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.

Ten Tors Training in The Black Mountains

We met at school at 7am on Saturday 4th February before driving to Abergavenny. Once we had arrived, it instantly started to snow. As a result of this, for safety, we decided to do the route backwards.

We started by leaving the town of Abergavenny and ascending sugar-loaf mountain. We then quickly descended and went across country to table-top mountain which we climbed before heading back to down in the now, much heavier snow to allow us time to get away before the roads became too frozen. 

Silver DofE Training on Dartmoor

In September, I took part in DofE Silver training on Dartmoor.
The weekend comprised of some orienteering, walking between vixen tor and great mis tor before being rained off the moor.

The 22nd World Scout Jamboree

Starting on the 24th July 2011, I attended the 22nd World Scout Jamboree in Sweden - a gathering of 40,000 scouts from almost every country in the world. I documented a day to day record of what we did on my specific jamboree blog which is available here

Gilwell 24 2011

On the 8th July we went as a surprise the Gilwell 24 as part of the jamboree build up. This full write up can be read on my jamboree blog here

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/