28th July to 4th August 2007

Saturday:

When we arrived at the campsite, we decided on where to put the tents. Robbie got the best spot, which obviously never flooded and helpfully told us that there was nowhere else safe from the rain. We found an old square sort of stone house foundations, which comfortably seated our fire, incinerator and 1 tent. The other tent was outside the stone foundations where the younger scouts would have to sleep. We put the dining shelter outside the foundations as well. It must have been the worst spot ever but we only put it up to make the leaders happy. Later we went to collect wood and we started our fire early knowing that we would then have good embers to cook dinner quickly. But the other patrol was quick to point out that it would be too hard work and waste wood. After dinner of soup and burgers we had a meeting in the marquee about the plans for the forthcoming week. Then we had bog wash and cake. 

Sunday:

With our fire still with embers, breakfast was another walk in the park but washing up was another story. After breakfast and other jobs we went to Beddgelert. The toilets were a pleasure to use as they had a funny thing that cleaned the toilet. The fudge shop was a very popular shop and most people bought things. We watched Sam and Tom enjoy the water. When we got back we cooked dinner and sat in the marquee for bog wash and cakes. 

Monday

We woke up to a nice warm day. As per usual our fire was burning nicely so cooking and washing up were similar stories. Then we did shelter building which Tom and I had to miss due to bad washing up and bad positioning of tents. So we had to rearrange things. Then after lunch we went canoeing at Plas y Brenin. It was really good and Lewis made friends with a young man from Liverpool called Danny. Luckily the weather stayed good and everyone enjoyed it. Dinner was good quality chicken breasts, which went down well with everyone. We also had some crumbles and tarts that the leaders made. I can’t remember which we had this time but I know that the rhubarb crumble had an interesting effect on some people especially me.

Tuesday

In the morning we made rafts, which we later tested. I spent my time fishing and was very unsuccessful. The rafts were not the most successful but we all had a laugh and I think it was voted the best day all week. Later on in the evening we went on a walk to sleep on the top of a hill. One of the hills we had to walk up on the way proved rather difficult to some members of the group. When we got there we set up our bivvies. Some set up better than others. For an example, Sam and Robbie’s shelter where they happily slept with the tarpaulin on top of them. 

Wednesday

We were woken up at 7:30 am to renew the scout promise. After we all were glad to see a nice healthy fat free breakfast of mars bars. The way back was easy as it was all down hill but some struggled to keep up. When we arrived back at camp we had something to eat and time to relax. Being me and my mad thing about fishing I went again but this time armed with a t-shirt. This time I was successful with a nice catch of 17 sticklebacks aka tidlers and 3 baby brown trout. I named them all Richard (being very imaginative) and later we released them into our dam where they slowly but surely disappeared. The breeding programme was a complete failure. After lunch we had camp Olympics, which was fun with the flour run which I won and mallet throwing, welly waning, river run and Dutch arrows. It was great fun. That night we had shepherds pie with soya mince. I must admit it was not the nicest meal in the world but with our stomachs empty, none was wasted.

Thursday

We had a good breakfast knowing that we had the night hike ahead and it would be quite tiring. We organised the routes to take and packed equipment. For lunch we had pasta bake which was very nice. Then we set of on the dreaded night hike. The woods proved quite difficult due to forestation but a bit of off-roading got us to the pub in the end. We found Paul there who had run up Snowdon who was sure he had only had snickers from a pub, which cost him 65p. When we went to find the directions from the owner I bought a snickers, which cost me a tidy 60p.

When we reached the campsite the other patrol were already there and were boasting about the fact they had already been there for an hour but we were glad we actually got there. We pitched the tents and cooked dinner, which was good. Then we had a laugh and went to bed.

Friday

We woke to have bread and jam for breakfast. We took down the tents and packed. After another few stops to the toilet we set off. This time somebody else asked us for directions but obviously we knew where we were. When we arrived at camp, we sat in the marquee with Paul feeding us what we wanted. It rained quite heavily and never stopped. This was the second time we cooked on the stove but it was just to make the stew taste nice. It was my favourite meal of the week. After dinner we decided not to sleep in the bivvies due to rain so we slept five people in one tent. 

Saturday 

We woke up to find that our campsite was very wet and thanks to Mike for telling us to move our tents we were dry. The worst day lay ahead. We packed everything away and put our gear in the barn. Then we left in nice dry, warm cars.