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

Mountain Biking In The Moors

On Sunday the 10th July 2016 a group of Scouts set out on an amazing mountain bike trek starting at Sutton Bank Visitors Centre.  

 We were handed out a bike, gloves, helmet and glasses.  Then we had to do a check on the bikes but instead of checking our own bikes we checked the person’s bike next to us (trying to remember which way was clockwise!!).

 We set out on our adventure (after eventually finding out which way was clockwise!) heading down a steep hill that had some tight corners then over a bridge and then back up the hill to a road.
Along the road we went, when we came to a gate that led up to a really worn, muddy, dirty path. We played a game of slow races by trying to be the slowest up the hill and in this case trying not to fall off!

In total we cycled 32 km in about 4 hours. My favourite bit was when we had finished we went on a test track and it had some jumps, up and down steps , dodging trees as I raced passed at a million miles an hour!
It was the best but my bum really hurt for the next week!

By Matthew 
Cobra Patrol Leader

The Colour Rush for St Michael Hospice

The Colour Rush, which took place at Ripley castle, is a 5 kilometre run/walk to help raise money to support St. Michael Hospice, in Harrogate.

The reason we (Scouts, Cubs and Beavers) did it, was to raise money to help patients at St. Michael Hospice, who need a lot of care and help. So, by doing the run thousands of pounds were raised to help people at the hospice. 1^st Marston Moor must have collected between £350 and £500.This money will be used to improve people’s lives who have been affected by terminal illness.

The Cubs, Beavers and Scouts from 1^st Marston Moor did a 5 km run around Ripley Castle where every kilometres there is an area where about 8 volunteers throw paint at you, which is why at the end you look like a magical fairy in a rainbow. At the 1^st kilometre there was red paint, the 2^nd was yellow, green and blue after.

. After we finished we were given a packet of paint which of course, we poured on top of ourselves.

Some people were completely coloured as they either rolled in the paint or they were the volunteers who were caught in the clouds of paint.

I thought that doing this run is one of the best ways to do exercise, have fun and raise money for charity all at once. We had a Zumba warm up before the start but there was cake and drinks at the end.

I would definitely recommend this to you. I personally would rate this 9 out of 10. So if you want to do something good, this is for you.

By Jallan 

Stag Patrol

http://www.harrogate-news.co.uk/2016/06/20/pictures-colour-rush-2016-saint-michaels-hospice/

How many Scouts can you spot in the first few warm-up pictures? 

Wheelchair Basketball

Wheelchair Basketball

Our normal scouts’ night was changed to a Friday and at Long Marston village hall we had the exciting opportunity to try wheelchair basketball. Apart from Owen, it was the first time doing wheelchair basketball for us all, and we were all looking forward to it and couldn’t wait to play. They divided us into two groups of ten, one group went outside for an hour while the other group got used to the wheelchairs and played a few different games. Playing wheelchair basketball was a great experience and an amazing team sport. 

There were lots of things I thought would be different like the turning and the pushing; for example, I thought for the turning if you wanted to spin around and go the other way you would have to push one wheel and slowly manoeuvre yourself around. It turned out to be much more simple; you simply just spun one wheel backwards and grabbed both wheels when you had turned enough. The pushing was a lot harder than expected too. You couldn’t just push the wheels once and go really fast, you had to lean forward when you pushed to stop you falling backwards and that kind of hurt your back. You had to do big strong pushes to get a bit of speed up, so your arms and shoulders ached at the end. 

All in all, we had a great evening with the wheelchairs and couldn’t have done it without Adrian and his daughter Imogen from Hoopstars. 

As well as the fun we had, it made us realise how fit and skilful the 
para-athletes who compete in wheelchair basketball really are! 

By Will S 
Stag Patrol

Scouts at the Yorkshire Air Museum

The Yorkshire Air Museum

On Saturday the 28th of February, our scout troop visited the Yorkshire Air Museum which is at the site of the former RAF Elvington.

First we were split into groups and were given a paper to complete.  It had questions which we had to find the answers to.  We all ran into different rooms.  I will tell you what my group discovered.  Lucky for us all of our answers were in the pioneer room which included amazing facts about Sir George Cayley, other pioneers, planes and blimps.

