Saturday morning, the sun is shining brightly, the birds are chirping, but you can’t hear the birds sing nor appreciate the sunshine becaue there are about a thousand hyperactive children, whose leaders have absolutely no sense of discipline, running around screaming and shouting. Hey, I wouldn’t mind so much (I’m not that much of a grumpy old man), except that it is ten past six…I mean COME ON!!!
I have real trouble getting out of my sleeping bag when it is cold outside - the bag is a coccoon of warmth and comfort, and the outside world is cold and unforgiving at these times. You find reason after reason to delay that inevitable moment for just a few more minutes/seconds. When it’s hot, you wake up in a pool of your own sweat, you can hardly breathe, and you end up dragging yourself out of the tent, sleeping bag and all, just to get some fresh air, wrestling off the bag after you’re outside.
I love sunny and warm camps.
My Scouts were already up, but they were actually behaving themselves. We were able to squeeze in a muck around with my nerf rocket (thoroughly recommended - great fun!) before breakfast.
After breakfast, we cracked on with the days activities, which was training, training and more training. Limpet took a group for saw training, Alan took Axe, I took knife, and Gareth took a team to teach them how to properly throw a frisbee…
….hey, it’s a crucial skill, OK?
We spent around thirty to forty five minutes on each base before rotating, so all Scouts got a session on everything. Actually, the other three bases finished well within that time, but I rambled on so much that the others had to tell me to get a move on. I do try to make sure that I remember absolutely everything, since I am basically telling their parents that they are now trained enough to own and use a knife. We’ve been doing it this way for several years now, and although I have had to revoke one or two knife rights from Scouts in the past, we have had no big accidents (touch wood).
That took us up to lunch, then after lunch we put some of what we had learned into practise….with a game of ultimate frisbee.
…hey it’s a CRUCIAL SKILL, OK?!?!
After that, and after we had drunk gallons to replace the sweat that we had lost, I got the whole troop round the campfire and taught them how to prep, build and light a fire. After this, they all had a go themselves. The thing that surprised me the most, is that during their own prep, when they had to share one felling axe, one hand axe, three saws, and not enough knives to go round fourteen Scouts, they did not argue once. Not once. No shouting, no whining, no sulking. Just patience and co-operation. Fair enough, I did challenge them to co-operate before I set them to it, but I was expecting at least a little friction. Nope, they just waited their turn, helped each other out, worked together. I was very proud.
They all managed to light a fire, although some had more trouble than others. The only beef I had was with the mess they all made and left. No matter, as they were going to have to clear it all up by tomorrow afternoon anyway.
After the fires were lit, Gareth pushed them back into the main campfire, so we could get the oak logs on ready for cooking. Another part of the Outdoor Challenge is cooking a meal on an open fire. We like to keep things simple on the first one, so Alan got them doing jacket potatoes. While all that was going on, I popped out to the Supermarket to grab some supplies. I always like to get away for at least a few minutes from all the hustle and bustle of camp life, just to re-centre myself.
When I got back, the potatoes were almost ready, and the Scouts were out playing in the field. I am still amazed by the effect that going to bed just that bit earlier has on the next day - they were all so much more awake and alert first thing in the morning, which meant that the work got done so much quicker and earlier, leaving more time for play. The morning drill on Summer Camp is a lot different, so that will be the acid test, but I am hopeful that we will see some more results.
The Scouts had their jacket spuds (except one - there’s always one who doesn’t like what you’re cooking - whatever it is), and the Leaders had Spaghetti Bolognaise. After all was cleaned up, we had a game of football, which seemed to last for several hours…or at least until it got too dark to see.
We chatted round the fire for a while (we didn’t actually sing any campfire songs this weekend, but we did loads the Friday before), but it was not long before the Scouts had to go to bed. As soon as they had gone, I ducked off for a quick shower. Damn, it felt good to get all the grime and gunk and sweat off me, and to get into a nice clean set of clothes. I swear, it may sound so utterly obvious, but in the rush of getting things done on camp it gets forgotten, but if you ever start to flag on camp, if you’re feeling slow, sluggish or generally bad-tempered - make a few minutes in your schedule and get yourself into the shower - you come out like a new man (or woman), and feel ready to take on the world again.
The PLs got an extra hour tonight, and then we all went to bed.
Hey, look - I talked for this long and didn’t rant about anything!
Sorry, I’ve just remembered about something that really hacked me off.
During our game of ultimate frisbee, just past the end of our pitch, another group were preparing some trek carts for a short race round the campsite. Unbeknownst to us, part of their course would take them right across where we were playing. They didn’t have much choice to be honest, since there were so many camps squeezed onto the site that the free area was limited. Hardly a problem though, you would think - just ask us if we could pause the game for a minute while they hammer through.
Nope, not a word to us, we are just happily throwing the frisbee around, when they come haring through the middle of our game. No acknowledgment, no apology - nothing. They even finished the race right in the middle of our pitch and decided to sit there for a couple of minutes to recover before getting out of the way.
Pretty innocuous, you may say. And to be honest, it did not really inconvenience us, since the play did not really reach that particular area of the pitch. But that’s not the point. The point is the total and utter lack of manners shown. I appreciate that many Scout Leaders (I think these were Explorer Scouts - 14-18 years old) are press-ganged into the job through guilt, but if you’re going to do the job, at least try to find out what the rules of camping etiquette are. We had people walking through our site all day every day without any awareness that they were doing anything wrong. We had given up shouting at people halfway through Friday night after the hundredth incident, because we were very close to the toilets and we were never going to stop them all from doing it. Explorers were up screaming and shouting raucously until the wee small hours on Friday night, Cubs and Scouts were up at half past five in the morning screaming and shouting. What is the point of having the Scout Association if most of the Leaders don’t teach the concept of consideration for other people? We don’t just take these kids camping to let them off the lash and give their parents a couple of days of peace you know - we’re supposed to be teaching them to be good people, constructive and contributing members of society.
I sometimes wonder that we may in fact be the best Troop in the country….
[to be continued]
