| |
Summer Camp
traditionally takes place in the first week of
the school Summer Holidays. This year we returned
to the delightful Gloucestershire village of
Cranham. The theme was Star Trek. Hopefully some
of your memories will be captured in the photos.
Click
on the links to view the photos. Don't forget
that you will need to use the 'Back' button to
get back to here.
- The village is in a valley - camp site on one
side, houses on the other
- We
had wonderful weather for most of the week: You don't
need a forecaster when there is a red
sky at night^
- So
that we could tell the teams apart, everybody had bracelets
in their team colour. As camp leader, Baloo
had all the colours^ in his.
- First job of each day was inspection. After
preparing their
tents the Cubs line up outside
- On Sunday it is traditional to have a little
church service called Scouts Own.
- One of the on-site activities was the Obstacle
Course which was by the stream under the trees. There
were lots of obstacles including a wobbly bridge over
the stream, a tube up the side
of the hill and a scramble net onto a platform at the
top of the hill.
- During the week we completed several activity
badges including Cooks, Campers & Map Readers. During
their map readers badge the Cubs have to find out about grid
references and contour lines on maps.
- During the week we shared the site with Cubs
from Cardiff. Their packs changed over mid-week and to
celebrate the end of their camp they set up a waterslide on the
hill. After they had
finished our Cubs had a go although some found it a bit wetter than
they had expected.
- We were fortunate to have a good collection
of Venture Scouts and helpers. One of their favourite
tasks was running our nightly campfire. The campfire circle was just behind
our site so it was very convenient. Some of the songs
required the group to be split to see who was
the loudest. As you can imagine, it was a very close competition.
- Being at camp can rather take it out of you.
The leaders were generally up around 6am so that everything
was ready when the Cubs got up. Sometimes the early morning walk to the showers
was a bit tricky. However, there is nothing like a nice cup of tea to get you going
in the morning. Of course, when it gets a bit quiet in
the afternoon because the Cubs are off doing other things
there is generally the chance to catch up on lost
sleep. The Venture Scouts
decided that they would sleep outside in the nice weather.
However, they hard bargained without the effect of sleeping
on a slope which meant that
they didn't all manage to stay on the groundsheet during
the night.
- There were no serious injuries during the
camp but at one stage surgery was required when Robert Morgan
discovered that his teddy has lost an arm. Luckily Baloo
and Raksha were able to assist.
- One of the main themed events of the week
was the Banquet. Just the mention of it is enough to send
shudders down the spine of generations of 2nd Bracknell
campers. The idea is that each group has a limited budget
(£10) with which to buy and prepare a 3 course meal. The
competition judges look for presentation, quality of entertainment
and teamwork as well as the food itself. This year the
competition was judged by Baloo and a visiting dignitary
- Rikki's mother who didn't seem to be put off by the
rain. The overall winners were the Vulcan team. The Cardassian team had a big welcome to their table. Meanwhile, the Klingons were ready to take the
order. Finally, over
at the Romulans the main
course of Cardassian Fingers
was being served and seemed to go down well with
the judges.
- One of the tasks that the Cubs found hardest
was that they had to do their own washing up after
each meal. Maybe they need
to get a bit more practice at home!
- Our closing ceremony
on the last day marked the end
of a great week. If you are wondering what happened to
our St George's flag you will have to ask our neighbouring
campers from Cardiff. During the night they switched it
for the Welsh flag instead! Here's a close up of the Cardassians^
and the Romulans^.
At the end of camp there are badges
and awards^ to be given out. It certainly
kept Baloo busy^ while everybody
else waited patiently^.
- The rain stayed away on the last day so that
we could get the tents down in the dry (always a big relief).
The closing ceremony was also dry but we knew we had pushed
our luck when the rain started as the group photos were being taken.
Catering at
camp was provided by SMICCTSO.
Most pictures
on this page were taken by Akela - except those where the
link includes a ^ where they were taken by Rikki.
|