woods and water camp

! The wood and water camp !

Hi, I’m Lorcan and I’m going to talk to you about our experience as scouts at the wood and water camp at Kiplin hall.

Friday-

Today was the day we all arrived, eight of us in all, we got there and we set up camp. We trekked to the flagpole to officially show we were there. Well, I say trekked, 50 yards really. We put up our British flag after a bit of hassle and saluted respectfully. Then we had yummy hot dogs for dinner. After a tiring and stressful day, we all went to bed in our spacious tents.

Saturday-

Today we woke up nice and early for our day on the water. Packing our bags took a while because some of us didn’t exactly get it all right. For breakfast, we had delicious bacon sandwiches cooked by ourselves. Then at 8.15am, we drove down to Ellerton water to do kayaking, canoeing and sailing. I enjoyed canoeing and kayaking capsizing because we were all together and I had a boat that didn’t make my feet and knees ache. We got back after a tiring day and we played blocky in the dark which was extremely fun and exciting.

Sunday, the final day! –

Today was Sunday, our final day. This day wasn’t all about packing up, this day was for axe-chopping, sawing and whittling with our pen knives. The axe wielding was really satisfying and dangerous because we were swinging them all about the place and the wood chippings coming off were hard to avoid for the people nearby. Sawing was excellent because when I finally broke through my second log, I felt a sense of achievement. I made something called a bow and arrow but my dad of course didn’t see that and decided to snap it in half. All in all we had a very fabulous time.

Lorcan
Patrol Leader 
Badger Patrol

Disclaimer:  

Axe and saw skills was conducted in a safe area under direct supervision of an adult - the description "swinging them all about the place" is used with artistic license. 😊😊

Mountain Bike Day – Thornthwaite Scout Activity Day

On the morning of Sunday 24 September 2017, I met up with some Scouts at Thornthwaite Scout Activity Day with my bike looking forward to an action packed day on our mountain bikes.  It was a lovely day – perfect biking weather!

Before we started the Instructors made sure, we did an ‘M’ check, which was a maintenance check on our bikes to ensure they were safe and road worthy.  When this was completed, we warmed up riding in circles and got used to changing our gears.  We then did some brake testing, which involved us cycling up to a wooden stake and stopping using our back brakes, then front brakes, riding over the stake and using all our brakes.

Following a snack, we did some more bike skills and practised wheelies trying to lift our front wheels over objects like rocks and wooden stakes placed on the ground and practised our balancing.  We then headed towards the forest to the single-track section, which the Leaders had built themselves over the years.  We first walked around the track to check out all the obstacles.  It looked very tricky! We split into two’s and the two Leaders were at the tricky sections waiting for us coming around ready to catch us! After a few times around I managed to do it without putting my feet down.  You really had to concentrate, look ahead and use speed, skill and balance.  After that, we did a really fast downhill section which had a few rocks hidden in the grass so you had to take care.  After we rattled down the hill, we had to pedal back up which was really tough.  A few of the boys fell off but thankfully were ok.

We were all shattered afterwards and had an amazing day learning a lot about the technical side of mountain biking.

           Tom APL Cobra Patrol