Well, we spent a fantastic weekend camping with the Scouts at Corf Camp, Isle of Wight and managed to bypass all Jubilee celebrations! Hurrah! The scouts slept in old-fashioned canvas patrol tents, which took me straight back to my days in the Girl Guides. Much as I love those tents, I was glad to be sleeping in a modern, dry pod-tent with an inflatable mattress and a bit of privacy.
On Friday night we had a campfire and ate jacket potatoes, toasted marshmallows and chocolate biscuits and drank hot chocolate. Everyone was asleep by midnight, despite the constant noise of owls in the nearby trees. However, the girls tent woke up at 4.30am and started chattering loudly as they didn't realise the time. Needless to say, the leaders were not amused, and peace and quiet quickly resumed.
On Saturday we all woke at 7am (I just love mornings...), had a fried breakfast and cleared away, then the scouts had activities; they tried their hands at archery and air rifle shooting, and then had a quiz. They came back to camp and had lunch, and then in the afternoon they split into groups and attempted to build a raft out of large plastic barrels, pioneering poles and assorted bits of rope. One group didn't work well together so their attempt was abandoned, and the other raft had to be reconstructed on Sunday morning. For the rest of the afternoon the scouts got to play around the site and have a go at making camp gadgets using sticks and square lashing. It rained in the evening so we all sat in the mess tent and drank cocoa and played games.
Sunday morning dawned, a raft was rebuilt, dragged on a trolley to Corf Lake (part of Newtown Creek) and plonked, with some trepidation, into the water. It floated. Phew! All other scout troops present at the camp had also built at least one raft, so a race schedule was drawn up and racing began. The first raft in the water fell apart quickly, but most others were fine. Our first team's race went well, with our team taking the lead and keeping it. However, our second team had a slight mishap at the start; the leader tried pushing the raft to get it into the best position and it capsized with everyone aboard falling in the water! Hilarious! They reboarded and paddled off to the finish line, where they capsized again, this time with no help at all! We won both our races, but as the races were timed we didn't make it into the top three overall. Never mind.
For the remainder of Sunday morning, scouts built a Sedan chair, and spent part of Sunday afternoon racing it round an obstacle course against other troops. Again, we didn't win but it was good fun. On Sunday evening there was a big campfire for all the Scout troops with singing and sketches. Sadly it poured with rain so everyone went to the undercover area instead and carried on.
On Monday morning we let the Scouts lie in until 7.30am (kind!), then showed them how to light a fire in a collapsible barbecue using cotton wool, sticks and a flint & steel (sparky); they then had to cook their own breakfast once they had got a fire going. Breakfast was beans and sausages and toasted muffins - very nice too! Following this, we went to the closing ceremony, were awarded a silver for camp standards, came back and packed up the camp. Then we went home, knackered, filthy, but smiling. A great weekend!