Scouts Dam Busters Reenatment - Watch that bouncing bomb go!

Just before we finished our sheet, Andrea came and said that at lunch, all the groups would perform an act on a subject of their choice. We chose the Dambusters! Other choices included: Sir George Caley and Amy Johnstone.

After a few minutes it was lunch time. We all ate our lunches and at the end of lunch we all acted out our performances. Then we were all given another paper to do. Thankfully there was only one question that needed you to go somewhere so everyone just sat on a bench or rock to do this paper. This time the questions were about plane parts.

We then finished the trip with some fun games.

I would highly recommend the Yorkshire Air Museum as you can learn and have fun at the same time. 
By Tynan, Wolf Patrol.
 

 

Kilnsey: The Horse Riding & Fishing Camp

It all began on the afternoon of Friday the 23^rd of October, at the base of the breath-taking Upper Wharfedale valley deep in the Yorkshire Dales. We all pitched camp in the usual scout fashion, pitching tents, brewing tea, sparking a cosy campfire and huddling up for the cold night ahead. What happened the next morning however was where things got interesting, because,  beforehand we had been told that this was in fact not a generic, cook, hike, sleep, repeat scout camp; but that it was in fact a horse riding  / fish murdering scout camp. SO we rolled up our sleeves in preparation for our first morning’s horse riding.

At ten o’clock sharp Saturday morning we were all ready to meet the horses, and after we’d actually shown the horses that in fact we were not their food, we got stuck in with grooming and saddling up the steeds we’d be riding for the rest of camp. We learnt how to approach our horses safely, how to clean their hooves and bodies of dirt and stones, and most importantly, how to fit their saddles and bridles, and eventually how to mount them. With all that sorted, we set out for our first proper ride of the camp, a pleasant gander along the bank of the River Wharfe.   It wasn’t the particularly fast and arduous trek that we were expecting, but it was a nice way to start. After a swift picnic lunch, for the second part of our horse-riding morning we were ushered to the trekking club’s horse arena for some basic skills (some handled it better than others) involving trying to wrestle ourselves and respective ponies round and round the circuit, whilst simultaneously trying not to fall off.

For our afternoon entertainment, (so the leaders said) we were to do fishing, and most of us managed to catch some fine, shiny trout. Despite the popular opinion of fishing being boring, in practice, it was surprisingly challenging and altogether very satisfying when you hauled in your catch. Although, the “humane” killing and gutting of our soon-to-be dinner, wasn’t, to say the least everyone’s cup of tea. Next, we came to the cooking of the fish, and following some professional preparation masterchef would have been proud to judge, we grilled our juicy meat to culinary perfection, and treated ourselves to a warm campfire dinner. Then, we fell asleep, believe it or not.

When the next morning arose, we briskly returned to the trekking centre for our second day’s riding, and, having said our hello’s and prepared our ponies for the second time, we set out on what would become our camp’s equivalent to the traditional scout stroll across the hills, a graceful saunter through some majestic views from the hills. And after another picnic lunch, we were again taken up to the arena, for some more advanced riding skills, including slaloms, mounting and dismounting, and trotting (to the obvious amusement of our leaders).

With the end of camp fast approaching, we returned to our deserted campsite for the traditional task of striking camp. And, when all was said and done, all the tents pulled down, all the food packed away, all the questionably edible fish digested, and every last trace of horsehair brushed from our clothes, we returned home in good spirits, and in no doubt why we had sore stomachs weeks later.

Blog by

Guy, Falcon Patrol Leader

Tohunga: Day 1 Hike

Tent Pitching

So we'd practised the skills, planned the route and today (May 9th) was the day of the first hike.  This year though we had to put up our tents before we set off.  

Once the tents were up we had to have our bags checked - to make sure we were carrying the correct equipment for a full day hiking.  (We did apart from the fingerless gloves - not much use for protecting your fingers from the elements on a mountain!).  Once the gear was checked we had to orientate our maps and then set off.

Waiting for the gear check

The route had actually changed a bit from the one we route planned, because there had been loads of rain the night before (thankfully not on the competition like 2014) we couldn't cross Cogden Beck because it was more raging torrent then beck.  We left Grinton in high sprints, the first section of walk was through the village and then through small fields with lots of stiles over the dry stone walls.  Most of this section was a steady trek uphill out of the Swale valley.  

