7. Group camp 1

Group camp 1

Hi!

Friday evening


On Friday the 6th May I arrived at the Cudham Shaws campsite around 5 pm. When I got there we put our tents up and set everything up including a big marquee for food prep. I was sharing my tent with my friend Jacob who I also know from my Rugby team. 

After the majority of people had arrived we were welcomed by the leaders and put in patrols. In our patrol we had: Eddie, Hannah, Zoe, Matias, Connor, George, Ravi, Jasmine and me. We called out patrol Zaba meaning Frog in polish. I dont know why we called it this and it was a bit random but we ran with it. 

Next we had the opening ceremony where the more traditional, formal part of camping with the scouts takes place. We then went onto making supper, we made hotdogs as a patrol. One thing that I loved about the camp was that we cooked sausages and made our own food as a patrol. 

In the evening we were challenged with a game to find all the cd's that the leaders had hidden around the campsite in the dark. We did this in patrols and the patrol who found the most won.

Finally in the evening a few of us made a small fire and we had some hot chocolate. It was also Billy's Birthday so we had some cake and sang happy birthday to him. After this we all went to bed around 1am.


Saturday morning


In the morning I woke up at 4:50 without an alarm which was strange. I then got changed and went to see if anyone else was awake. Before breakfast everyone decided to go to the zipline. After having a go on the zipline, a couple of us ( Zoe, Matias, Issac and me) went to explore the forest. We heard from the leaders the previous night that there were deer in the forest, but knowbody believed them. As we were walking along 1 stag and around 8 deer cut across the path in front of us. This was amazing and I couldn't believe what I saw. We quietly followed them and spotted them again through the shrubbery and trees. We ran back to the marquee to make food but we all promised not to tell the others so they wouldn't come down and scare them off. 

 For breakfast we cooked sausages and bread. It tasted great. 

After we made breakfast we washed up and were all called in for the rundown of the day and to tell us what was going on. 

First we had some free time and everyone went to the swings down at the bottom of the field. We then heard the three whistles meaning we had to go back to the campsite. The leaders split the 4 patrols into 2 and had two activities on a rotation. 

First we went to the hall and Naomi( leader) and Ami ( international service team ) talked to us about how we can tell our adventure to people and explain why it is such a good opportunity and why scouting is so great.

Next we swapped over with the other patrol. We had to make a camp gadget. A camp gadget is exactly what it says in the name; a gadget that you can use on camp. We had to use pioneering skills to make a washing up station. We did 2 Square lashings around the wooden poles to make an A frame then we lashed 2 poles in between so we could put the washing up bowl between it. I loved doing this and especially liked how we could actually use it when doing the washing up.

Saturday afternoon

 In the afternoon we had some free time and we all went to the swings and some of us went to the haybale. We then all went to the hall and discussed some mental health strategies and activities along with the designs and branding for our clothes for the Jamboree.



After this we went on a 3 hour hike round the area with our patrols. It was a really nice day so it was lovely to hike in. I also got to know everyone in my patrol better as there was plenty of opportunities to have a chat.



When we arrived back to the site we chilled out for a bit and then had lunch. Afterwards we had some more free time. Zoe, Alice and myself went to collect fire wood for the big campfire that was set to be that night.

Next we all went back into our patrols and cooked Spaghetti Bolognese. It tasted sooo good. 

We then went  back to the campsite and George organised a big game of manhunt. The game was in the pitch black around 10. It was great fun and I didn't get caught.

After hearing a lot of people going down to the fire circle I guessed the game was over. I found the majority of people there, the rest probably still hiding. We toasted bread twists on the fire, this was a first for me and I thought it was really cool trying something different instead of just toasting marshmallows. During the campfire I started talking to Billy who turned 13 on the Friday. Now we are good friends. We finally headed to bed around 12.



Sunday morning

 I woke up and got dressed finding myself one of the first again to wake up. After everyone was up we cooked bacon sandwiches. I love bacon sandwiches sooo much! After doing all the washing up we started to take down all our tents. After everything was put down and everything was packed away we all went to the flag and had the closing ceremony. As I said at the start, the start and end of camps are usually the more formal parts where we have to wear our shirts and scarves 

We were then handed our new scarves. We had to roll them up and make them look very nice. These scarves were the GLSE ( Greater London South East ) scarves which is very special. Steph ( leader) made us go in a circle and face clockwise. We then invested each other into the group. She videoed it, and it looked really good. 

Here is the video link:


https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMLcDtFtL/?k=1


Finally after we were all packed up and our bags were by the car park we took some sledges with miniature tank like wheel on the bottom to the big grass hill in the bottom fields. We were going grass sledging! It was such good fun. We trekked up the big hill, put our helmets on and got pushed down it. We all had several goes. 




After having a great time, we went back to the campsite and had some lunch. Some of the parents were there already to pick us up. After having lunch I got people's phone numbers so we could all keep in touch. Ravi made a group chat.

I then said my thank yous and helped the leaders carry some things to their car. 

My dad came to pick me up and I remember trying to explain what had happened but I was waffling because I was really tired.

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