COOKLEY Rangers and Guides have travelled abroad for the first time since reforming in 1977.

The groups spent a week in Le Chateau d'Ebblinghem near St Omer in France with other Guides and Rangers from across the Midlands.

They exchanged their normal summer accommodations of tents for a 19th Century manor house with four hectares of its own private grounds.

The Guides and Rangers tried to keep their trip as authentic as possible by making crepes and trying snails.

Guide leader Mandy Brighton said: “We toured the Opal Coast visiting Boulogne and the Nausicaa Sea life Centre, Aqualud at Le Touquet and ventured into Belgium, to Bruges, where we cruised along the canals and explored the history of Chocolate at the Chocostory, with of course, a purchase or two.”