Bathampton Scouts Night Hike 2014

On Friday 17th October, we ran our annual Night Hike for the Scouts. This year, because Simon was unfortunately ill, he had to leave early and so it was left to leaders from another group, helpers from Bath 'BUGS' SSAGO, the Young Leaders and I to run the hike. This year we resumed to the Skyline route, and although only one patrol was able to complete the full 18 miles before it go too late to carry on, both the other patrols got very close with minimal drop-outs.
Overall the hike was a success and the Scouts benefited from practising their navigation skills prior to this.

28th Bath (Bathampton) Troop Camp 2014 - 'Sway Camp'

Between the 14th and 24th August, I went along with Bathampton Scouts for our annual summer camp, which this year too place just outside Sway, in Hampshire.
Throughout the camp, the Scouts wrote a blog with what they did each day which is available at blog.bathamptonscouts.org.

In addition, the summary article we wrote for the camp is below:

Scouts from Bathampton have just returned from their yearly summer camp in Sway on the edge of the New Forrest. The intrepid Scouts took part in their annual Top Gear Challenge that involves them identifying land marks from photos and using any transport method. This year saw the 30 Scouts walk from Sway to the local station and then catch a train to Portsmouth.

From here they took a ferry to Ryde on the Isle of Wight. The Scouts then caught a bus to Sandown Pier on the other side of the Island, had an ice cream  and free time on the beach. They then caught a bus to Yarmouth, a ferry to Lymington and from here they walked back to Sway. The Challenge was won by Kestrels who achieved the exercise in the shortest time and used the least amount of money!

Other highlights of the camp included hiking through the New Forrest for their Expedition Challenge badge, a 24 hour survival exercise for their Survival Badge, a Christmas party complete with music, Christmas games and crackers. Archery, Dutch Arrows, zorbing, sea kayaking at Lymington Sea Pool, a visit to a music concert in Bournemouth and a sandcastle building competition on New Milton beach (won by the Merlins) and a quiz in Lymington.

All of the Scouts slept under canvas, cooked on wood fires and built their own camp gadgets including dressers to help make camp life easier. The camp competition; where points are awarded for cooking, Scout craft, Top Gear Challenge, sandcastle building and the quiz was won overall by the Kestrels led by Melissa whose Patrol was awarded the Spadger Trophy.

For more information about what we got up to on camp, please visit our day by day camp blog at blog.bathamptonscouts.org.

Dragnet Camp 2014

From the 21st to the 23rd March 2014, the Scouts had their annual Dragnet camp. This is where they spend a weekend camping with the focus being on a all day hike on the Saturday during which the Scouts are tasked with 'Operation Dragnet' and are hunted by the hunter patrol, which this year comprised of the Young Leaders, Leaders and Patrol Leaders.
This year, we chose to move the Dragnet camp to the area around Wooton-under-Edge in Gloucestershire.

On the Friday evening, after the scouts arrived at the site they set up their tents and sorted out equipment for the next day before playing a wide game, and then going to bed.

The next morning the scouts were up and ready to go by around 9am. The route the scouts took saw them walking in the area north-east of Wooton using parts of the Cotswold Way. This gave the hunter patrol ample opportunities to ambush the scouts, with several areas of dense woodland acting as perfect cover. Throughout the day we managed to ambush each patrol at least once, and some three or four times. Between 1pm and 2pm, the scouts had a one hour 'truce' in which they heated up and ate boil in the bag ration pack meals for their lunch. In general, despite a few slight mishaps, the scout's navigation had improved, and as a result they didn't miss as many of our ambushes as they had the year before - although their navigation did still have plenty of room for improvement!

The final patrol finished the hike just passed 5.30pm, and shortly after this we went into Wooton to pick up fish and chips for the evening. The scouts then enjoyed eating fish and chips before I had to leave due to having work the next morning.

Bathampton Scouts Sleepover at Grove Street and Chip Shop Challenge Jan 2014

On Friday 18th January the scouts had a 'chip shop challenge'. This was where the scouts went around the chip shops of Bath, judging the chips on taste, crispiness and price. I wen't with Katie's patrol (Eagles) and we decided that the best chips were from Schwartz Bros. on Walcot street, however this was partially because they gave us chips for free.
After the challenge, the scouts went the Bath District Scouts HQ at Grove Street in the centre of town.where they ate cake, watched Toy Tory 3, and slept over.

Bathampton Scouts Night Hike 2013

On the night of Friday 8th November, we ran our annual sponsored night hike for the scouts, with all profits going towards new equipment and other things than benefit the running of the group.

As usual we started from the HQ, however this year, instead of following the Bath Skyline walk, they hiked through Marshfield, towards the M4, and back again.

The young leader (Tom, Ashley and I), along with Rosie, followed the scouts along the route until we reached Marshfield and about midnight when I had to leave due to having work the next morning.

