So… my first Blog post. I’ve been doing some research. What do I want to put here? Who do I follow? Lacking in inspiration I decided to go my own way, after all, it’s got me in plenty of trouble before 😉
I started my journey the County website and something caught my eye. Hampshire Scouts Crazy camping competition. So thinking back what was the craziest place I camped…. under what conditions. My thoughts went back to 199? when I took my Troop to Brownsea Island for a week long Easter Camp. I tend to sometimes do my main camp of the year at Easter because it avoids the parent’s summer holidays which everyone gets a chance to go. Anyway, we were camped in the field just below the shop on the island and the weather was getting more grim by the moment. The rain was horizontal, I’m sure we;ve all been there in that…. It got to the stage where the Leadership team were up in the middle of the night in shorts and T-shirts digging trenches around the Patrol Tents.
Looking around for that all important idea I spied the pioneering project the Scouts had built that day. It was two tripods with poles going between them and a net in the middle for people to sit in. If only we had a roof…. A quick bit of lateral thinking and we had the groundsheets out of the patrol tents and strung up over the top to make a giant tent. I had 12 Scouts sleep 1 metre above the ground. I also had two patrol tents that were empty, but available. The following morning with the rain still coming down I toured the rest of the site.
There was a group of Venture Scouts (yes it was that long ago) camping down on the Original camp site, their hike tents were flooded and all their kit was wet. They were at their wits end and ready to leave. I went and chatted to their Leader. They had a means of getting kit dry through using the tumble dryer on site but with no tents they had nowhere to stay. I had spare tents, which were by no means ideal, but had survived mostly dry. Ideal for Venture Scouts.
It was a done deal. My Scouts spent the rest of the week in the ‘Ark’ and the Ventures camped in patrol tents. So what’s the moral of the story…. There isn’t one. I just had an exciting time, and my Scouts camped in an unusual place. Where could your Scouts stay overnight for a crazy place? Have a think….. tell me about it once it’s done….
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