of singalongs. They were absolutely amazing and the stadium was chanting for “one more song” after they finished their set! Then, we had a 20 minute firework display which lit up the night sky and our happy faces as fireworks went off in rhythm to songs and tunes we all knew.

Once the show had finished, as we began to make our way back to camp, some of my friends began spontaneously singing “country roads, take me home, to the place, i belong!”

12 hours later as our bus was driving away from the summit, that was all we were wishing for: for the country roads to take us back home