This year it was decided by the Patrol Leaders' Council that the PL's and APL's should have a special camp of their own. This year, the leaders have decided to organise a camp for the Pl’s and APL’s at Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour, Dorset. This is where Lord Robert Baden Powell started the scout movement with an eight day camp, from the 1st-9th August 1907. We went home from scouts on the friday night to get as much sleep as we could before the start of the camp, at 5.15 in the morning! I was awoken by Dad of all people at 4.00, and went up to the hut for 5.15. The early start was so that we could get to Poole in time for the first ferry on Saturday morning. The journey down to Poole was not too bad and we caught the first ferry without any problems. It was rather a squash on the ferry because of all our big rucksacks! The ferry dropped the majority of it’s passengers off at the main landing point and then carried on, with us, to the Pottery pier, at the other end of the Island. Brownsea Island is about two kilometres long, and one kilometre across, it is owned by the national trust and the area that Baden Powell and his young lads camped in all those years ago is still used as a camp site, which is where we stayed!
There was a short walk to the campsite and we all had enormous rucksacks on our backs. This is because we have to carry everything, tents, Trangias, the lot! We reached the site and picked a jolly nice spot, it was right by the beach and looked across to one of Poole harbour’s other Islands, Furzey Island. As we were putting our tents up, one of the leaders went to announce that we had arrived. During that little outing, they found out that our humble little site that we had chosen, was the exact spot that BP had camped on 90 years ago!
We were in tent groups for the weekend, in which we cook and sleep in. I was with David Oxley, Dan Garner and Dan Hawkins. When the tents were up and the sleeping bags were laid out, we were allowed a number of hours to explore the island from North to South, East to west, South East to North West, South West to North East, South South East to North North West, er- and so on. I joined on with Dan Hawkins, Phil Colyer and Ben Manifold. First, we decided to try and find the ruins of Maryland, which we thought sounded most interesting! On the way, we looked up to see two animals bounding across the pathway and into the undergrowth. Now, these animals had white bits on their backs which looked like fluffy tails, they were fairly small and they bounded along, that is why I thought they were hares! But, we later found out that they were a type of deer called “Sika Back Deer”. The Ruins of Maryland are the ruins of some houses that were inhabited by the people of Brownsea Island in the olden days. After that, we went all over the Island. We went to the main landing point and shops, to several beaches, the church, Public Bird Hide, back to Pottery Pier and all through the Forest. During the day, we saw four red squirrels. This was brilliant because when I went with Mum, Dad and Philip to Brownsea island in April, we failed to see a single one! We saw our first near the shops, then we saw our second whist in the Public Bird Hide, we saw another in a tree, and the fourth just darted across the path, seconds later! We finally returned to the site at about 5.30. For dinner, our group cooked a delicious meal of pork, rice and sweet and sour sauce. It was quite nice. That evening, everybody ran about on the sandbank that was just opposite the campsite. Nikwaxed boots came in handy here because you had to step through shallow waters to get to the sandbank!
That night, there was a great wide game session! The first game we played was the one that had proved popular on summer camp. The one where you have to take other peoples “lives”, lives are pieces of ripstop nylon which you tuck down the back of your trousers. Whether it was written in the stars that on the night of the twentieth of November, my life would keep falling out the back of my trousers, or just to do with my trousers, I will never know, but I managed to lose two lives because of them falling out somewhere in the deepness of the undergrowth! Other than that, it was a good game which included going up steep, wooded slopes and diving through areas of 6ft high bracken. We also played the ultimate old favourite, Lantern! On the first game of this we had, my dazzlingly bright, red Tog 24 fleece was a bit of a give-away. So I gave it to Dan Hawkins. I had been wearing the fleece all day so nobody had noticed what I was wearing underneath. I took a route through lots of ferns to get back to the area. As I got closer, the torch was shone on me a countless amount of times, but during those times, I was identified as quite a few different people, none of them being Andrew Ruck! So I made it! We went back to the tents and to bed.
Next morning, we had a breakfast of sausages and eggs, and then had a scouts own on the beach. this was a great setting for a scouts own, as the weather was very nice and there was a lovely view of the Isle of Purbeck. At 10.15, we had a private tour of the Brownsea Nature reserve. On the way to the nature reserve, I saw red squirrel number five! In the nature reserve, I saw red squirrels numbers six and seven, and also, Le Squirrel Rouge numero huit, or something like that! We also saw many different types of trees, dragon flies and damsil flies, Avocets, Cormerents, Terns,Swallows, oyster catchers and Shell Ducks. Along with quite a few more birds. The nature reserve is divided into several Habitats. Reeds, marshland and lagoon. On the way back from the nature reserve, there was chance to buy a Brownsea Island scarf and woggle which we are allowed to wear at scouts for a month after the camp.
When we got back, we had a very nice cooked lunch (Well, sort of!), and all piled in to the washing up of the Trangia. The rest of the time was spent striking the tents and clearing the site of any rubbish we could find. Then it was all the way to the main landing point, with our “Christmas Tree” rucksacks, to board the “Pammy Ann” and set sail for the Quay. The journey back home was okay, with the added amusement of waving at people out of the window! Almost as soon as I got home, my Tamagotchi departed for it’s home planet at the age of nineteen- and that’s really annoying! Despite that, it was an absolutely brilliant camp!
Rating: 10/10 Terrific, probably as good as 1907!
Andrew Ruck (PL)
Return the Home Page
Return to the Hike & Camp Report Page