Avon Scout County AGM 2013

On Tuesday 9th July I went to the Avon County Scout AGM at the Bath Racecourse. Amongst other things, I did some archery, blindfold cake decorating and met Amy Williams for the second time! Details of the event from the press release are shown below.

Winter Olympics gold medalist Amy Williams has become an official Scouting ambassador and her first engagement was at Avon Scouts County AGM held recently at Bath Racecourse.
Amy was hosted by Simon and Tracey from Avon Scout Network and invited to a race up a climbing wall against Alex from Bathampton Young Leaders and she also tried her hand at archery with the County team.
Williams hopes to inspire Olympians of the future  with young people often getting their first taste of sporting pursuits and adventure as Scouts. Polar adventurer Dr Ed Coats has also been appointed as a county ambassador and met young members in Bath.
County commissioner Dan Wood said: “Amy Williams and Ed Coats are incredible role models for young people, like so many of our adult volunteers. We hope many more volunteers will follow their lead and join us in the adventure.”

NEX 2013

On 15th June 2013, Simon, some of the Scouts from Bathampton who had recently moved up to Explorers and I, attended the NEX 13 Explorer and Network event at Uphill near Weston Super Mere. 

*** Below is the district's press release from the event ***

Explorer Scouts from Inferno based on the East side of Bath attended NEX13 an annual event for the 14-25 year olds. Joining 120 other young people from across Avon County, the team enjoyed a day on the beach at Uphill near Weston Super Mere.

With lots of free candy floss, a BBQ, ‘Mocktails’, a comedy act and several live bands, the team all ex-Scouts from the 28th and under artistic direction from Simon their former Scout Leader they entered the sand castle building competition and built a stunning skull and cross bones complete with studded treasure chest filled with uncut stones.

The judges commended them for their unique style and themed entry. The winning sand sculptors still had time to enter the tug of war competition, along with members of Bath

Dragnet Camp 2013

Over the weekend, 19th - 21st April 2013, the Scouts had their annual Dragnet camp. This is where they spend a weekend camping, with the focus being on a all day hike on the Saturday, during which the Scouts are tasked with 'Operation Dragnet' and are hunted by the hunter patrol which varies from year to year, sometimes including PL's or occasionally APL's, but always, and this year exclusively Young Leaders and Leaders.

For the first year since Dragnet started, I was unable to attend the entire camp, due to the fact that I now work all weekend, however I was able to get someone to cover my shift on the Saturday, meaning I could attend the main activity.

I arrived at about 9am, just as the patrols were preparing to leave and after the patrols had headed off, we quickly followed, ambushing the last patrol almost immediately as we left the campsite.
We then drove into Marshfield and had some drinks (and the leaders had breakfast) at the tea shop where James' fiances (now wife), Hannah, worked as she was helping on camp.

Throughout the course of the day, the Scout attempted to hike from our campsite at Rock East Woodlands, to the other side of the M4, and back again without being intercepted. For the most part, they managed this despite some navigation errors and our success as a hunter patrol to intercept them.
We managed to intercept all of the patrol numerous times, with one particularly good site, at the top of a hill just below Cold Ashton.

After the Scouts had completed the hike, we returned to Rock East Woodlands for fish and chips before I had to leave for work the next morning.

Bathampton Scouts Night Hike 2012

On the night of 12th October, the Scouts took part in the, now annual, sponsored night hike, which once again would be 3 laps of the Bath skyline walk. For the first time, Simon invited another group to take part in the event: 23rd Bath (Avonvale), from across the valley.

For the first time, the Osprey patrol (new scouts that have just joined in September) were allowed to walk by themselves which meant that the Young Leader patrol (Alex, Tom and I) where allowed to go off by ourselves and act as moving marshals.

We started by heading up, passed the back of the HQ and to the left, through Bathampton wood and alongside the university, right round until we reached the playing fields for Prior Park. We stayed there for sometime and then went back, staying at some checkpoints for a while. We were then asked to meet the leaders on the Bathampton Downs and headed there. Tom and I were asked to escort one member of one of 23rd patrols back down to the scout HQ, while Alex joined their patrol to try and get them to hurry up. After we had dropped of the patrol member, we stayed at the HQ for a few minutes until the leaders came back and drove us to the university where we got out and walked across to the bottom of the Downs where we met Alex's patrol (the last patrol left) and helped them get back to the HQ.

The event finished at about 3am and we all left the next morning at about 9am.

Bathampton Scouts Overnight Poncho Camp

On Friday 28th September, the Scouts met at Rock East Woodlands, for an overnight poncho camp. The arrived early afternoon and began by putting up one of our patrol tents as a backup in case the weather meant the Scouts couldn't stay in the ponchos.
The Scouts then went off and set up their poncho shelters, with two shelters per patrol, while the other leaders and myself set up our tents.
When everyone was done, we had a campfire for a while before in started raining, very heavily on and off. This basically put an end to the campfire, and everyone went to bed soon after.
The next morning I missed because I had to get up and leave early as I had been offered an interview at Waitrose.

