[Mods: Rather than Out&About put in Mids meets due to venue move if necessary]
I have been encouraged back into "coalface" Scouting for the last few months running a local scout troop while the regular leaders have chance to concentrate on the real world. This one of the original 1907 scout groups and so they are keen on some of the longer held values and the whole summer term is outdoor meetings, come downpour or shine we are at the district campsite every week. White Rose Wood is almost literally 15minutes drive away and seemed a good choice for something a bit more committed for a small group. After a chat with Alex and him talking to the "Founding Fathers" (Karl, Martin, Chad etal) we had permission in principle. Next we picked a month of no meet date which did not clash with personal use or the car boot so settled on the same time as North Wood.
Tuesday afternoon with our young leader and my assistant leader son we arrived and set up our lavu & hammock, moved in the kit the GSL had dropped off by van including a massive bag of firewood and stored away the food.
Wednesday morning it was a leisurely start putting tent over the white rose dunny and then walking down to Super Sausage for breakfast.
The seven scouts were dropped off here as there was parking space, the scouts did not know precisely where they were going and by having to carry their kit they could not bring too much - ok they brought too much anyway but limited to what they could carry
Day 1 we built some camp furniture, examples can be seen near toilet.
We split the sleeping areas into tipi (Juno) and hammock city (DD Scout),ferried firewood to the site (task of each day as there was a cubic metre to move) and then built an example lean to that was used to store collected kindling. As you can see in photos this was only partly thatched as I did not want to cut too much green stuff or denude the area of leaf litter.
For safety sake we dismantled it on last day and added the collected wood to the meeters wood pile. The ground was so dry that even dug in the uprights were not stable enough to leave up for future meets which had been the intention.
The scouts had asked to have ration packs, not that I think they really knew what they were, so the evening round campfire they chose a box blind and then were told in best X Factor style it's highlights, there was one extra so Deal or No Deal style you could swap yours for the mystery one. Someone did --- and then said the first one was better! They were then allowed to open them and trade contents but warned they would need what had been provided.
Day 2 no need to cook or anything today as the scouts have yummy ration packs to boil up. So us leaders just fried up their bacon for our breakfast making sure there was lots of sizzling and delicious smells :evil
Now they discovered that all the sundries were needed, except the Tabasco which some muppets had dared each other to taste and now had numb tongues, as the task that would take next few hours was explained.......
The brief for today was an imaginary mission involving exploring the area, making a distress signal, building a shelter, collecting items, devising a secret code, establish a way to navigate using cardinal compass bearings, purifying a bottle of water we had enhanced with ash / leaves / twigs etc, untangling balls of tagliatelle to tie 3 different knots and spell the patrol leaders name requiring a fire to boil and soften it. Oh and while doing this they were tied into about 10ft rope and had a raw egg in a plastic bag that must be with them whenever challenged by a leader.
A swap around in which scouts slept where tonight as the shelters were now on the menu and some decided to "go to ground". That evening was more like a meet evening round the fire except it was popcorn and biscuits washed down with the incredibly popular rat pack energy drinks rather rather than the more familiar pass around of a meet evening. Goodness knows how after all those e-numbers and sugar but they were out like a light.
The last day was a wind down with a mass breakfast fry up followed by tidying up and carrying all the kit out for collection by van and then plenty of kid time before eating everything perishable or crisp/cake like. Late afternoon we collect up the mucky scouts, loaded them up with their kit and walked back to Super Sausage to hand them back to parents.
We had a really good time, there even was no winging about the toilet after the initial giggling etc, and I think we need not leave to much evidence behind. A group of 12yr olds is not exactly Leave No Trace but a good rainstorm should erase most of what I spotted. I know we had a fire almost constantly and burnt all rubbish we could but even so was impressed with just one carrier bags waste from 10 people over 3+ days. We took in 100l water but in the end 30l+ off that went in the fire pit at the end ensuring it was well and truly out, it looked like a swimming pool for a while.
