Hi All,During the weekend of 7/8/9th May 2010, 20 of our Scouts made their way to Beaudesert in Cannock Wood to take part in this year's District Scout activity camp.
We arrived in fairly decent weather on the Friday evening and managed to pitched all of the sleeping tents, the marquee, the garage tent and a first aid tent. We had one of the largest number of Scouts on site!
In just a few hours the camp was relatively complete and supper was soon on the go. We cooked burgers & onions and made hot drinks and biscuits available for everyone who wanted them before starting the long task of preparing for bed! In between all of this, some of the Leaders were called to a meeting and briefed on the arrangements taking place over the next 2 days.
The weather turned a little wet and it continued to rain on & off throughout the night.
On Saturday morning we awoke to more showers but this did not deter the Troop from getting out of bed and preparing themselves for the day ahead.
Some cereals, bacon or sausage sandwiches and drinks were welcomed by all for breakfast and it was soon time to begin the programme of activites organised for the day.
At 9.30am we had our first flag break before the Scouts were let loose on the site!
Our Troop was split into 3 teams and each team took part in 4 activities on Saturday and 2 more on Sunday.
The activities included; crate stacking, 3G swing, archery, team challenge, night line, climbing & Jacob's ladder.
Lunch was sandwiches with a choice of fillings, sausage rolls, hot or cold drinks plus crisps, biscuits and fruit.
The showers continued throughout the day but this did not prevent any of the activities from taking place.
At approximately 4.30pm, a 5-a-side football competition took place and we entered 2 teams. Our team B finished 4th in the league!
During the football competition, some of our Scouts not taking part helped prepare and cook the dinner. There was a choice of spaghetti bolognese or chicken curry, with pasta and rice. Pudding was a choice of angel delight or apple pie & custard. The rest of those not taking part began collecting and chopping wood for an alter fire later on.
Due to the wet weather, the planned wide game in the evening was cancelled in the interests of safety. So, several of our Scouts continued to gather wood and got the alter fire going instead.
We had a supper of marshmallows, biscuits and hot or cold drinks before finally retiring to bed. Some of the Scouts roasted their marshmallows on the alter fire.
It was a cold night.
On Sunday morning we awoke to much better weather, which meant that the tents would hopefully be nice and dry by the time it came to pack away.
Good weather on the day you break camp is always number 1 on a Scout Leader's wish list!
Breakfast consisted of lashings of bacon, sausage, beans, egg and bread plus hot/cold drinks.
At 9.30am we had our final flag break before starting the second day of activities.
At approximately 12.30pm we had lunch, similar to that what we had on Saturday (and anything else that was left), and then started the inaugural task of breaking camp.
At 3pm we had final flag down and parents began arriving to pick up their young ones. I would imagine that the first port of call for most Scouts would be a nice warm bath!
Please click on the image above to see more pictures taken during the weekend.
Many thanks to all those Scouts who took part and I hope you all had a good time.
I would also like to thank all those parents who gave their time and helped us load and unload the minibus & trailer, assisted us with setting up & breaking camp and helped us pitch the tents, even if some of them were the Patrol tents of a different Scout Group. You know who you are and the other Group was very grateful!
Going to camp is a major reason why young people join the Scouts, the fun of living in a tent can be unbeatable. You will hopefully appreciate how much effort goes into running a camp and we try to organise and attend as many as is feasibly possible, so that all Members of our Troop get the opportunity to attend at least one over the year.
Our next camp will be in June, which will be a joint camp with the Cubs!
All the best,
The Scout Leaders