ONS 2012

On 22nd September, I went with Simon to One Night Stand, an annual Explore Scout event organised by Keynsham Explorer Scouts, at Chelwood Campsite. We left Bath at about 3 and arrived at the campsite roughly half an hour later. After putting our tents up, we had a wonder around and helped with the finishing touches of the site.
A little later, as people began to arrive, we had a picnic with the leaders from Solar ESU, one of whom, Kathryn, was one of my WSJ leaders.
After a while, I met up with my friend Gary from WSJ, and spent most of the event speaking to him and some of the other people from his explorer unit. There were many activities including climbing, inflatables, a campfire, a disco and a cinema and we did most of them. Despite the fact that it was REALLY cold, I found it really enjoyable and arrived back home at about 10am the next day.

28th Bath (Bathampton) Troop Camp 2012 - 'Norden Camp'

Saturday
We drove down to one of the fields owned by Norden Farm, near Corfe Castle in Dorset, which we had booked for our Summer Camp. The Leaders, Young Leaders, PL's and APL's often come down to the campsite a little bit before the rest of the troop to get many things ready and this was what we were doing. We spent several hours setting up the various tents that we would be using over the course of the week and then headed out to nearby Swanage in the early evening for dinner. We had planned of getting fish and chips but due to the incredibly high prices and our small budget, settled for Wimpy's instead.

Sunday
The next morning we got up early as Tom was due to arrive by train, and we had decided to all go to the station and embarrass him as much as we could. Unfortunately he then called to say he had decided to get a later train so we settled into breakfast. Just before noon the scouts started to arrive and began to work on their patrol areas and Tom was picked up from the station slightly later on. The scouts continued to work on their patrol areas until lunch whilst I helped Hannah organize the food stored and Tom and Alex organised the hardware stores. After lunch, we all headed to the village of Corfe which is right next to Corfe Castle, and the scout took part in a quiz. After this was over we headed back to the campsite and the scouts prepared dinner. After we had eaten and washed up, the scouts went on a night walk whilst the leaders found spots in the surrounding areas which the scouts could use as 'satellite campsites' during their expeditions the following day and night.

Monday
On Monday morning, the scouts cooked breakfast whilst I helped James plan the routes for the expeditions that would be happening later in the day. After the patrols finished breakfast and prepared their kit and patrol sites, they headed out on their routes and Tom, Alex and I headed off on our own young leader route which went via Corfe Castle and Kimmerage to our campsite near Harman's Cross railway station on the Swanage steam line.

Tuesday
We started Tuesday at the campsite where we stayed after our expedition and promptly checked out of the campsite. We then definitely didn't get the steam train to Corfe Village where we didn't buy breakfast from the local bakery before not getting the train the rest of the way to Norden station which is just around the corner from our campsite. Instead we walked the whole way back and then got breakfast when we arrived at the campsite. Much of the rest of the day was spent relaxing after yesterdays hike and the scouts continued to work on their patrol sites and cooked their meals.

Wednesday
Wednesday mainly consisted of a visit to the splashdown water park at tower park in Poole.

Thursday
On Thursday we had our annual Top Gear challenge, which this year featured a picture of a clock tower which we had to locate and get to at exactly 1pm with a strict budget. The young leader team, with the assistance of a smartphone, quickly located the clock tower to be next to the beach in Weymouth. After a short bus and train journey we arrived at the location first and hid around the corner to make sure we arrived at the destination exactly on time. After we had all met up, we spent a large part of the day watching the Olympics (BMX and Serpentine) on the big screens on the beach. Later that day we traveled back the same way we went there and shared a train carriage with several Olympic medal winning sailors. When we got back to the campsite we had our camp party, which this year had a pirate theme, and consisted of mock-tails (with lots shredded coconut in), BBQ and various activities including a water balloon fight.

Friday
We had be up promptly and have a quick breakfast on Friday as we were going sea fishing in Swanage. Once we arrived we split into two groups, the first went off while the scouts in our group did a quiz around the area and we went to a local coffee shop. When the first group got back we were disappointing to hear that between them they had only caught two fish. We then went out a successfully caught approximately 3 fish each meaning we had plenty for our dinner that evening. When we got back to the campsite the scouts went off into their patrols and sent up mini campsites in the forest behind the site, consisting of a shelter per patrol made of completely natural materials and a fire pit. When the scouts had built this, they took part in various activities which we ran - I did signalling. That evening the scouts cooked their fish in the fire pits before sleeping overnight in their shelters.

Saturday
On Saturday we visited Poole where the Patrol Leaders and Alex and I, bought ingredients to cook dinner that night for Patrol Leaders pleasure which is an activity which takes place every year where the Patrols have to prepare a meal for the leaders. The scouts then went to the harbor in Poole for a while before they headed back to camp to prepare their meals which were all very good.

Sunday
Sunday was spent packing up everything from camp and the winner of the camp competition was announced to be The Kestrels, lead by PL Melissa (my sister). We then drove back to Bath before unloading all the equipment at the HQ.

