Scout Camp
Log Camp
Site
21/07/07 to 28/07/07
Introduction
This year’s scout camp was held at Coniston Hall Scout Campsite. We had good numbers for the camp of 23 scouts and 6 leaders staying the whole week. The scouts that went split into 4 patrols: 3 lads’ tents and 1 girls’ tents and they were split into the following with the following team names:
Anna’s Raining Banna’s
Alison Fellgett
Abby Jacobs
Anna Jennings
Lois Hunt-Brown
Sadie Ward
The Rampant Sheep
Matthew Jarvis
Richard Turton
Matthew Cowley
George Light
Ben Roberts
Ben Seamer
‘We’ve All Got Hair Apart From Mitch!’
Ben Stevenson
Tom Hindmarch
Sam Denniff
Mitchel Reed
Joe Humphreys
‘Water is Wet’
Adam Diskin
Chris Peck
Matthew Goldsbrough
Matthew Stevenson
Joe Foster
Adam Scott
The Leaders that were there for the entire week were:
Mark Collier
Nick Taylor
Ann Sharpe
Chris Jordan
David Hines
Andrew Taylor
Philip Baines
Tony Jordan and his dog Fly
We were on the furthest site from camp centre.
Star Date 210707.1 (
We all arrived at
the Scout Hut between 8.45 and
Once tea had been
eaten and the scouts had sorted themselves out further hot chocolate was served
to the scouts who were sent to bed with lights out at
Star Date 220707.1 (
We had breakfast and Chris and David went to Coniston to set up a treasure hunt for the Scouts.
The scouts were split into three groups and rotated round. One group went to Coniston to do the treasure hunt, one group went canoeing and the other group stayed at camp to help with duties.
When it got to lunch time we broke for lunch. After lunch we started the activities again and switched the groups round. The groups did the activities for a couple of hours and then we switched for the final time.
By the end of the third activity it was time for the scouts to return for tea. By the end of the third run down to Coniston and back the minibus wasn’t sounding too well so we looked under the bus and found that the exhaust had gone. Tea was had and we had flag down. For the evening we had planned a walk round the lake but the weather changed and the rain came. So we postponed the walk.
Star Date 230707.1 (
As dawn broke David Hines was heard running from the leader’s tent grabbing the bog roll on the way to the loo’s as his bodily movements caught him short.
We had breakfast and made the sandwiches for the scouts as they were going to walk up the Old Man of Coniston. The scouts were split into the three groups they were in yesterday. The girls went with Chris and David, Nick Taylor & Philip Baines took the younger scouts and Andrew Taylor took the more able scouts.
Not long after the scouts had set out towards conquering ‘The Old Man of Coniston’ Alex Kirk-Willey turned up at camp. So he stayed at camp, whilst Mark Collier & Anne Sharpe went off site to do some shopping and find out where the swimming baths were and how much it cost.
The scouts left
between 10 and
Tea was had and
flag was lowered.
Star Date 240707.1 (
Today we took the canoes down to the lake and the scouts came down after breakfast. We put the scouts into four groups and set them the task of rafting two canoes together. Once they had rafted the canoes together we had them race the canoe rafts. The canoes were then taken apart and we split into 4 groups and had another race.
We broke for lunch
and after lunch we got our swimming gear and went to the local swimming baths
at ‘The Lakes’ @ Troutbeck school. We had fun at the swimming baths because
people were having fun on the floats and others were trying to dunk each other.
We got out of the baths at
The leaders parked themselves up for a cup of tea and some cake in a tea shop near by the kids.
At the agreed time we met the scouts at the minibus and headed back to camp for tea which the scouts had to cook themselves and this consisted of:
- Pork
- Sweet and Sour sauce
- Onions
- Peppers
- Rice
- Tinned fruit
Two of the four patrols did normal sweet and sour pork with rice. The two teams that did the normal sweet and sour sauce with rice were the girls and Jarvis. The girls left out the sauce to go with the pork. The other two teams did a type of pork risotto type dish.
As the scouts were
tidying up Jarvis had put a frog next to
Goldie’s team received full marks for tea as they used their imagination to cook the fruit with caramel.
Star Date 250707.1 (
Today we planned to go cycling but as the day got under way we were greeted by the very dry stuff called rain (I know water is wet, I’m being sarcastic). So we waited to see if the rain held off but unfortunately it did not so we tried to get a plan ‘B’ put together.
So Mark Collier, David Hines and Nick Taylor went to the Tourist Information in the village to see what activities there were. Whilst there they tried to replace the two gas bottles that had run out but only managed one as the petrol station just had one. Nothing successful on activities front for the morning, so lunch was had and after lunch we ventured out to Grizedale where the cycling was, to try and hire some bikes for a couple of hours in the afternoon. They agreed to this and a party went cycling.
Those that took part in the cycling enjoyed it although some injuries were acquired on the way round.
The list of injuries is as follows:
- Abby
Jacobs
‘Brakes aren’t working properly!’ and shot over the handle bars when they worked. Injuries: Grazed elbows and cuts to each hand.
- Lois
Hunt-Brown
Twisted ankle? Riding bike when arrived back at bike hire place.
- Alison
Fellgett
Slight cut to left hand and grazed knee
- Richard
Turton
Hit knee with slight bleeding
- Brown
Rice (Joe Foster)
Cut to hand and waist. Bruise to privates (allegedly)
Cut to knee from ‘over handle bar syndrome’.
The bikes were to
be returned to the hire shop by
Later that evening Alison gave all a laugh by moving the chair away from underneath Andrew Taylor who went down with a bit of a bump onto the ground.
