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