Our summer camp this year was held again at Plum Park, near Oxted. We had a very successful time with 14 boys camping from the Sunday through to Friday evening. We had three sixes named Ferrari, Lamborghini and Porsche and their daily points totals were shown on a racing track made up by Harry.
The boys. first job on arrival was to pitch their tents, the leaders having pitched the rest of the camp on Saturday. In the afternoon the Cubs made signs for their six tents and they then made some woggles, under guidance from Alan and Eric, from nylon cord. Cubs Michael and Joel then ran a short Scouts. Own service for us.
The site is managed by Surrey Wildlife Trust and on the Sunday evening their Countryside Ranger, Dave, guided the boys and leaders through the adjoining Staffhurst Wood in the dark and we were able to use night vision binoculars to see wild foxes.
On Monday, we visited Beaver World at Tatsfield, and although the beavers were asleep during our visit and we didn.t see them, we did see lots of reptiles including a crocodile and some iguanas. |
We had our annual visit to Tor Hatch at Shere on Tuesday and used the huge swimming pool in the back garden together with the trampoline and on Wednesday we visited the Tandridge Leisure Pool at Oxted.
Our planned visit to see the hounds of the Old Surrey and West Kent Hunt sadly had to be cancelled as the hounds had all gone down with kennel cough. Instead, the Master of the Hounds came to visit us and explained all about keeping the hounds and what they do. He showed us the hunting horn which some of the cubs found hard to blow!
We had an unexpected visit from the organiser of the local driving club - driving of horse and carriage, that is. He brought his favourite horse and buggy and took each six in turn for a ride in the woods.
We visited a neighbouring farm where we saw two donkeys, quail and chickens, learnt about herbs and then had a demonstration of spinning. |
During the week the Cubs worked for their Navigator, Naturalist and Adventure badges and also for their Outdoor Challenge. This involved many facets of Cub Scouting including lighting fires and cooking tea, building bivouacs in the woods, pitching and striking tents, mapping and compass work and learning about wildlife. Also during the week we welcomed our Group Scout Leader, Keith on a visit with Val, and they spent some time with us.
We also had practice campfires to get ready for our final evening and our young helpers - Chris, Ben and Harry - organised many wide games in the woods which the Cubs thoroughly enjoyed.
On Friday morning we went to Oxted to spend remaining pocket money returning to the campsite to take down the sleeping tents.
Friday evening came all too soon, and we welcomed the parents to our camp fire where we presented the winning six, Lamborghini, with their prizes. Cub of the Camp was Ryan, while the Best Sixer was Kyle. All 14 Cubs passed all the four badges.
My grateful thanks to all who helped in any way, in particular the leaders at camp: Bagheera (Sheila), Sally, Eric and Margret, Alan and Hazel. We had excellent help from our young leaders: Ben, Chris and Harry.
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