Bucket-loads of activities at Walesby!
Last weekend fifteen Caythorpe Scouts headed to Walesby Forest for the Lincolnshire ‘Chill-Out’– a weekend-long extension of the popular ‘Chiller’ day out.
Friday night started with setting up camp before heading out to find the disco, cinema and campfire activities. Fortunately for the Scouts there wasn’t really much to set up as Mark and Sarah had arrived in the afternoon and had already set up the camp kitchen, thank you! Given the glorious weather and late evening sunshine, bedtime was slightly later than on our usual camps.
Saturday morning started with Tic Tac’s famous pancakes, bacon sandwiches and cereal, followed by a day of activities. The event was run as a ‘queue and do’ rather than ticketed, so Scouts were advised to choose activities without long queues rather than wasting the day standing in line. Between them, our Scouts did tomahawks, archery, craft, pyrography, crate stacking, biking, obstacle course, rafting and kayaking, to name but a few. In-between the activities they came back to camp for a picnic lunch.
Dinner, fajitas, went down very well indeed, before the evening activities commenced. They were similar to the Friday evening activities, with an added surprise, a foam party! It also became apparent that glittery eye shadow and cowgirl hats had made it on to some kit lists!
By bedtime the weather forecast for Sunday was looking ‘iffy’ to say the least, so Scouts were advised to wash off all the glitter then pack up as much as they could and ensure that ‘nothing is touching the sides of the tent’. It was good advice, as the heavens opened around 6am and the rain continued on-and-off throughout Sunday morning. Striking camp with a load of wet kit is never fun.
Sunday morning saw a bit of confusion around the activities on offer, but the Scouts found plenty of things to do before joining the event's closing ceremony after a picnic lunch.
Huge thanks to all the volunteers who gave up their weekend, as well as the time in advance, planning for the event. We know that hours and hours were put in by the Lincolnshire County Team, as well as Walesby staff and leaders on the day. Not to mention our own leaders also giving up their weekends and home comforts to ensure that our Scouts could attend this brilliant event, as well as taking home the wet kit to set it up again in the sunshine, clean it all down and pack it away ready for the next camp.