The post about this camp on the 28th Bath (Bathampton) Scout Group website is available here: http://www.bathamptonscouts.org/2012/09/scouts-in-summer-camp-success/

Dragnet Camp 2012

On the 16th - 18th March, we had our annual "operation dragnet", which is when we camp over a weekend with the focus being the Saturday, On the Saturday, the Young Leaders become a hunter patrol. The Patrols - normally led by their PL's, spend the day hiking using army ration packs whereas the "hunter patrol" go around in full combats and hunt the patrols by either taking their lives (cotton wrapped around their wrists) or preferably taking the nicer items from their ration packs.

We arrived on the Friday, and put up our tents. Young leaders have their own tents so we didn't have to put up the 'traditional' patrol tents. The scouts took ages to do this. The young leaders (yl's) set up the food packs and radios etc... while we waited. 

The scouts then collected their ration packs and practiced using a trangia by making hot chocolate on them. After that, the scouts planned their routes for the next day before playing a wide game where they had to 'steal' a torch off us (the yl's), and then going to bed. The leaders and yl's then chatted for about 30mins before also going to bed.

We woke up the next morning and packed up all our stuff, as well as dressing partially in combats. We left ahead of the first patrol and set up our ambush in a quad bike track that they'd have to cross. The first patrol (Kestrel's) came through first, and we successfully got all of their lives. The patrol then responded by running off with one of our day sacs.
After we'd got our day sacs back, and the Hawks had moved on, we waited for the next patrol (Eagles). They went for the run as fast as you can and re-group later technique, however we still caught them all. Most of the patrol then went off, and accidentally left two members of the patrol in the wood, who we had to return to the patrol before they got too far away. We then waited in the same place for about half and hour until after talking to the other two patrols over the radio we realised that they had gone wrong and wouldn't go past our ambush point.
We then went to the cars which drove us ahead of all the patrols to another ambush point. We ambushed the Merlins, who had somehow massively overtaken all the other patrols, first and quickly sent them on there  way. PJ and Lewis - two of the leaders, than met us and helped us ambush the Eagles and then the Hawks as they came through. The Kestrels then came through the wrong gate which meant that they saw us before we could ambush them. We made a quick emergency get-a-way in the cars so that we leapfrogged in front of them until we found a spot where we stopped for lunch with the Hawks, who were now in the lead by a long way. After the hour of truce was over, the Hawks left and we waited for the other patrols. We were 'camped' at a crossroads which each patrol would have to come through twice (except the Hawks who had already been through twice and the Merlins who had already been through once).
We cooked our lunch while we waited for the other patrols. The Eagles came through first, then the Kestrels, then the Merlins, then the Eagles again and finally the Kestrels did there second crossing.
After they past, we met up with Simon just as it was beginning to rain. Half of us then went back to the campsite while me and Alex went with James and Lewis to keep tabs of the Eagles and Kestrels who were both going quite slowly because of the rain and where quite a long way behind where they should have been.
We played 'sweat box' and listened to Disney songs in the car while we waited for the patrols to reach us.
When they did reach us, Lewis and I got out, while Alex and the most tired scouts, were driven nearer to the campsite. Lewis and I then attempted to motivate the scouts as we walked them further along the route while James dropped off the scouts he'd taken and then came back. The next 'batch' of the scouts then went back in the car and Lewis and I took the last 3 or 4 on to a petrol station where we waited for James. When James had come back, and taken the final 3 or 4 scouts, he finally came back and took us straight to the campsite where Tom was just about to leave (he wasn't staying for the second night). While the final few scouts came in, I went with James and one particularly cold looking scouts to the fish&chip shop where we picked up the nights dinner from a incredibly scary Chinese lady.
When we got back, we ate and chatted around the campfire for the rest of the night. Kathryn from WSJ also turned up because her parents had been invited by Simon as they are district commissioners for the area.
After the campfire we all went to bed.

The next morning, Alex and I sorted breakfast out for the scouts and drinks for the leaders before helping Lewis to set up a blind ropes trail.
Before lunch, the troop was split in two, I went with the Kestrels and the Hawks, and did archery first with Simon and PJ, followed by the blind ropes trail. We then had lunch, followed by striking camp and cleaning the hut. At about 4, we went home and the camp was over.

Bath Half 2012

On Sunday, I helped with the Bath Half marathon. I arrived at 7.30am to help set up the Leukemia stand, and then helped on the lost children stand with scouts. On the day, we had our lunch stolen twice, and received to high quality running base layers and a running top which looked and felt like it was made out of a bin bag. We also 'acquired' a large amount of lucazade for the scouts to use on future camps.

Bathampton Scouts visit to PGL Liddington 2012

This weekend, I went to PGL Liddington (near Swindon) for the second time, with Bathampton Scouts.

We arrived 20 minutes late due to bad traffic coming out of Bath, and were shown to our rooms and introduced to our host - Nicky (who had taken us for crates last year). We then had dinner, which was fish & chips. After than, we played a wide game in one of the huge fields on site.
At 10pm the scouts went to bed while the leaders and I went to the 'Library' before going to bed just before midnight.