After the checkpoint we were on a bridleway in open moorland traversing the side of the valley.  We could the villages of Grinton, Reeth and Helaugh below. Once past Reeth we dropped back down the valley to the riverside (checkpoint on the way down), then over the suspension bridge and almost into Reeth.  This was a cruel part of the walk we'd climbed up and way from the campsite, come back down and towards the campsite - then instead of being able to go to camp we had to walk away from it again!

The path followed the opposite side of the river across fields (and even more stiles) full of sheep and lambs - not sure what they thought of all the scouts wandering by!

The next checkpoint was the village of Helaugh (he-law, he-laff, he-low - we still don't know how to pronounce it).  From the village we climbed the steepest road in the world, thankfully it wasn't too far.  Then back onto the moorland.  We had to be mindful here of nesting grouse and make sure we stuck to the footpaths.  This was the worse bot for navigation - there were so few points to reference.  When we got to Skellgate lane (not a lane - but a small sort of cobbled path which was uncomfortable walking for weary feet), we knew it was the home straight.  The lane took us down to Reeth (checkpoint).  We headed through the village, looked longingly at the ice-cream shop and continued over Reeth Bridge and then back across the valley fields to our campsite in Grinton.

Setting Off

Tohunga: The Training

Tohunga Training

Tohunga, Teko Teko and Tahwiri are 3 levels of an annual scout and explorers competition run by our local district Harrogate & Nidderdale District Scouts.  At 1st Marston Moor we had a team of 5 in the Tohunga section of the competition.

In Tohunga you have two route plan and hike a 7  to 8 mile hike, pitch camp, cook dinner, camp overnight, cook breakfast and hike a second (previously route planned) 7 to 8 mile hike.  All without a leader!

To do this we needed to have some navigation, cooking and camp skills and be able to work as a team!  We needed to learn first aid and rescue techniques as well - thankfully we didn't need them

Tent Pitching

Training began in March with a short hike around a nearby village called Marton cum Grafton.  /it gave us a chance to show what map and navigation skills we had.  While we walked we talked about the competition and our scout leader (SL) asked questions about first aid and rescue techniques if we became lost.  It was all fine -but the looked horrified when one of the team said they didn't need to look at the map because they had memorised it!

The second training session was orienteering on West Chevin Park, this was all about navigation and teamwork!  (With lots of first aid and rescue questions - on the way).

The wet practise hike

We had two training sessions in Kirk Hammerton, we practised cooking on the Trangia stoves pitching and striking tents and did some of the route planning for the actual competition.  Of course there were lots of questions on first aid and rescue.

We also did two more hikes - on one it was so wet and cold that we had to abandon the walk part way.   Even though we all had waterproofs on we were still getting wet through to our clothes.  These hikes were all 8 miles or more - distance practise for the actual competition. (Plus more navigation, first aid and rescue!).

Finn Perkins-Hill

Wolf Patrol

Big camp 2015

Big Camp 2015

Over the weekend of the 1^st to 4^th May the 1st Marston Moor Scouts, Cubs and Beavers went to BIG CAMP, with approximately 6000 other scouts and leaders!

The event, at the Great Yorkshire Showground in Harrogate, was organised by West Yorkshire Scouts and had over 300 activities, from axe throwing to fairground rides, donkey rides to ice climbing and a nightly entertainment programme (see the video).  One of the scouts, Bodhana, has written about the camp.

Big Camp was amazing! We did loads of activities. Plus we had a program that said what you could do and when, for example – cave bus, bungee jumping, bouncy castle, and a fair ground not to mention the music festival every night (it was so good).

The weather was pretty poor on Saturday and Sunday, but Monday was a gorgeous day. Lots of us went in a hot tub, but we made the mistake of going in when it was VERY COLD.

Our food was cooked by our lovely Scouts. Yummy! The camp was different from others because it had cool activities and a lot of people we could make friends with. On the whole Big Camp was…….

THE BEST CAMP EVER!

Bo

Jaguar Patrol

Paulo's Circus

Paulos Circus

Last term 1^st Marston Moor Scout Group went to see a circus in Poppleton called Paulos Circus. I loved this trip because there were all sorts of acts like tightrope, rings and magic.

