Please see also: The Leader's Report, Another Scout's Perspective and The Wide Games Page
The camp started on the Friday night this year at the hut. We did kit inspection, then equipment loading. All we did was get ready really! Supper was hot dogs and a hot or cold drink. Got to bed at about 11.00pm.
Woke up early in the morning. Had some cereal and left for Thriftwood at around 10.00am.
Put up the tents. We had to find alter fires, so our patrol (the Cut-throats) who are Adam Blowers (PL), me (APL), Chris Almond, Stuart Munday, Steven Mather and Lee Manifold set out to find some. We found a few, but one of them was far, far too heavy for the six of us to carry so we had to fetch the whole troop. We had about 12 of us, and it was so heavy we still had to put it down around every 5 metres!
In the evening we had to do an activity in patrols to find out things about Thriftwood. Had a supper of a drink and biscuit and went to bed.
On Sunday Adam and I rigged up a suspended table. We tied it to trees. It was very good indeed. We also made some camp gadgets with some help from Chris Almond. We had a volleyball tournament in the afternoon and a wide game of Lantern at night. We got to sleep late once again!
On Monday morning we did the first water activity. It was rafting. The rafting was very good. We had to build rafts out of pioneering poles and barrels. We tied them together with lashing ropes. (All this was provided.) After a while, Jon Day fell off the raft, tilting it to one side. It pulled everyone else off too, apart from me and Daniel Hawkings, who were left hanging on for dear life! Finished at 1.00pm and went back for lunch. That was about all we did on Monday.
We couldn't believe that the next day we were going to be half way through the camp! The second half was much better than the first!....
On Tuesday at 10.00am we went to do rifle shooting. I have to admit that I am terrible at it! Hit one can. While we were doing rifle shooting it threw it down with rain. So we sheltered under a tree. After that we could hear thunder all day with the occasional lightening flash.
Did rafting from 2 till 5 in the afternoon. A group of Explorer people, me, Adam Blowers, Ben Manifold and Alex Dale went in a group to build a raft for part of our Explorer Award. We had to build a raft to sail (with us on it!) from one jetty to another, get out, get back on again and come back singing What Shall We Do With The Drunken Sailor! We had to make the raft really strong and sturdy and lash it together tightly so nothing came loose. We called it HMS Explorer. Explorer sailed the Thriftwood Sea to the other jetty with ease! We all got off and got back on again without capsizing the raft. We paddled Explorer back to the other jetty no problem, and the singing didn't sound too bad!
After that we got lots of Scouts on the raft. Many scouts were trying to capsize the raft, but it proved it was a brilliant sturdy raft because HMS Explorer stayed out on the lake for half an hour with twelve scouts on board. Tony signed us off immediately!
We cleared away the rafts and went back to site. Pete told us that there was supposed to be awful weather that night so we all had to put pioneering poles under the end of the groundsheets of the tents to stop us getting wet and wait for the rain. The bad weather never turned out to be that bad at all. So we got out and just hung around the site. At night we did a C.B. Quiz.(Citizen's Band Radio - ed) We didn't do that well!
In the morning after breakfast some us of went canoeing. I have never done canoeing before. We basically just canoed around the lake. I managed to get my canoe going pretty well. I very much enjoyed it! The canoes were put away. Tony had booked the communial showers so we all went in.
In the afternoon, we did some archery. The archery was very good. But near the end of the archery the heavens opened and it absolutely chucked it down with rain, the rain was torential! So all the Scouts gritted our teeth and ran flat out back to the tents, stopping for a rest at the toilet blocks on the way. So again we were all huddled up in the tents listening to the rain! But later it stopped and turned out nice.
We were expecting the GSL to visit (Lloyd's Dad!) and see how we were getting on. So we lashed together a gate to walk under with a big 42 on it. Went to bed at about 11.00pm.
Next day was the day we had all been looking forward to. We were off to Southend-on-Sea. We saw the longest pleasure pier in the world (? - ed) and had three hours to go around, looking in all the shops. I bought a keyring for my brother Philip, and a box of Quality Street for my Mum and Dad. For myself I bought a pen (which I have written this report with) and a new wallet which is very nice.
Went to get the Patrol Choice meal. We had Pineapple, a Melon, some Waffles, Beans and some fruit juice. It was absolutely delicious! Went to bed late.
The next day we had the Camp Sports. Cut-throats did extemely well! In the afternoon it was Water Splash. Water Splash is an activity that goes on at Thriftwood where there are big tyres in the lake and a vertical drop slide, a surfboard being towed along, and an ariel runway that runs out of rope in the middle and you plummet down into the water! (A word of explanation! There was a second rope which bought the Scouts to an abrupt stop half way across the lake, leaving them no choice but to let go! - ed) Water Splash was brilliant!
In the evening we had a wide game of Flag Raid. It was good.
On Saturday we packed away, did a litter sweep and took apart all our gadgets and packed away all the bags into the Load Lugger. On the way home I nearly went to sleep! It had been an absolutely amazing week, but all the same it was nice to be home.
Rating: 10 out of 10. A spectacular week's camp!
Andrew Ruck, Cut-throats Patrol, 1996
Return to the Home
Page
Return to the Hike & Camp Report Page