A camp of highlights is the best way to describe it. Highlights like:
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| Xavier's look of intense concentration while creating his toasting fork |
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| The happiness of the patrol who created the camp kitchen and then got to use it for the rest of the weekend |
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| Clearing the fireplace from this ... |
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| ... to this! |
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| Nick getting to use his machete as it was intended to be used |
The camp had three aims:-
- To get the scouts thinking about where, and how to put up their own tents
- To get the scouts building something useful from nothing more than logs, rope and tarpaulin
- To make a toasting fork in a real live blacksmithing forge
We managed to achieve these all on the first day. We rounded the day off with songs and skits around the campfire, which exploded spectacularly a few times, the last being when the concrete base ruptured. All explosions were contained and no-one was burned and all buildings were left unharmed.
The songs and skits were brilliant, if not quite traditional camp fire fare. We had a horror story, little bunny foo-foo, and even a rendition of "Chim Chimeny"
On Sunday, the scouts took part in "The Quest", a series of challenge designed to help them to think together and solve problems. These included:
- balancing 12 nails on a nail hammered into a log
- filling two 44 gallon drums with holes drilled into the side (Marcus and Magnus get a special mention for this one as they really put their whole bodies into the challenge - literally hugging the barrels to hold as much water in as possible)
- balancing 8 people on a sideways 44 gallon drum
- finding an old bicycle in a swamp
- crossing a river on a tension wire; and
- reversing the order of everyone balancing on a telephone pole suspended above the lake itself.
From what I saw and heard these challenges were met with gusto and mostly finished.
On the nail challenge it took the first group about 20 minutes to work out how to balance the nails, with Dominic taking the lead and getting the main idea, then assisted by the rest of his watch to complete it.
As mentioned before, Magnus and Marcus both come out of the Holy Drum challenge very wet after getting very close to the drums in an effort to stem the flow of water.
One of the groups succeeded in balancing 8 people on a 44 gallon drum laid sideways on the grass. Gabi and Ciara driving that one to completion by gently assisting everyone into positions. They managed to stay on the drum for a whole 60 seconds.
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| Going from this ... |
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| ... to this. |
The telephone pole suspended over the lake required everyone to get on and balance on the pole and then to reverse the order of the people standing on it without getting off or getting wet. As it turns out getting wet was not an option and a lot of fun was had by all groups.
Special mentions for Daniel, Xavier and Ethan who all got more than their fair share of lake.
More photographs are available. I will share the google photos link with everyone who went on the camp.