On the way in, everybody was standing waiting for the show to finally start. Whilst we were waiting for it to begin, we got up and ate our candy floss and popcorn – yummy (they didn't last long)! When it started some crazy clowns (without masks) came and made a dramatic entrance for the start of the circus to kick it off.

Next came my favourite bit of the show with the amazing ringmaster with lots of tricks up his sleeve. He strapped himself to two ropes, a machine pulled him up and then he began doing amazing tricks, some tricks with two arms, some with one and even hanging by his legs!

Then came the woman with juggling feet! She threw and caught hoops, juggling clubs and even rings of fire – impressive! The magic man then came in with his assistant to perform amazing magic tricks with cage escapes and even escaped from suspended cages.

Overall, I think that was one of the best trips that I've been to in my time with 1^st Marston Moor Scouts. If you do happen to go, I hope you enjoy it too!

By Ben, Falcon Patrol

Clowning Around

Clowning Around.

On the 25^th of February we had a visit from Marko’s Circus and Mark the clown. We got benches out and we watched him use everything from Diablo to 4 wheeled unicycle (4 wheeled are to train people for the 1 wheeled) to miming and spinning plates. Other things were flower sticks, club juggling and scarf juggling which is a lot easier than club juggling. After wards we got told to grab a scarf/ handkerchief (which are specially made for this and don’t look like scarf’s by the way more like just a square of fabric) Mark then asked us to throw it in the air but not catch it like in normal juggling more to grab it out of there air since they float down. Then we had to throw it and spin 360 and then catch it and at one point we had to throw the scarf and catch it on our feet. 

After we had a go with the flower sticks, we had to roll the baton down the stocks and then all the way down our arms so it stopped at out shoulders, then we had to pass the sticks back to our partner.  They had to lift the baton over our heads and then roll it down their arms.  We would run behind them get the sticks and do it again.

After we had some time to play around with everything else and practise them and have a good time like everything else scouts do. Everyone had a great time, it was really fun.  One of our scouts Robert said “it was really good”.   Soon we will be going to a real circus to see the professionals in action.

Owen,

Wolf Patrol

Trees for the future

North Yorkshire Moors Week 6

Tree Planting

We first had a ride in the mini bus to an open field and then walked to a section of the River Esk.

The Pearl Mussel Project is designed to stop the banks of the river slipping into the water. When this happens this pollutes the river harming the wild life.

Our task was to plant 48 Oak and Hazel trees along the river bank to stop this happening.

We were given the correct tools and told how to use them safely.

First we put the posts into the ground and cut a square of turf out. We dug the hole deep enough for the roots. The tree was planted and the soil put back in the hole pushed down. The turf was replaced making sure it was placed upside down. Next the protective tube was placed over the tree to protect it from wildlife until it is established. We repeated this until all the trees were planted.

By Ben,
Stag Patrol

North Yorkshire Moors Week 5

Snow Day in the Moors

When we got to Sutton Bank we were handed our tools and gloves and set off, we walked in the snow for a while when we got near the 'finest view in England' the view truly was amazing.  

We then turned right and carried on walking when we got there we got told about what we were doing, we had to cut off the branches that would potentially hit walkers and people riding on horses we had a pair of loppers each also a pocket saw each.  In the bag of tools there was a few bigger saws and something like a pair of loppers mounted on a pole to use it you had to pull a string when holding the loppers up to a high branch which closed the blades, cutting the branch the other thing in the bag was a saw mounted on a pole also we used these to cut high branches that would potentially hit the horse or the person riding it.

I helped cut down a particularly large branch that would block a rider it was hard but the work was also fun, when you got cold you had hot chocolate and set back off to work.  When we had finished we had a group photo and started to walk back to the visitor centre.

We had lunch in the building then set off to the wood's to build dens. We had a certain amount of time to build a den I was with, Luke, Matthew and Owen we built our den by leaning a stick on a tree and leaning sticks against that, which we then put moss and other coverings on it to protect it. We tested the other dens by throwing snowballs at them.

I had lots of fun that day.

By Josh

Patrol  Leader, Cobra Patrol