The next morning I got up just before 7:30am for breakfast at 8:05am. After breakfast we were split up into our groups and Nicky took us to meet our instructors for the morning. My group (2) did aeroball while the other group (1) did abseiling.

Aeroball

When we got to the aeroball (basketball on trampolines if you didn't already know), we found it was layered in sheets of ice, with snow of the netting of the roof.
Each time we went on it, the layers of ice on the trampolines would break up into freezing cold shards which had to be swept out and made all our feet go numb. I scored to highest score - 8 'goals' in a row.

Abseiling

We then switched over and went to abseiling. Everyone had a go and we were quite quick so we each got three goes abseiling down the 40ft tower.

We then all went inside and had lunch and got prepared for the afternoon activities which were archery and crates.

Archery

We then went to archery where we played several games etc... where you had to hit specific colours and parts of the targets.

Crate Challenge

We then swapped with the other group and went to crate challenge. This is where you have to build a tower out of milk crates and climb it as you do so, and try to make it as high as possible. This had previously had been the scouts favourite activity but we felt that it had been made over the top with health and safety as we now had to clip the crates together with little carabiners and had a base to start from. Despite this, it was still enjoyable and we reached about 11 crates high (18 the year before, but there was a time limit this time instead of going until it fell over like last year.)

After crates, we all went inside and had dinner. At 10, the scouts went to bed while the leaders went to the 'library' where we wasted all Simon's money playing an eggheads quiz machine. Afterwards we found that we had been locked out, so had a snowball fight at about midnight whilst trying to get in the building, until eventually we were let in by one of the PGL staff, and went to bed.

The next morning we got up at about 7:30am and went to another soggy and bland breakfast. My group then went to fencing (in which I beat everyone) and then went to climbing (in which everyone beat me) - I'm very bad at climbing!
We then went in for lunch and got ready for the afternoons activities.




We then went to the first of our afternoon activities - Quad-biking, which was quite good but we only had one quad bike so there was quite a lot of time when we couldn't do it while others were. We then went on to our final activity, zip-wire. This, again was quite good, but not nearly as good as last year where we got 9 goes and set the record for the number of goes on an activity.

After this we went inside and ate dinner before packing up and changing into our uniforms and leaving.

28th Bath (Bathampton) Troop Camp 2011 - 'Rempstone Camp'

Monday
We drove down to Rempstone (an area near to Corfe castle in Dorset) after the Avon Jamboree. As we drove into the field the rain started to stop and we set up the two mess tents after picking a spot for them to go.
When the rest of the scouts arrived, we pitched first our patrol tents, and then went to put up our dinning shelters but found that we had forgotten to pack them. We then all had fish and chips before going on a wide game where we found another scout group 'ambushed' one of the scouts and asked them where they were from. We then went back to the campsite and went to bed.

Tuesday
We woke up and had a communal breakfast. Simon's dad then brought the dinning shelters down and we put them up near our patrol tents. We then set up our individual patrol areas, which involved, building gadgets, roping off the area, setting up a fire area and collecting wood.
After lunch, we went into corfe village and did a quiz (which my patrol (Merlin's) won.) We then cooked dinner and after a short a wide game, and planning the 'top gear challenge' for the next morning, and then went to bed.

Wednesday
We woke and had a cold breakfast before preparing for the 'top gear challenge'. For this we were given a photo (a statue of Baden Powell which is at Poole harbor.) We had to identify it - luckily someone in my patrol knew where it was straight away - and then plan a route to get there.
As soon as we had done this we set off. Our plan was to walk to approximately where our troop camp was last year and get the bus from there to Poole bus station. From there we would walk to the harbor and hopefully get there in time. We got there early and waited until the time, when us and Tom's patrol reached it at exactly the right time, meaning we had beaten Ashley's patrol (who initially had gone to the wrong place.)
We then went back camp and did some more work on our sites while we waited for the leaders to return.
That evening we had a Caribbean party and dinner cooked by the leader when we all dressed up in Hawaiian shirts, ate from a BBQ and played fair games like coconut shy. After that we went to bed.

Thursday
We were allowed a lye in after the party but after that, we had to make breakfast and plan our route for the expedition. I was put in charge of 'the lions' (20 miles) - there were also the tigers and wolves which both go slightly less far.
The hike took us around the heath and along studland beach (including the nudist part which is not mentioned on the OS maps! We met the other patrols at 'Jerry point' which was a spot where we could see Brownsea island and cooked our ration pack meals on trangia's
We then walked to 'burnbake' campsite which was where the lions were staying on our own for the night. We made a small fire and were able to have showers before going to bed.

