Scouts

Malvern Challenge

We took Eagle and Otter patrol to participate in a national event, a first for the Scouts and ourselves. I heard that this was one of the best events to attend from various people in the know. Nicola and myself arrived to find ourselves in the middle of a huge green field with roughly 100 leaders erecting tents. Our first thoughts were, 'this is going to be big...'

Two hours later when 3000 scouts and guides descended on the field we changed our minds too 'this is going to be massive...' and we were right.

As Otter and Eagle arrived, we got ourselves organised and booked in. Then it was time to explore.

The two patrols found the tuck shop first...and started on the sweets which kept them and all the others going well into the early hours of Saturday morning...

The entertainment was a disco, and then there were the Pussy Cat Babes who were very good... considering they were playing in a cowshed.

Lights out at 11.30 yeah right then....

Breakfast at 7.30 ish, kit sorting and Malvern Challenge at 10.30, Otter and Eagle were left to complete the challenge by themselves which was a 7 mile hike around the local countryside whilst completing tasks en route.

Tasks were knots, first aid, bridge building, mini Olympics and other scouting stuff. The idea was to work as a patrol and complete the tasks.

Nicola and I spent the day helping at the mini Olympic event, whelly wanging, hula hopping, half a yard of water drinking, and such like, whilst hydrating and applying liberal amounts of sun screen in the blistering heat...

Both the patrols were unfortunate not to complete the entire course due to the excessive heat and confusion over start times but both gave it their best shot and did their best, what more could I/we have asked from them.

Saturday evening we entered into the volleyball competition and won a couple of games. Then we were 'entertained' by some guy called Stretchy Dave. He could stretch his skin. There is no more to say on that... but it did turn your stomach at times...

Followed by a tribute band to McFly again they were ok playing in a cowshed. The main entertainment was a stunt team on motorbikes, and a stunt man who set himself on fire and fell from a tower 40 foot in the air, which was very impressive. Bedtime again at 11.30 yeah right.

Sunday was spent trying out different activities and generally having fun with friends.

I think that we all had a great time and defiantly want to put the event on the calendar for next year.

We would like to thank Otter and Eagle for making it such an enjoyable weekend for us both especially when we didn't quite know what to expect.

Nick and Nicola

Boys Gorge Scrambling

PL Gorge Scrambling (Vigilant)

On the 1st Thursday of camp, while the girls were on their expeds, the vigilant PLs & SPLs went on their own exciting activity.

With Sally, Titch & Deebs we drove in the minibus to a random layby near a random stream in the middle of nowhere, in a part of the Lake District populated mainly by sheep.

We were already partly wearing wetsuits (it was a hot day!), but finished getting kitted up on the roadside, by adding spraytops & buoyancy aids. It was then a short walk down the road to where a path went down to the stream.

Our first activity was to get accustomed to the water. This involved sitting and standing down in knee high water & drenching each other. We then made our way up the stream, climbing over large rocks & up small waterfalls. The gradient varied from easy going to nearly vertical. As we went up it got darker & darker as the gully walls grew higher & steeper.

Eventually we reached the top where we rested & took photos, before having a go at the mysterious 'washing machine'. This entailed being dunked by Titch into a plunge pool at the bottom of a noisy cascade.

The way down would have been better if there had been more rain - dry rapids are not so good for sliding down!

We all really enjoyed this trip, including our leaders.

It was a great idea, & would be a good activity to do again on future camps.

Thanks for taking us.

Sam T, Swift PL

RN swimming sports

After a mad rush home form school we all left in a minibus driven by Martin down to Plymouth and HMS Raleigh. The 'are we nearly there yet' got as far as the traffic lights on to the Emscote road. After a couple of hours we had a short break at the services and back on the road to the ferry between Plymouth and the destination on the other side of the estuary. We made it, nearly the last team to arrive but heyho we still had somewhere to sleep. Met Scott and Pete and Barbie and Anne(who used to come to scout camp with us), got split up into our messes and after a while lights out.

Next mourning at an unearthly hour of 6.45 we were awoken after a few hours sleep to march to breakfast for a nice greasy fryup. By 8.00 we were down at the pool ready for a nice swim. This was all the individual heats and the medly realys. We got most people just a few places off the finals for Sunday mourning. After a lot of shouting and cheering our people on the Explorers left to have there lunch whilst the scouts did there line throw where they came 2nd in the heat, Well done as the team that won there heat are all lifesavers. In the afternoon the scouts did there scout skills competition which involves many activities that include naming parts of the boat and pioneering projects working as a team, whilst the explorers went out in champs(chug chug powerboats) followed by power in Ribs for Becky and Sam and more chuging for me, kat, Scott and jenny. The explorers then joined back as a team to take part in the explorer challenge. This year 'Admiral Swaine' (as known by us) got us to build a pulling boat to a specification which includede thwarts(seats), oars, a defaced ensign and a JJ( Jonathon Jones whose one of the people running the event) This boat was then scored for how good parts of it were it then had to hold as many marbles as possible before sinking. We managed 200 marbles before it capsized and sank. How ever we did win, much to Admiral Swaine's disgust we even stuck to the rules properly as he had rewritten the rules form 2 years ago so that our team didn't bend them to much.

