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Greville Troop Summer Camp 2009 (Wales)

Adapted from Ben's parents evening speech

Very early one clear, sunny Saturday morning 2 full minibuses and a van left the Scout Headquarters for Wales.

When we arrived, we found that our home for the week was a very small field down a steep track at the bottom of the valley. We had lunch and went back to the top of the hill and found that the van had got stuck trying to come round the first corner. We then had to carry 3 tonnes of equipment down to the campsite. Andrew tried to make stretchers for us to load the equipment onto but they failed miserably! As we were unloading it started to rain – we were in Wales! We put up the tents and had dinner cooked for us by Sue because we were all so tired. Thank you Sue.

Sunday — we went to visit a man from the Mountain Rescue who gave us a talk about what they do. We found out that a 1/3 of their call outs were due to old people who had wandered off and got lost. We decided we should keep a close eye on John all week! We spent the rest of the day setting up camp – erecting dressers and collecting fire wood.

Monday — day hike in the hills. We saw lots of army people who were training and lots of low flying planes. It drizzled on and off throughout the day. One group got back from the hike at 3pm, another at 4pm and then 2 groups back at 6pm. This was due to a mix up with the routes and injuries.

Tuesday — we went to Black Mountain Sports. We took part in canoeing and climbing and it poured with rain for our canoeing – never mind we were getting wet anyway! The water however was freezing.

Wednesday — We went to the Big Pitt which was very interesting. We were told not to take anything with a battery in it down the mine in case we blew it up! We learnt about the winching system and how they told people to open doors using a wire buzzer. We were also shown where the pit ponies slept and how they were used. And the weather – it chucked it down!

In the afternoon we had a wood collecting session organised by John as it had stopped raining. We failed to find any dry wood!

Thursday — We went back to Black Mountain Sports to supposedly attempt Pot Holing and Gorge Walking. However, due to the excessive rain the day before the river had flooded so the activities were too dangerous. We therefore did raft building instead. Harry's groups raft broke and Harry ended up swimming and managed to come 2nd! We then went back to camp and went across the rope bridge that the leaders had made across the river which had burst it's banks.

Friday — The leaders decided we were smelly and dunked as in the river which was very cold and fast moving! We then took part in Camp Sports which was a lot of fun. There were events such as Caber Toss, Tug of War, Welly Throw, Aeroplane race and the Charity race. It did of course drizzle with rain for our sports.

We then began to strike camp in preparation for Saturday.

That evening we had a massive campfire with an effigy of an Otter on the top. It was still burning in the morning.

Saturday — We took down the tents in the pouring rain and were saved by a man with a Range Rover and trailer who took all our stuff back up to the van. We then drove back and as soon as we crossed the bridge back to England, the sun came out!!

Despite the weather, the camp was very good and enjoyed by all.

More pictures are avaliable on our pictures page.

29 Oct 2009