Sleeping in hammocks, under the stars
The weekend before the half term holiday, 12 Caythorpe Scouts joined forces with Scouts from 9th Grantham for our annual Survival Camp, with a twist. Due to the fact that many of our older Scouts had already experienced our Survival Camps, and some needed to complete their Expedition Challenge for their Chief Scout’s Gold Award, Sam decided to run two camps in parallel; Survival and Expedition.
In preparation for the Expedition, Scouts route-planned with their maps and compasses before the event, to ensure they were ready. This was of particular importance as the camp was held at a new campsite for our Group - Jim Page Scout Campsite, at Laughterton, Gainsborough - so there was very little ‘local knowledge’.
We asked our Scouts to write up a couple of paragraphs about the camp, so here you are, in the un-edited words of FD and JH:
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An ecstatic weekend (survival camp)
Wow what a thrilling weekend I have had not just with the people I know but with a new Scout (JM)! It felt like it was camp to home that was how quickly it went.
I had a brilliant time not just cooking on a campfire, but I slept in a hammock for the first time in my life, but the best highlight was the cooking on the campfire and making the fire.
My job to be the person to always stay by the campfire and keep poking it. The menu was first breakfast - bacon & sausage rolls. Second meal was beef in a buttery and cheesy sauce and it had onions (mix of red and white) served with boiled potatoes, peas & sweetcorn and we slowed cooked it, then we put it onto a really hot heat & then final technique was smoking it.
In the morning, we had our final breakfast which was bacon rolls. It was a great weekend overall I will rate it 10/10.
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I think that survival camp was one of my favourite camps, because we got to sleep in hammocks under the stars!
The expedition was very long but it was good fun, great practice for DofE, as most of us had never walked with the expedition rucksacks before, and I think we all found it hard to keep going especially on day 2 as we were all very tired. It was a great way to get to know everyone a bit better as we were all together for two days straight.
On Saturday it was very cold in the morning and one of the younger Scouts even made me a cup of tea which was really sweet of him! When we were trying to cook breakfast, the bacon kept falling of the skewers, so everyone ate dirty bacon, but I don’t think we told them…
On Saturday we walked 18.5km and we didn’t get lost! We were all very tired after and when we got back, LB and I chilled in our hammocks for almost an hour! Then we played rounders, and it was Scouts vs Leaders!
On Sunday we walked about 8 ½km in total though it was quite windy and we took lots of breaks it was a great view of the River Trent the whole walk! Overall, it was a great camp but very tiring, I think everyone had a very fun time! 😊