Frank had arrived mid-afternoon whilst we were cycling. He had brought the exhaust part we wanted to fix the minibus exhaust with. When we got back from cycling Chris & Alex fixed the exhaust on the minibus not long after tea. Well done chaps.
During a brief spell when Matthew Cowley was washing up he was caught blowing his nose on a tea towel he was drying up with.
Some of the scouts built a bivvey (pardon the spelling) and attempted to sleep in it. Good luck to the scouts.
Star Date 260707.1 (Thursday 26/07/07)
This morning Anne Sharpe did her usual sterling job of bringing round the hot drinks for the leaders.
Breakfast was had and Frank arrived just after 10am.
This morning the scouts were split in to 2 groups: 1 group of 9 with 2 leaders (Andrew Taylor, Frank Richardson), and one group of 14 with 5 leaders (Mark Collier, Nick Taylor, Tony Jordan, Chris Jordan, David Hines). The group of nine scouts with the two leaders went canoeing, whilst the rest of the scouts went with the other 5 leaders and went for a walk up Pavey Arc from the Langdales for a walk. On the way over to the Langdales a bird of prey was spotted. Every time we approached a corner that we couldn’t see around, the horn was sounded and Scottie would say “Nick, who’s that beeping?” when we were the only people on the road at the time.
We arrived at the car park for the walk up Pavey Arc. Paid the car parking fee and set off. The weather for the walk was not very nice and it was drizzling when we first set off. We stopped at the top of Pavey Arc next to the lake for lunch. By this time the weather had got slightly worse and the rain was coming down moderately. We took some photos and set off around the lake to swing round the top of the lake and come down the other side of mountain. At the top end of the lake we had to cross a deep fast moving stream. Everybody but Mark Collier made it over. Mark’s foot slipped and landed in the stream so he ended up with a wet foot (best foot forward or not in this case). We made it down the other side of the mountain with a few minor injuries. Ben Seamer missed his footing and landed funny. Mark Collier also lost his footing and landed on his left hand side in a funny way that hurt his left hand. As we were making our way around the lake, Nick Taylor lost his footing and tumbled down towards the lake like a ping pong ball.
We all made it down Pavey Arc safe after that and headed towards the swimming baths at ‘the Lakes’ @ Troutbeck. On the way to the swimming baths, Nick Taylor decided to pick a fight with a brick wall, hit it with the left-hand side wing mirror and smashed it.
When we had finished at the swimming baths we had to do two trips as we didn’t have enough cars to bring everybody back to camp.
By the end of Thursday we were running low on the bottle gas but luckily Alex Kirk-Willey had gone and got some more gas. So we lasted the rest of the week.
5 points were awarded to Goldie for using his initiative in shoving Hines and Taylor junior into the swimming pool.
We arrived back at camp to find that Willey had made flans with quick-set gel.
The scouts that slept in the bivvey over night said that it was good and that it hardly leaked. Matthew Jarvis & Chris Peck had to spend most of the day drying out their sleeping bags.
Star Date 270707.1 (Friday
27/07/07)
Today we split the scouts into two groups again. One group had 9 scouts that went with Frank to do their 1* Canoeing award and the rest of us went to Grizedale Forest to ‘GO APE’ (GO APE is a high wire activity. For more info go to: www.goape.co.uk). One of the leaders lost his nerve so two of the scouts had to wait until later in the day when one of the other leaders arrived to take them round ‘GO APE’. On the whole everybody had a good time on ‘go ape’.
We returned to camp at around 6.30pm. Where we gave each patrol a disposable BBQ where they had to cook their tea which consisted of burgers, sausages, kebabs. The food was cooked well and at least there were no upset stomachs.
At one point the weather was looking as if it would put out the BBQ’s but it held off and we managed to keep the BBQ’s lit whilst we cooked.
After tea Dizzy was observed doing some washing up which was the first time this camp that he had done some and it was not just his stuff either. He also did a leaders’ pan as well. Photo available if evidence required.
Tonight we let the scouts play some music as this was some of the older scouts’ last camp.
The scores on the doors are close at this point of the week with only 8pts between 1st and 2nd, and 23pts between 1st and 4th. So all to play for tomorrow. Who will be victorious in the last day? Can the current leaders ‘water is wet’ hold on to the lead or will they slip at the last hurdle and let ‘the rampant sheep’ romp home to take the victory? We shall see after the last scores are in and added up.
Jarvis was up by the tents and fell over. Fly seemed to think this looked like a nice game and jumped on him from behind. Thanks to Jarvis we all had a good laugh.
Star Date 280707.1
(Saturday 27/07/07)
Today is the last day and most of the leaders were up around 7am. Most of the scouts were up not long after that. The scouts had breakfast and then started to pack their bags and load them into the transit van. Once the scouts’ stuff was in the transit then we started to take down the rest of the camp and load it into the relevant vehicles.
Once completely packed we had the closing ceremony and the final points were given and they stand thus:
4th place:
Anna’s Raining Banna’s 134pts
3rd Place: The
Rampant Sheep 147pts
Joint 1st place:
- We’ve all got hair apart from Mitch 157pts
- Water is wet 157pts
So we had a first place tie between two patrols on 157pts. Adam Scott was presented with a Coniston Hall Mug as it was not only his last camp with Bradway Scouts it was his last meeting as well.
We loaded up the last few things and left camp at around 12.50pm. The traffic on the way back to Sheffield was not bad at all and we got back to Bradway at 5pm. We unloaded the stuff and the scouts went home.
A good time was had by all, although we were a bit tired and in serious need of a bath or shower.
Hope this was good reading.