Friday
The next morning, we got up and backed down our tents before having another shower (just because we could.) I then bought a pastry for breakfast. We then all walked back to our main campsite. We spent most of the day doing more work on our sites as well as archery and completing various badges (especially outdoor challenge/outdoor challenge plus) etc... That evening we cooked an assessed meal and did a wide game before the scouts pitched ponchos to sleep in as part of the badges. Me and Tom were allowed to sleep in Simon and James's hammocks.

Saturday
The next morning I woke up to a whistle being blow loudly. I quickly got up and went over to wear everyone was doing the flag (and laughing at me.) Apparently in the time I'd been asleep whilst everyone else had got up, taken down their ponchos, eaten breakfast and taken down a mess tent.
I quickly had by breakfast and packed up what I needed before we went to 'tower park' and splash down water park. We spend about two hours there before going to Tesco where we bought food for 'patrol leaders pleasure' - where we chose what to cook for dinner and be assessed on that evening.
After this, we drove to sandbanks where we made small rafts, set fire to them, and let them out to sea.
After that we came back to the site and cooked our evening 'patrol leader pleasure'meal. Afterwards we had a large camp fire which was so big the scar on the grass can be seen on Google maps... and went to bed.
Sunday
The next morning we took all the tents down as quickly as we could after breakfast and packed up the trailer just as it was beginning to rain. We were then told the results (The Kestrels came first followed closely by my patrol - the Merlin's, and the a lot further third, the eagles). We then got into the cars and drove back to Bath.

the 28th websites post on camp is available here: http://www.bathamptonscouts.org/2011/06/troop_camp_2011/

Avon Jamboree 2011

On the 27th to 30th May was Avon county scouts "4 seasons Avon Jamboree" which took place between Friday and Monday.

I arrived, after queuing in traffic for over an hour, at the campsite at about 5:30 on the Friday where me and Tom, who was travelling with me met Simon who is our troop leader who directed us up to the explorer sub camp where we met Kimbo and set up our tents. We then met up with Alex who is one of the young leaders with my scout troop.

Gradually more people arrived and set up their tents in our small patch of land and then me and Alex went and visited the 28th, our troop, who all looked very board and called us traitors.

When we got back we were issued wristbands and harlequin neckers and were told that we would be preforming at the opening ceremony the next morning so, after choosing the two songs that we would play, "all the small things" and "i'm yours", we went to the explorer sub camp mess tent, set up our instruments, loaded the words onto our phones, and sang and played! Whilst we played, various people from around the site who could hear us came in including Hannah and James who are also leaders at our troop and became camp photographers and various video's were projected onto the tent roof.

We then got the words for the songs printed out so that everyone could learn them and I had my dinner before visiting the now extremely board 28th and going to bed. We were also told by Kevin that our JTV video (see previous post) was taken by the UK contingent to the all leaders weekend in Sweden and was shown to every adult going to the Jamboree including the king of Sweden, who is also the head of international scouting, who liked it so much that he's asked for us to make another one.

The next morning we had a quick cooked breakfast before taking all the instruments down to the main tent with the stage in and setting up there. I set up Kevin's video camera to record the performance so that we could add it into our next JTV video. The other scouts were then allowed into the large tent and the opening ceremony went on with Peter Carnegie (camp chief), Dan Wood (the new county commissioner) and Wayne Bulpitt (UK chief commissioner) speaking and "JamboGlee" preforming brilliantly (while I recorded).

After the opening ceremony, we helped set the main tent up as the craft tent and took all the instruments back to the explorer area to lock them away and then went down to the main filed for the activities. These included Zorbing, obstacle course, ice skating, scuba diving, shooting, archery, canooeing, inflatables and many, many more. We did the activities until 13:00 when we went up for lunch where we had a talk from Rex who started scouting in Avon but now works with Swedish scouts and is one of the top organizers for the Swedish jamboree and told us about the jamboree, the site, previous Swedish jamborees and loads more interesting and useful information.We then did more activities (that afternoon it was our priority (we got to skip the cue on all the most popular activities)) before dinner which was at about 6. We then surprised Kathryn by giving her presents and a cake seeing it was her birthday the week before which she loved. After this we went down to the main field where there was a carnival. The carnival was quite funny, especially when Kate and Dan went into the stocks to have wet sponges thrown at them. We then briefly visited the 28th and the explorer sub-camp before going back down to see the fireworks in the main field (which were very impressive ones). Afterwards there was a explorer only silent disco in the main tent. This is where everyone gets a pair of headphones and can choose to listen to one of two different DJ's and switch between them throughout the night. This was great and wen't on until midnight when we were escorted back to our tents by armed leaders wearing intense high vis jackets to make sure we didn't wake up the scouts, cubs and beavers. When I got back to my tent I found Josh already in there and instead of tidying his stuff away, he's decided to lie on top of it all.

The next morning I got up at around 8:00 and had breakfast. Kate and Emily auditioned for the "Avon's got talent" competition. We then did the activities again until just before lunch when some of us spoke to Dan Wood (county commissioner), Steve Smith (deputy county commissioner) and Gorden Weston (south west regional commissioner), before having lunch. In the afternoon we did more of the activities including the climbing wall.