:
: Once again thanks for giving us permission guys, Martin for saying to use the parachute and showing me how to pitch it, BareThrills for donating a supply of his fire starter kits and all the regulars who knew and chipped in ideas
I have been encouraged back into "coalface" Scouting for the last few months running a local scout troop while the regular leaders have chance to concentrate on the real world. This one of the original 1907 scout groups and so they are keen on some of the longer held values and the whole summer term is outdoor meetings, come downpour or shine we are at the district campsite every week. White Rose Wood is almost literally 15minutes drive away and seemed a good choice for something a bit more committed for a small group. After a chat with Alex and him talking to the "Founding Fathers" (Karl, Martin, Chad etal) we had permission in principle. Next we picked a month of no meet date which did not clash with personal use or the car boot so settled on the same time as North Wood.
Tuesday afternoon with our young leader and my assistant leader son we arrived and set up our lavu & hammock, moved in the kit the GSL had dropped off by van including a massive bag of firewood and stored away the food.
Wednesday morning it was a leisurely start putting tent over the white rose dunny and then walking down to Super Sausage for breakfast.
The seven scouts were dropped off here as there was parking space, the scouts did not know precisely where they were going and by having to carry their kit they could not bring too much - ok they brought too much anyway but limited to what they could carry
Day 1 we built some camp furniture, examples can be seen near toilet.
We split the sleeping areas into tipi (Juno) and hammock city (DD Scout),ferried firewood to the site (task of each day as there was a cubic metre to move) and then built an example lean to that was used to store collected kindling. As you can see in photos this was only partly thatched as I did not want to cut too much green stuff or denude the area of leaf litter.
For safety sake we dismantled it on last day and added the collected wood to the meeters wood pile. The ground was so dry that even dug in the uprights were not stable enough to leave up for future meets which had been the intention.
The scouts had asked to have ration packs, not that I think they really knew what they were, so the evening round campfire they chose a box blind and then were told in best X Factor style it's highlights, there was one extra so Deal or No Deal style you could swap yours for the mystery one. Someone did --- and then said the first one was better! They were then allowed to open them and trade contents but warned they would need what had been provided.
Day 2 no need to cook or anything today as the scouts have yummy ration packs to boil up. So us leaders just fried up their bacon for our breakfast making sure there was lots of sizzling and delicious smells :evil
Now they discovered that all the sundries were needed, except the Tabasco which some muppets had dared each other to taste and now had numb tongues, as the task that would take next few hours was explained.......
The brief for today was an imaginary mission involving exploring the area, making a distress signal, building a shelter, collecting items, devising a secret code, establish a way to navigate using cardinal compass bearings, purifying a bottle of water we had enhanced with ash / leaves / twigs etc, untangling balls of tagliatelle to tie 3 different knots and spell the patrol leaders name requiring a fire to boil and soften it. Oh and while doing this they were tied into about 10ft rope and had a raw egg in a plastic bag that must be with them whenever challenged by a leader.
A swap around in which scouts slept where tonight as the shelters were now on the menu and some decided to "go to ground". That evening was more like a meet evening round the fire except it was popcorn and biscuits washed down with the incredibly popular rat pack energy drinks rather rather than the more familiar pass around of a meet evening. Goodness knows how after all those e-numbers and sugar but they were out like a light.
The last day was a wind down with a mass breakfast fry up followed by tidying up and carrying all the kit out for collection by van and then plenty of kid time before eating everything perishable or crisp/cake like. Late afternoon we collect up the mucky scouts, loaded them up with their kit and walked back to Super Sausage to hand them back to parents.
We had a really good time, there even was no winging about the toilet after the initial giggling etc, and I think we need not leave to much evidence behind. A group of 12yr olds is not exactly Leave No Trace but a good rainstorm should erase most of what I spotted. I know we had a fire almost constantly and burnt all rubbish we could but even so was impressed with just one carrier bags waste from 10 people over 3+ days. We took in 100l water but in the end 30l+ off that went in the fire pit at the end ensuring it was well and truly out, it looked like a swimming pool for a while.
:
: Once again thanks for giving us permission guys, Martin for saying to use the parachute and showing me how to pitch it, BareThrills for donating a supply of his fire starter kits and all the regulars who knew and chipped in ideas
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