Busy Doing Nothing

The time has come once again to set out on another adventure. We are off on a weekend camp to Woodhouse Park, right next to the m4 m5 interchange.

Last night the leaders packed the trailers with the mountain of kit that we always take with us, gas bottles, tables, chairs, benches, cooking stuff and several huge tents that take two people to lift.

We leave at 6 tonight, all we have to do is load up the kid's personal kit, bundle them in the minibus and off we go.

This week we had a Fairtrade cooking night. Someone from Fairtrade gave a little talk and gave us enough food for six groups. Unfortunately she didn't give us a vegetarian option so one of the scouts felt a bit left out but fair play to her she did get stuck in with the cooking.

Last Friday at Scouts was fun. We had the usual games but we also had a slideshow of photos from previous camps and activities we have done to show the others what they are missing out on. This year's summer camp had to be cancelled as only a few people wanted to go.

We also did a bit of first aid, putting people in the recovery position and as usual there was a lot of mucking about. However there was a big surprise for the scouts as we had arranged for an ambulance to turn up and show them some of the kit they use.

Next week we have the Dickensian Evening in the village which is always a good laugh, various organisations run stalls in the square and people enjoy food, drink, music and games. This year we will be selling welsh cakes.

The week after, the scouts are having a christmas party at Quasar so we're expecting a high turnout.

Meanwhile, at work, next week our regular work is cancelled so we can help the price integrity team put out new price labels because of the VAT change. It's nice to have something different to do.

--16:30--
So the day is finally here. All my stuff is packed and ready to go.

This morning a small group of us were at the Scout Hall packing the trailers with all the bits and bobs that a scout camp needs, tents, cookers, flag pole, benches, tables, water carriers, that sort of thing.

The leaders Ian and Nick, myself and a couple of scouts made short work of it thanks to the prep work we did a fortnight ago and we got all the stuff loaded in a little over an hour. The minibus trailer is still relatively empty because we still have all the scout's kit to put in this evening.

I've also got my hands on a copy of the programme.

Friday
18.00 - Leave Scout Hall
19.30 - Set up camp
21.30 - Camp rules
22.00 - Wide game
23.00 - Supper
23.30 - Bed

Saturday
07.00 - Rise
08.00 - Breakfast
09.00 - Flagbreak and inspection
09.30 - Scout work
11.00 - Group 1: Abseiling and climbing, Group 2: Scout work
12.00 - Group 2: Abseiling and climbing, Group 1: Scout work
13.00 - Lunch
14.00 - Group 1: Archery, Group 2: Shooting
15.00 - Group 2: Archery, Group 1: Shooting
16.00 - Scout work
17.00 - Prepare evening meal and free time
18.00 - Dinner
20.00 - Camp fire
21.00 - Wide game
22.30 - Supper
23.00 - Bed

Sunday
07.00 - Rise
08.00 - Breakfast
09.00 - Flagbreak and inspection
09.30 - Group 1: Assault course, Group 2: Orienteering
10.30 - Group 2: Assault course, Group 1: Orienteering
11.30 - Free time
12.00 - Lunch
13.00 - Clean up and break camp
16.00 - Leave campsite
17.30 - Arrive at Scout Hall

--23:00--
We met up at the scout hall and got everything packed away. My car - full, Nick's car - full, Nick's trailer - full, the minibus trailer - packed to bursting. We're only going for a weekend, why are the scouts bringing so much!!

We set off at 6 as we planned, Nick and I led the way while the minibus was held up, we kept it slow on the motorway to give them a chance to catch up. We had passed Bridgend before they finally caught up with us. I decided to go on ahead and sped off into the sunset. Seriously though it was a great sunset.

It was dark by the time I arrived, I met Andrew who had got there about 5ish to scout out a camping spot while it was still light. There were a group of Cubs there too but they were going to be sleeping in the hall, well out of our way!!

It was only a matter of minutes before the rest of the convoy arrived and some fearsome uploading began. Because the scouts had put their kit in the trailer last it came out first and was dumped laid carefully on the ground before we could get the essential gear out.

