Histon Guides Camp Diary 2009
Friday 17th July
we meet to pack our van ready for the morning. We managed to avoid the rain but did have a few puddles to wade through to get to our equipment.
Saturday 18th
we piled on to the coach, waited for the road surfacing men to let us out of IVC and headed towards PACCAR Chalfont Heights Scout Site in Buckinghamshire. We arrived ahead of our van so picniced in the car park waiting for our equipment to arrive.After lunch we loaded our equipment on to trailers and the Camp Crew kindly helped us to transport our belongings to Site 7 which we are to call home for the week.
Site 7 was situated in the woodland and was a very funny shape, we worked out where to position our tents and the work began. After moving one tent quite a few times we managed to fit everyone in and the site looked more homely. Then we started to collect wood for our wood pile, which the Guides found extremely difficult to find even though we were in a wood!!!!
We cooked dinner on fires and finished the evening off with a camp fire (we are aiming to learn 100 songs to celebrate the Guiding Centenary).
Sunday 19th
after cooking breakfast we went climbing and did abseiling, in the afternoon we went on the Adventure Area. Later in the day some girls went on the High Ropes. Those who did not, stayed on site built a flag pole (with a little help) using broom handles and rope. They also made bread rolls which we cooked in a camp oven over a fire (It only took 90 minutes to cook the rolls and they were a little small for our bacon butties – better luck next time!!). We then prepared and cooked chilli for dinner.
Monday 20th
after breakfast and camp chores we went to try out our Archery skills. In the afternoon we went on the Adventure area again.All patrols managed to finish their washing up stands, and some started on their campers badge and survivors badge. In the evening the girls taught the camp crew from Australia how to play rounders. We finished the evening with a camp fire we now have 38 songs!!!
Tuesday 21st
in the morning we continued with our badge work making shelters and hammocks, collecting water and identifying edible and non edible plants and how to find North with out a compass. In the afternoon we went rifle shooting and played skittles when we came back we tie dyed t-shirts, each girl had a bowl of water to rinse the shirt then pass it on around the circle. Oh did I mention it was raining again!
Wednesday 22nd
in the morning we went Pedal Go-Carting and on the Traverse Wall. After this we planned our menus for the evening meal, each Patrol was given a budget, we walked into the local village where the Patrols had to buy all the ingredients that they required (after some group discussions each Patrol finally managed to purchase all that they required) we then walked back to site, collecting wood on the way and the individual Patrols cooked their own evening meals.In the evening we went to a campfire organised by the Site Camp Crew, as this finished quite early we carried on with our own campfire and the crew joined us for hot chocolate and biscuits.
Thursday 23rd
in the morning we went down the Rabbit Run (man made pot holes) and got quite dirty (had I mentioned that we had had rain at some point every day!)In the afternoon we started to pack up our equipment – scrubbing the soot from our pots and packing all the bowls and buckets away. We had hoped to take down some tents in the dry but it rained again so instead we took down WET tents!
That night after a camp fire the girls all slept in one of the patrol tents as they were unable to sleep under the stars as rain was forecast AGAIN!!
Friday 24th
we took down the rest of our WET canvas and loaded our equipment into the trailers ready to be transported to the car park.When our van was loaded we sat in the car park once again for a picnic. We boarded our coach and drove home through the most amazing thunder and lighting storms – with rain of course – and pulled in to IVC at 3.00. We managed to give the WET canvas out to parents to dry and packed everything else into the camp store.
Saturday 25th
Some dry canvas returned and all wet equipment in the hut dried ready for storage.!!!!!!
The Guides all seem to have had a great time at Summer Camp and have come home with that lovely camp fire smell and hopefully the songs to go with it.
I would like to thank all those who made camp possible this year Rebecca, Erin, Caroline, Scott, Francis, Nigel, Becky, Suzzie, Craig and Paul.
Alison
Histon Guide Guider
Yay for excellent camping. Sounds like you guys had a great time. I wondered whether we did right right thing in Scouts by staying one more day til the Saturday… but we got our tents down dry
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Looks like a fab campsite. I keep meaning to get the Scouts shooting.. haven’t yet. So one up for you. I reckon we won on the picturesque site, private river and mountain… but I could have used one of your experts to tell me about the local flora. Not my strength. Clueless!
Tell me, was I driving my lot too hard? Up at 7:30 or 8ish… they kept drifting off to bed at 21:00ish before we’d got around to lighting a camp fire, all but two nights!!