More than 8,000 scouts, leaders and volunteers from as far away as Africa started arriving Thursday at Quebec's Camp Tamaracouta, near Saint-Jérôme, for the Canadian Jamboree celebrating scouting's centennial year.

It's been 100 years since Lord Baden-Powell ran an experimental camp for 20 young London boys from different social backgrounds on Brownsea Island off the south coast of England.

There are now 78,000 scouts registered in Canada.

Enrolment reached its peak in the 1950s, than declined, according to Neil MacKinnon, leader of the 2nd Westmount troop. But he now sees a resurgence of interest.

"What with more and more people wanting to get active, I find that our numbers have increased, and a lot of places across Quebec have increased in numbers too," he said.
 
Scouts from around the world have come for the jamboree at Camp Tamaracouta.

"We have scouts from Ireland, England, Australia and even Africa," said Therese Beaulieu, a volunteer with Scouts Canada.

The Canadian Jamboree runs until Aug. 1 at Tamaracouta, the oldest scout camp in Canada, 60 kilometres north of Montreal.