District Patrol Camping Competition 2010
18 Oct 2010
By Jonathan
On the 9th October 2010 the Falcon patrol set off to Boider Hurst for a 2 day competition camp, which I am pleased to say, we won.Although this was when the camp started, weeks of hard work and planning had gone into it to make sure that we had the best possible chance of success. Everything had been planned from the tents we were going to bring to the camp menu. We had decided to give our camp a theme, we chose Moroccan. The idea came from the decision to make our presentation meal based on a dinner we had cooked earlier in the year at summer camp called Moroccan Lamb.
Once we got to Boider Hurst, as we were the first there, we were allowed to choose which site we preferred. We chose one that had a fire altar downwind of it, not too stony ground and not too close to the camp fire circle as we preferred to get on with it without too many disruptions.
Then the other patrols arrived from 1st Fetcham after which we had the opening ceremony, where we were set a challenge. This challenge was to keep a camp "log" - not the normal paper log that you would normally expect though. Our log was wooden! We had to name it, dress it, feed it, wash it, make it generally happy and most important of all, bring him (by now we had named him Clive) with us wherever we went. We made him a caftan to go with our Moroccan theme.
After the opening ceremony, we went to our site and started setting it up. It took a long time pitching the Icelandic tent, a store tent and a dining shelter all to competition standard. We also put up a flag pole, made a very good dresser and an assortment of other camp gadgets. Once our site was fully set up, we went back to the warden's hut and had a game of handball while our site was inspected.
After the game was over, we went back to our site and started to prepare the meal. We also decorated the dining shelter to make it look more Moroccan. At about quarter to six Rev. Alan Jenkins, our VIP guest arrived. Once we had finished cooking and put on our caftans and fezzes, it was 6 o'clock so we sat down and started to eat on time Rev Jenkins at the head of the table leading the conversation.
After dinner, we had a 'no violence' wide game which the cubs had invited us to. You had to find hidden leaders and they would give you glow sticks. The more glow sticks you had, the more points you had.
Afterwards we invited the Cubs to our campfire. At the camp fire we sang songs and each patrol performed a campfire stunt. The first to perform was one of the Fetcham patrols who performed the well known Marks and Spencer campfire stunt. When it was the turn of the other Fetcham patrol there was a problem as somehow they had decided to do the same stunt. How this happened I don't know as both patrols where from the same Troop so I would have thought that they would have conferred to make sure that they weren't doing the same thing. Then it was our turn, we performed a stunt called the furniture store, but we put a Moroccan theme to it.
Sunday morning came too fast as we were tired. Nevertheless, we were up early to light our fire and cook breakfast. Then we tided our tent and site ready for inspection.
Then we had scouts own followed by our shared activities. We did a river crossing challenge (first trialled at last year's parents evening) and the 'human knot' game. The other patrols did catapult and football. After the games we went back to our sites for lunch. We made carrot and coriander soup followed by a couscous salad.
After lunch we had to strike camp. This took a long time but it had to be done so it was. At 2:30pm John and Andrew came back on site to help and to load the trailer.
Then there was the closing ceremony where we almost thought we came last when Les (ADC Scouts and camp leader) read out the wrong result twice. This got us slightly worried but we where relived to hear that we had in fact come first by a whopping 60 points or so.
Then we tucked Clive safely into the trailer (despite Sam and Callum's protests) and made for home.
Over all it was a fun and successful camp (because we won) and now we have a trophy which you will probably see from the photo is a bit big for the trophy cabinet!
Submitted: 19 Oct 2010
1stbookhamscouts.org.uk)