The explorers then all met in the main activities field where we were told that we could go on most of the activities for an extra two hours after they were meant to close.
We did this and then went up to the explorer
area for dinner. Kate, Emily and Dan had all got through to the final of Avon's got talent so after dinner I grabbed the video camera and found a good spot on a chair at the very back on the raised platform for the lighting desk where I got a great view of all the acts. I spoke to James (a leader from the 28th) who was taking photos of it at the back whilst Simon was one of the judges. Kate played the saxophone, Dan did the diabalo and Kate and Emily sang - they were all really good. The judges went away to work out the final three and when they came back they were all cheered onto the stage with the exception of Simon who was booed off (partially encouraged be me) the final three were; a cub who played the flute, another explorer who sang 'defying gravity' and Kate with her saxophone. The winner was then decided with the audience cheering and a decibel meter (or a cheap i phone app used by the guy standing next top me to be more precise) and was the girl who sang 'defying gravity'.
We then went back to the explorer area for a bit and wandered around the site (we also visited the 28th again) We then went down to the main tent where we joined in with the end of the main disco before everyone was sent out and we had another explorer silent disco which was awesome fun. We then went back up to the explorer field after it finished at midnight and Me, Kate, Garry, Sam and Harry all went into one tent to play cards and then truth or dare - truth. By the time we finished at about 01:40 we couldn't be bothered to go to our own tents so we all slept in that tent. The next morning we woke up at about 7:00 to find that the tent we were in had leaked badly as well as my tent which Tom and Josh were in (Tom had left his tent due to lack of room because about 10 people tried to sleep in a three man tent) I had a shower and then we had breakfast. We then played an awkward version of Frisbee which involved a tennis ball before a packed away my stuff and put it in Anna's tents so that I could take my tent down. We then did karaoke in the explorer tent and sold some more candyfloss (we'd been selling it all weekend during the activity times and we'd all taken turns in helping) before I said goodbye to everyone, tried to fix Josh's phone in 30 seconds (I failed :() and had to take my kit and lunch along with Tom down to Simon's land-rover ready for us to go off on another camp.

the 28th websites post on camp is available here: http://www.bathamptonscouts.org/2011/06/four-seasons-jamboree-2011/

Avon Scouts - Bear Hunt

On Saturday 7th May was Avon Scouts 'bear hunt'. Simon took some scouts from Bathampton to this and many people from WSJ were also there. At the event we were lucky enough to meet chief scout - Bear Grylls and got him to sign some 'Avonasaurus' merchandise.
You can read more on what I have to say on this on the new Bathampton Scouts website which I have just finished : http://www.bathamptonscouts.org/2011/05/bear-hunt/

Patrol Camp 2011

From the 8th to the 10th April was our annual 'Patrol Camp'. This is held every year as preparation for the week long 'Troop Camp' which happens later in the year.

I arrived about 1 hour late because my work experience (see last post) didn't finish until half an hour past the start of camp, and joined my Patrol. They had already put up the patrol tent so I helped put up the (new) dinning shelter, we then gathered all our personal and patrol kit and put it to the relevant tents. Afterwards we all went into the mess tent for hot drinks and we got a intimidating talk from Simon before we went to bed.

The next morning we had a continental breakfast (croissants with jam and cereal) and spent to morning setting up our patrol sites (gadgets, roped off, making sure tents are put up correctly and neatly etc...) and each patrol had a slot on rotation doing archery. We then stopped for a brief lunch of sausage rolls, crisps, fruit and cake. In the afternoon we all worked towards our outdoor challenge badge (or outdoor challenge plus for those, like me, who had already completed it). I learn't some first aid with James and helped some of the younger scouts complete some of the things that they needed to do. By the end of it I realized that the only thing I needed to do to complete the plus badge was to sleep out in a bivi/poncho shelter so me, Tom and Alex convinced Simon to let us sleep in one that night. We then cooked an assessed dinner on our patrol fires which went quite well.

For our evening activity, Me, Tom and Alex walked to Nunny castle (a reasonably local ruin) where we hid and waited for the rest of the scouts to arrive with the leaders. Simon had a radio as did we so we were given 5 minutes warning before they arrived. The scouts mission was to throw five glow sticks into the castle, what they didn't realize is that we would be throwing them back out. Much as this was a good idea it was somewhat shortened when after about 30 seconds all the glow sticks ended up in the moat.

Me, Tom and Alex then went off ahead again and arrived back at the campsite quite soon where we put on the hot water and had a doughnut. When the leaders and the rest of the scouts got back we went and set up our poncho shelter which was luxuriously constructed of five ponchos before getting our mats and sleeping bags and going to bed.

The next morning we got up and Tom and Alex were told to take down the shelter while I went to help my patrol cook our assessed (full English) breakfast. After breakfast we had the main inspection which went quite well. We then went down to the river and built mini rafts (we did this on troop camp in 2008 and it was a great success) after we  had built them we set fire to them and floated them down the river. My one and Tom and Alex's ones got the furthest. We then walked back up to the campsite and took down the patrol sites, tents etc... and started to loads up the trailer. We then had a break for lunch and tried out James hammock which he had set up. We then took down the main mess tent and finished loading up the trailer and the cars.

