Dry Sandford - October 2010

Written by Kieran (Scout) as part of his Writer Activity Badge.

Friday 1^st October

When we arrived at camp we pitched our tents ready to sleep in. After that we decided to go on a hike around Dry Sandford. When we got back about half an hour later we had supper, Hot Dogs & Hot Chocolate, then at about 10:00PM we went to our tents and tried to get to sleep!!!

The things that I most enjoyed today were:

Putting up our tents.
Eating supper.

Saturday 2^nd October

This morning we got up at about 7:00AM and decided to go exploring in the woods surrounding the campsite, where we got pretty wet and muddy!!! Then at 8:30AM we had our breakfast. The first task of the day for my group was Axe work, we learnt how to use big and small axes to chop logs and twigs. Second task was learning different types of ways to start a fire e.g. pyramid, jenga. Then we chose what type of fire we would use to make our altar fires with. After that we had our lunch. The third task was to make bivouacs using only trees, sticks and a sheet of tarpaulin. About half an hour later we decided to walk down to a local quarry where, with hammers, we tried to find crystals and fossils in the sandstone. Finally, after walking back to camp, we made our dinner, pasta bolognese, which we cooked on our altar fires. That night it was too wet to have a camp fire so we could either go into our tents or stay indoors.

My best parts of today were:

Making fires.
Learning how to use an axe safely.
Making bivouacs.
Making dinner.

Sunday 3^rd October

This morning the Scouts were in charge of making breakfast which was quite easy. The first task of today was to put our tents away (which was quite a challenge!!!). After that we went into the woods again where most people decided to follow the stream to the edge of the campsite. Finally, it was nearly time to leave the camp so we had our lunch, made sure we had everything then departed camp.

The best bits of today for me were:

Making breakfast.
Putting down our tents.

As part of the Scouts' Promise Challenge, the Scouts had to honestly review a recent event and discuss the ways to improve it for next time. Those who went on the Skills Camp were asked to write about the camp. Here are some of the thoughts of the Scouts:

"One of my favourite activities was cooking on the campfire. My second favourite was building the bivouacs and when we were making the fire and we made a jenga fire and ours lit first. The worst things were the boys' tents were very noisy and missing the camp fire" (due to the bad weather).
"I enjoyed skills camp because I learnt a lot of new skills like: axeing, building fires, building a tree house" (in their spare time), "going to the quarry. Dislikes: washing-up and late bed times! It was a very eventful trip and I loved it."
"I really enjoyed skills camp. I especially enjoyed fire making even though the rain put ours out. I enjoyed making dinner on the campfire. We cooked cheese and herb bread, pasta bolognese and syrup cake with custard
"There wasn't much I didn't enjoy, except the weather. I'd change that if it was possible!"
"I enjoyed making bivouacs because it took skill to build them (lashings, finding good sticks). Also I hate the washing up now.The thing to improve is wash up quicker."

Overall, the Scouts seemed to have a great time, and there were lots of positive reviews about the camp. It was also useful to get feedback from the Scouts about what they may not have enjoyed; we will try and cut these things out (where possible!) for next time.

Putting the tents up on Friday night
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Learning how to make a fire
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Group A making a wig-wam fire
Learning how to make a fire
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Group B learning about jenga-style fires
Axe work
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Skip teaching about axes
Preparing Dinner
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Bivouac
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Bivouac
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