The main summer camp was held at Gloucestershire County Scouting Centre situated in a lovely Costwold valley on the edge of the village of Cranham. A wet but very exciting week for all of us. Although presenting us with a few additional "challenges", the rain didn't stop us from having a good time.
On Sunday we went to Prinknash Abbey where we attended Holy Mass and a procession of the Blessed Sacrament followed by Benediction with the monks. Despite the rain, we prepared the site and foil roasted some chicken & garlic for dinner.
As the rain continued on Monday we used our lovely new marquee to prepare a sketch for the AGM. There was much laughter and enjoyment of the plot following the antics of Inspector Thinkalot and his bumbling assistant Whitsun.
To help keep us warm the kids were served a "delicious" scrap chicken soup made by our temporary chef. The chef fortunately for him was vegetarian so had no idea what his concoction really tasted like!
In the afternoon we went off to Tewksbury to enjoy their swimming centre and wash off some of the mud.
Tuesday started a bit drier and after making breakfast the Scouts went off to do some archery. This was followed by some practical skills, making camp gadgets, which were put to use over meal times during the week. The afternoon was spent identifying some ancient trees.
Dinner was the popular "mystery tin" event where the Scouts got to take their pick out of a collection of tins. Unfortunately, the only label they got to see was from a tin of catfood.
Final event of a long day was celebrating Mike's 57th birthday. A great achievement to be able to actively camp with the Scouts at this age!
Wednesday was a day of heavy rain but we were at the Cotswolds Water Park canoeing so it didn't matter. Everyone got a chance to learn some new skills and in Sean and Tom's case that included paddling a very unstable canoe after being nearly sunk by an instructor for bad behaviour.
Hurrah, a dry day on Thursday! The Scouts went down Old Ham, an iron mine which is part of the Clearwell Caves in the Forest of Dean. Noteable features that we went through included the Rabbit Hole, a narrow six foot long tunnel and the Mousehole which is an even narrower 8 foot long tunnel. The Scouts got to experience total darkness as our lights were all turned off 200 feet below the ground. Even spookier was seeing how poor the lighting was with just a candle as used by the earlier miners some as young as 4 or 5 years old.
Afterward being underground we went up to the peak at Symmonds Yat to have a good a look across the River Wye to Wales and let Sean have a well earned snooze.
The Scouting Centre Manager, Ken, kindly offered us a tour of the farm run by his son Ian and daughter-in-law Nicki both of whom are also Scouters. The very thoughtful Ken helped us through some very soggy times at our campsite. The Scouts were very interested to see the rare breeds of animals especially the pigs. The two very impressive sows weighed in at 250 Kg apiece and one of them was hand reared by the Nicki.
Of course it rained on us all the time and we almost missed the small detail of Glady's Leap - a jump across the stream at the bottom of the farm for Postwoman Gladys made famous by folk band Fairport Convention.
Friday was a more leisurely day starting with the Scouts finishing off their badge work and rehearsals for the AGM sketch. After lunch there was a 4 mile hike navigated by the patrol leaders . Apart from a being stuck in a bogs and occasionally getting lost both teams did very well. The evening was finished off with an attempt across the challenge course built by some Explorer Scouts from a local unit.
Sadly we packed away our luggage and equipment on one of only two dry days over the week. At our closing ceremony the Scouts were congratulated on their excellent teamwork and the leaders were thanked for giving up their time before we all began the long journey home to Purley.