We managed to nab a trolley to take the heavy stuff down to the camping area, it was a logistical challenge, the 500 yards or so between the car park and the camping area was a muddy bog and we had to make dozens of trips to get all the kit there.

We had 5 leader tents, 3 patrol tents and a mess tent to pitch before we brought any more stuff down. With great care and cunning I selected a prime spot for my tent, nice, flat and free from any lumps that cause painful sleep. However, before I could start to put my own tent up we had to get the patrol tents up.

For those of you who don't know, a patrol tent is huge and heavy, generally sleeps 6 to 8, made of heavy canvas, thick wooden poles and pegs made out of chunks of wood. The canvas itself is so heavy that it takes two people to carry it, another person to carry the poles and someone else to carry the groundsheet. Pitching the thing takes at least 4 people. If they know what they are doing and are organised they can get it up in 30 minutes to half an hour. If we are talking about scouts who have never put one up before and are always mucking about then it takes much longer.

First the canvas is laid on the ground in roughly the right spot, making sure that it's the right way up. Then the poles are assembled and laid in the right position on top of the canvas, the metal spikes on the vertical poles are fed through the horizontal pole and through the holes in the canvas. The canvas is then folded over the poles, dollies (a technical scouting term meaning a small piece of wood with guy ropes attached) are put on the spikes and the whole thing is lifted upright.

2 scouts have to hold the end poles while the rest of the group peg out and tighten the guy lines, now the monster is self standing and it's just a case of pegging out the other ropes, over and over again. The ground sheet is then laid out on the ground inside and it's a job well done.

The mess tent was much easier, just part assemble a steel frame, get someone on each pole, move it into the final position, lift the whole thing up at the same time, put the bottom poles on, put the canvas on and peg it all down.

My tent took a whole 10 minutes to put up, on my own. Easy as pie.

Only once all the tents were up did we start getting the rest of the kit down, that took several more trips over muddy terrain with a trolley that kept sinking. not only did we have the kids kit but we also had tables, benches, cooking equipment and gas bottles to bring down.

2 hours after arriving and everything was in place, we went through the usual camp rules before having a short wide game, involving trying to sneak up and steal a lantern, followed by a bite to eat and bed.

I have been in Scouting all my life, from the Beavers, through Cubs and Scouts, then leaving for uni after Ventures, as it was then called. On my way I collected many badges and experiences.

8 years later and my old Scout Leader, Ian, asked me back to Scouts to be a helper and I jumped at the opportunity. It is something that I have actually been thinking about doing for a while now.

I am still waiting for my CRB check to come back but apparently someone has gone on holiday and the forms are still in their house.

We had a planning meeting a couple of weeks ago to discuss the coming year. We've had a lot of Scouts go on to bigger and better things recently, we had no PLs or APLs left so we had to decide who would be suitable and sort the rest of the Scouts into patrols. A few of the Scouts stayed in the same patrol as we were before but we decided to start from scratch.

We also had a lot of new Scouts coming in from Cubs, the section is fuller than it has ever been, we even have a waiting list of kids ready to fill the places of anyone who drops out. We had to come up with a policy for non-attendance without a reason.

We even had to create a 5th patrol because each patrol would be too big otherwise. We were afraid that some of the Scouts would miss the chance to take part if they were too big.

We decided that we would try and get the Scouts working towards the Chief Scout's Gold Award. Ambitious!! We know that our older Scouts won't have time to finish it but hopefully the new ones will have plenty of opportunity. Either way we decided that we would work on the Navigator badge this coming term, not only because it's (in my opinion) one of the Scouting essentials but also because some of our Scouts seem quite bad at it at the moment.

The final step (in the last 15 minutes or so!!) was coming up with ideas for the meetings that would be fun or further the work towards the Navigator badge. We decided to fit in an evening of knot work and we even scheduled an Autumn camp along with a weekend to sort out the equipment and generally give the storeroom a good tidy.

I suggested that we do a treasure hunt one night and so it's up to me to organise the thing. I've come up with an interesting 2.5 mile route around the village now I have three weeks to come up with the clues and riddles for them to answer on the way.

Wish me luck!!