In the evening after another meal we went to the cinema on the base to watch Zorro and for the presentations of the Scout skills and the boat competition, we got a tin of Qualtiy street which we shared on the bus on the way home.

Sunday morning after cleaning the mess's(dormatries) and packing we went back to the pool for the finals and a few other races. First up was the Explorer line throw where we had a rival team against us but much to there disgust we beat them by miles. Overall much to our delight came first. Which was deserved due to having some very good line throwers in our midst. We then made lots of noise for Lucy 's final were she came 4th just missing out on a trophy. We then had the Under 16 relay where we came 6th.

There was then time for everyone to have a swim in the Squadron relay which is all freestyle for the scouts an then the explorers. We did well in both of these but didn't make it into the top six.

A few of us by this point had dying voices we marched to the bus with our death packs(lunches ) in our hands runmning ocver some body who stopped right in fron of us marching through the centre of where we stayed.

After several silent games as some were getting restless we got back all very happy(happier for some than when we left) at about 5 oclock after a long journey.

Well done to the whole team, Lucy, Emilie, Holly,James CS, Kyle,Lydia, Becky,Jenny, Sam, Scott ,Kat and me.

A Great Afternoon Kayaking

Hello!

Just want to tell everyone about the fun we have had this afternoon. Doug C had organised some kayaking. Six of us went down, three scouts (including myself), two explorers and Doug. We all arrived, got changed and headed up to Rock Mill.

Along the way, we played various games, like paddling with only one arm. Definitely easier said than done. When we arrived at Rock Mill, we all got out, and went to 'Access the Weir.' It was deemed safe enough, so we all launched the other side of it, and got ready for some fun.

We all had a few shots; most of us did it three times. Fortunately nobody got wet, but little did we know our fortunes were about to change. We left for home, and Ed decided to do a high brace. It was higher than he expected and he soon got very wet. After rescuing him, we paddled back to the hut.

I got out to put some hot water on, and then got back on. We did a couple of Eskimo rescues then decided to get off. All the boats were put away and we got changed then we all went upstairs and had a hot drink. Five o'clock came and we all went home. What a GREAT AFTERNOON.

The thing is though, how many people are there in our troop? Consider how only six people made it down here this afternoon. I think we can do better than that. If Doug is going to spend his free time doing activities like this, we should all do our best to support him. If you don?t want to do things like this, why are you a sea scout?

Guy

Merlin's Patrol Camp - September 2007

By Catherine (PL Merlin)

The first weekend in September Merlin patrol went on a camp together at Horley Scout Campsite, near Banbury. While we were there we did some conservation work. This involved making more pathways for the nature trail which had been started by Snowy, the camp warden. (Anyone who went on Frosty Camp in January 2007 will remember that we started the first section of the path and put up bird boxes).

We arrived at Horley on a bright and dry morning. After setting up camp, Snowy brought all the materials down to the nature trail and we started work about 10am. We started on a particularly boggy part of the path down by the stream. This involved building up the path, making it level and removing all the big rocks which might make people trip up. We hammered in short posts and edged the path with wood before filling in between the edging with bark chips.

Martin Crossley came for the morning and helped us understand what we needed to do.

Going backwards and forwards to get the bark chippings we had wheel barrow races.

Once we had finished the path by the stream, we started to extend the path back up the hill towards the path we made at Frosty Camp.

We were all very tired by 5 o'clock so we stopped and cooked a huge pasta meal and did some acrobatics!

1st Kineton and 2nd Banbury were also camping at Horley and they invited our patrol to camp fire which finished of the day very nicely. We did two sketches at the campfire and had to sing loudly, especially when each group took a turn with the songs as there were only seven of us.

Next morning the sun was shining again. After breakfast we carried on with the path, but by lunchtime we ran out of materials, so we made some repairs to the path we made at Frosty Camp.

In the afternoon Snowy took us back down to the path with more wood on the back of his tractor.

We had a visit from the District Commissioner, who came down and said how well we were doing.

At the end of the camp we all felt really good for helping improve the environment at Horley. Snowy was very pleased and we were awarded a Camp Service Team badge.

We all enjoyed the weekend!!!!!

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