Another year, another group camp and another great camp with memories made and new friends found. The theme this year, "Time Warp" was the inspirition of a group of Venturers as was the inclusion of the confidence course in the activities.
FRIDAY
Friday started with the traditional making of the buffs that everyone wears to denote the group (called "cohorts" this year) they are in. Then it was off to the campfire. Started a little late, but we got into the story behind the camp in the end.
"Time Ranger 1524 has been asked to help the aliens collect some dinasaur eggs. Apparently during a game of catch one of them accidently missed his catch and the space rock fell to earth killing off the dinasaurs and now they want to put them back. Time Ranger 1524 asks the scout cohorts to help find a dinasaur egg each through completing various challenges. However, he is doing this illegally and his boss, Time Marshal 931 is not allowed to know what they are doing"
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Time Ranger 3:24 PM a.k.a "1524"
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SATURDAY
Various adventures were had including Caveman Cooking, The Floor is Lava, The bush treasure hunt, The River of Time, and the Tardis creation unit were all available to help complete the bits and pieces necessary to help find and then defend the eggs.
THE TARDIS
The challenge was to
- Create a Time Travel Vessel,
- Create piece of headwear to show which cohort you were in and;
- Learn the "Time Warp" dance
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Dougal helping the younger girls
with their helmets |
A Hippie Time Machine |
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Hamish looking serious about
his punk mowhawk |
Concentration is paramount on these
activities
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Not really what was required,
but so good it had to be photographed
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Harvey the Spaceman
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THE RIVER OF TIME
A firm favourite at these camps, the little lake at Brookfield has kayaks and rafts and a rope bridge and everything required to create a host of challenges. This one involved getting a whole bunch of materials back from an island in the middle of the lake and building a raft with which to complete a series of challenges. Of course no visit to the Brookfield lake would be complete without using the rope bridge and the rope swing.
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| The rope swing |
Best use of the wire rope bridge |
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Magnus and Ellen raft their cohort
off to complete their challenges |
Josh with his helpers off to do
the same |
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Alex helping Cubs and Keas to
enjoy kayaking on the lake |
General kayaking when the
challenges were complete |
CAVEMAN COOKING
This was everything the name describes and run by far the most entusiastice leaders. Cooking on open fires, frying on stones and cooking a storm, it was great fun, not to mention a great feast!
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The cave people (and a hippie) to help the
scouts understand what they were doing |
"And this is what we use to make the flour in
and we put it in this bag when it's done!" |
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Everyone should be able to find
capsicum just outside their cave |
Is this damper ready to eat? |
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| The preparation table |
Preparing the fires |
THE FLOOR IS LAVA
Just like to television show, the floor is dangerously hot and you may not fall in it. The penalty is dire: You have to tell Michelle a joke!
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Scouts have the rules of the
spiders web explained |
Someone told Michelle a
good joke |
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Jacob helping a kea over the
slack line |
Alex doing the same |
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Trying to stay on the boards
between "safe zones" |
How the boards get where you
need them to be |
FINDING THE DINASAUR'S EGG
Along the way the cohorts all had to find their Dinasaurs egg to get to the alien the next day. This involved following a treasure hunt of clues through thick bush opening a locked chest and following the trail all the way to the egg. Then the egg has to be personalised so that they know it when they see it again.
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| The clues |
Enjoying the bush experience
looking for clues |
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Looking for the clues with the help
of the Time Ranger |
Finding the clues |
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The last clue is in a locked chest. The
other clues helped to open the
combination lock |
The dinasaurs egg. What it was all about! |
THE STORM
The storm that was forecast for Saturday night came through as promised with buckets of rain and plenty of wind. As scouts though "Weather does not stop scouting! It just means we have to be prepared!"
Following the days activities the scouts all went off to their tents and prepared them by storm lashing them. Extra guys were created using lashings and bigger pegs were used to create a second round of supports for the tent frames. The scouts were then shown how to storm lash their awning if it should blow free. Two of the tents actually used this technique during the night very successfully.
As a scout leader I am very proud of the way the scouts approached both the lashing and faced the storm during the night. A very impressive effort.
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Individual lashings as a
storm lashing |
A single line used as a
storm lashing |
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| The scouts efforts at storm lashing the awning. |
Impressive for a first time out. |
SUNDAY
The weather delivered as promised and then finished by about 9am, also as forecast. No complaints there, but there was a lot of water around.
Sunday morning started on a serious note as it always does at Group Camp with a "Scouts Own" and awards and recognitions. There was only one Bravo Award this year and it went to a scout. Using knowledge he had learned at scouts, he helped a man who was hyperthermic in the bush, kept him warm and got him help. Well done Hamish.
Two cubs were invested and one Kea, "Nathan", was given a special woggle for representing the values of a good scout throughout the last term.
Lastly, we invested our newest leader, Dain, who is helping in the Kea section. Welcome to the team Dain.
Then we all packed up and got ready for the BIG EVENT! The leaders all got into character again!
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Jane in her NASA uniform.
She kept that a bit of a secret! |
Pete, Stu and Glenn as the 3 ....
neons ??? |
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Dene and Lauren representing
the 1980's well with Pete and Glenn |
Cavemen, they keep popping up. This
time Grant and Nicki with Kym |
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Tim and Nick also doing Cavemen.
Or was it Nick and Tim? |
Vanessa the Space person |
The challenge today was to take their eggs in their cohort and carry them over various obstacles and challenges without them getting damaged.
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| Carrying the egg under the cargo nets |
Caveman move Rock! Ugg! |
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The balancing beams make it tricky to
keep your egg in one piece |
Up on the high wall. A drop from here
could spell the end of an egg |
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Poster photograph for
next years camp! |
Some people found the water too
tempting. We are Sea Scouts after all! |
Next came the defence of the eggs from the Time Marshal when he found out what everyone was doing.
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| Rosie does not know whats behind her |
Max playing it safe |
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| Alfie on the attack |
Rachel getting in the mix |
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| Getting some ammunition sponges |
Mayhem all around |
Once they had successfully defended their eggs from the Time Marshal, they could take them over to the Alien, who offered to purchase them for sugar flavoured sugar!
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The alien offering to purchase the eggs after they had successfully been defended.
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Alls well that ends well. The Aliens got there eggs, the Time Ranger and the scouts all got paid, and the Time Marshel lost out again. Everyone got a bit wet, from rain, rivers, lakes, and water fights but no-one minded it a bit. They were all having too much fun.
Many thanks to the parents who helped us to clean up the camp ground so we could all go home in a timely fashion.
Keep well and we look forward to next years big adventure.
There are more photos here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/68D9hxxjdicuqNKx8
Derrick