We then had the final flag and went home.

Dragnet Camp 2011

On the 18th - 20th March, we had our annual "operation dragnet", which is when we camp over a weekend with the focus being the Saturday, On the Saturday, the PL's/Senior Scouts/Young Leaders, leave their patrols. The Patrols - normally led by their APL's, spend the day hiking using army ration packs whereas the others "hunter patrol" go around in full combats and hunt the patrols by either taking their lives (cotton wrapped around their wrists) or preferably taking the nicer items from their ration packs.

We arrived on Friday evening and set up our tents which was pretty quick considering most of the scouts hadn't pitched a tent since last may!

We then went into the hut at the site (Briaslands) where we split up into our patrols, I was in the hunter patrol which consisted of: Me, codename :NEXUS (because I'm a techy) Tom, codename :TOMAHAWK (speaks for itself) Finn, codename :FINNBAR (again, speaks for itself) Alex, codename :HARDNUT (because he got hit by car and the car broke not him!) Simon, codename :PAPA BEAR and Simon's Land rover, codename :THE PIG.

After deciding the all important code names, we looked at the route - the "normal" patrols were not allowed to see this until the morning and were currently packing their day bags.

After we had planned some of the places where we would intercept them we also packed our day bags and set up all the equipment ready for breakfast on Sunday before going to bed.

On Saturday morning we had breakfast from our ration packs and after sorting out the radios etc...the first patrol - the hawks set out....in the wrong direction so our first job as hunter patrol was to find them and set them right. All the radios had already stopped working so although we could speak to the leaders via Alex's mobile phone we couldn't speak to any of the patrols. After going down the road for quite a while we were picked up by Simon in "the pig" and were dropped off at the top of a closed road, we quickly made our way down on foot - without the leaders, and wen't a little way along the footpath the patrols would be coming along although we had already mist two.

The two patrols that were left - Merlins and Kestrels were successfully intercepted and had lives taken off them. We were then driven in the pig passed wick to a section of four fields which no patrols had passed through yet and set up our first ambush in the area, first we looked around the area and then hid behind a tree and intercepted the first patrol which was the hawks - the patrol that had gone the wrong way at the start, this time we decided to take food, sweets etc.. instead of the their lives so we could ambush them again later.

The next patrol, the kestrels, came through in a similar fashion.

We then reorganized our strategy for the next patrol, I moved to the other side of the road to see them coming and the others changed fields to an easier place to ambush from, unfortunately because the next patrol - the eagles - had got lost and came from the wrong direction and therefore saw us before we saw them, despite this small hiccup we successfully ambushed them and sent them on there way. By this time it was 1:00pm and therefore the last patrol, the merlin's, would have to set up a poncho and trangia for lunch, so we chose one of the middle fields and cooked our lunch as well whilst 'dancing' to some epic music. The leaders then dropped by  briefly and then left us to pack up get into positions for the final patrol. We then ambushed them very successfully much to my APL's annoy-ens (it was my patrol). We were about to leave when we realized that Finn had lost one of his radio's so we had to spend ages looking for it, eventually we decided that one of the Merlin's (my patrol) had stolen it and got in James's car. James dropped us by the A46, we then went along some fields in the opposite direction to which the patrols should have been coming in towards st. Catherine's. We found a perfect field and set up a perfect ambush but 1 hour later and the patrols still hadn't come, so we were sent up to charmy down airfield to look for them before being told that they had got so lost that they were miles away. We then went through some farms (and barbed wire fences!) to reach James again. We then drove to Upton Cheyney where we ambushed (or walked into and took them by slightly more surprise then they took us by) the Eagles. We then walked up the path and hid deep into a hedge. It was all going very well until we realized that the eagles were the last patrol. We then went back to the campsite before being sent out to find the Merlin's with James. They were hopelessly lost and kept telling us over and over that they were stuck in a barbed wire compound. It wasn't helped by the fact that they could only speak over the radio in two second intervals because their battery was dying. I then had the idea of contacting them via the radio that they took from Finn earlier and managed to get them to turn it on and from that determined roughly where they were.When we arrived we went over to a nearby cow shed where we presumed they were, were we found they farmer who unlocked all the land for us where we found them. Most of the patrol then went back in James' car but because there wasn't enough room, me, Tom, Alex and Matthias walked. We were almost back when James came to pick us for the rest of the way back. When we got back we went up to the campfire for fish and chips which were very nice except the chip shop had got the order wrong and there wasn't any for James. We spoke quite late and went to bed at about 11:00. 

The next morning we cooked breakfast in patrols on gas and ate (full English). We then did archery and the blind fold trail before going to lunch. We then took down our tents and loaded up our kit before leaving at 4:30