142nd Troop Camp 2004 - Cumbria
Home Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
No camp is complete without some silly sports to call a Sports Day.
This year we had Dutch Arrow competitions, Trebuchet Competitions, Cross Fell run, and water slide competitions.
The Dutch arrows were made during the first half of the morning, with many of the new scouts undertaking this task for the first time. All that is needed is a short length of stick, whittled down to a point at one end, fitted with feathers (Cardboard flights) at the other, then launched using a piece of string. There is a definite technique and once gained the arrows can be thrown an impressive distance.
The trebuchet was very impressive allowing the scouts to hurl a rock nearly 200 feet. Another test was accuracy which was much harder, although one patrol scored a direct hit during what should have been the distance shot.
The cross country run is set using a 'hare' in the shape of Dave who left blobs of flour to identify the route. One blob indicating the wrong way, two blobs indicating the correct route. The final route was just over a mile around the 'hill' and back to the site, unfortunately the first runner missed a single blob and ended up running all the way to Black Crag, taking the less than observant followers with him. In the end all but one runner ran about six miles rather than the intended 1. (Just imagine the complaints if we told them it was going to be 6 miles)
The final event was various methods of coming down, or up the water slide. A simple piece of plastic drenched in water mixed with washing up liquid.
Events on this included, most number of slides in 3 minutes, fastest time to run up, and longest distance to slide after leaving the plastic.
The eventual winners of the Sports Day were 'The Blang Thongs'.
Friday night is spent sleeping in natural shelters, and after
the sports all the scouts made bivouacs that held between two and three.
This allowed them to
strike their normal tents ready for packing tomorrow.
Before that however there were a couple of hours around the main camp fire for a
few jokes, sketches and songs.
The main camp fire was used to heat the hot water using 'Puffin' Billy' as seen here. It is a simple design using an old beer barrel. Just poor water into the top and the hot water is pushed up and out of the spout on the left. The cold water is then almost instantly heated ready for the next person.
There is also a camp oven that fits beside 'Puffin' Billy' which was successfully used to bake cakes and fruit crumbles this year - One of Dave's specialities
Saturday >