With ourselves enjoying at last year’s #InTents# at Thriftwood so much we rebooked again for this year. Having great memories of last year’s hot summer, we were over optimistic investing in an inflatable pool and new BBQs in preparation, which now seems a good future investment for the group’s events. With six leaders and 24 Scouts and Explorers fully prepared and roaring to go with our new site #4 which has an electrical hook up and adjacent to the archery field, close to the action.
Category Archives: Scout Blog
Air Camp 23 – The Best Ever – 09-11 June
After 10 months of planning and preparation the weekend finally arrived Air Camp 2023 – The Best Ever. With a total of 106 Scouts and Explorers, 22 of them representing 5th Dartford, descending to Old Hay Airfield, Paddock Wood. The weather forecast was for a heat wave, which was accurate for a change. There was unfortunate accident on the A21 causing road closures and some a 2 hour delay in their arrival time, along with many parents discovering the wonders of the app WhatThreeWords/// as opposed to post codes and car SatNavs.
Scouts Going for Gold
Well done to Kaden, Oscar Dilan & Fenn who all completed the expedition element of their Chief Scout Gold Award before recieving their certificates and moving on to Explorers.
NSRA Bisley October 2022
After a few years off, we assembled a team of 5 Scouts and 8 Explorers who had completed the NSRA YPS target shooting course to once again compete at the National Scout Rifle Championships at NSRA Bisley. We were once again blessed with good weather and a good pitch location. Below are a few pictures from the weekend.
Summer Camp 2022 – #INTENTS# Thriftwood
With COVID19 lockdown memories fading, although still evident cautious guidance by TSA, the leaders agreed to keep this year’s summer camp close and easily manageable for all concerned. Hence when one of our local campsites Thriftwood advertised it’s set week’s summer camp with all the camping, activities plus day out to an adventure park, it seemed ideal for all concerned.
2022-04-22 – St George’s Parade
After a two-year hiatus a good many of our members were able to proudly parade our colours with other groups from the district. Meeting smartly at the hall, we paraded down West Hill and through the town centre, without impaling any shop signs or pedestrians, before joining the district and taking our place by the bandstand. The weather was very kind to us and after the formalities, we joined the parade around the park, receiving the grateful applause of flag waving parents and public; something our young folk have missed out on.
2022-04-01 – Easter Camp @ Thriftwood
Having booked this camp for Easter 2020, it was a matter of changing the list of attendees and a new risk assessment. 7 leaders arrived at camp @13:00 to get set up and shop for the food, with 35 Explorers and Scouts arriving from 6pm to the first supper of 1/4lb burgers, followed later by cake and hot chocolate. Saturday morning started early with porridge, cereal and bacon sandwiches, followed with 3hours of crate stacking, leap of faith and zip wire activities before a lunch of sandwiches, soup, crisps and fruit. After lunch everyone went on a pre-planned hike in groups, which took @3hrs. Saturday’s evening meal consisted of Spaghetti Bolognaise and garlic bread. Temperatures plummeted on Saturday night, so it was good forethought that we had booked ‘The Village’ at Thriftwood, which consists of heated huts and a fully equipped tented kitchen and dining area, although 8 Explorers and 5 leaders still preferred being under canvas, but everyone arose well slept, even the explorers who had spent most of the night at around the campfire. Breakfast on Sunday was again cereals followed by a cooked breakfast of sausages, baked beans and eggy bread, which went down very well. Activities on Sunday consisted of fields games, rounders, an Easter egg hunt and the all-important trip to the providor to load upon confectionary and camp souvenirs. At the end of camp, we awarded some prizes for various activities and issued everyone with a camp badge for their camp blanket and dismissed promptly at 15:00. Despite the weather being fresh, we were lucky to escape rain and saw much blue sky; looking forward to the next camp already…..
2021-12-05 – 105th Birthday
Meeting at the hall at 10:00, 42 of our Young People and leaders paraded our colours to the Spital Street Methodist Church to attend our Group’s 105th Birthday Service. Five of our young folk did readings and others assisted with the offertory. Grou
p Scout Leader, Paul, presented some leadership awards and spoke of the troubled couple of years we’d had and thanked everyone for their efforts in keeping Scouting going. After enjoying some refreshments and biscuits with members of the church we returned to the hall and dismissed for lunch. The celebrations continued in the afternoon at Gravity, Bluewater, where we enjoyed a session of trampolining.
2021-08-27 – Hammock Camp
With the revision of COVID restriction and guidance on Scouting activities we managed to arrange at short notice a Hammock Camp at Thriftwood Scout Camp Site.
Friday – Setting up camp was certainly different without tents, with a shelter and parachuter camp fire area already on site it only involved rigging 20 plus hammocks and setting up the kitchen which seem to take the same time as a normal camp! With the Scouts exploring their new surroundings, collecting wood and fetching water the adventure begun with a BBQ feast of sausages, burgers and corn on the cob, it was pretty impressive how much smoke a parachute can contain, let alone Tim’s laser show to entertain us. And what do all Scouts of all ages enjoy after supper and in the dark, Wide-Games of course, with a hide and seek game as we paraded through the camp sites, along with a night time navigation snippets whilst we were in the clearings identifying: The Plough, North Star and Jupiter rising in the West. With the day finishing with Hot Chocolate and biscuits around a blazing log fire.
Saturday – Starting the day with Paul’s world-famous Porridge which always sets you up for a day at camp, even if it was made with white pepper (it looked the same as salt container!). The Scouts prepared themselves a breakfast of Bacon, Eggs and Beans before the morning activities of wood carving with a few good tent pegs being created as well as a hamster chew sticks and other creations, with the Explorers fabricating camp seating. The Kayak session was great fun, with the leaders seeming to fall in much easier and more often than any of the younger members especially when the games of had and little fishy being played. After hot showers a lunch of ham & cheese or even cheese & ham sandwiches was quickly devoured, followed by field games before the trip to the ‘Providore’ to stock on sweets and drinks. The rest of the afternoon was taken up with collecting wood and preparing the chickens for supper cooked in Dutch ovens as a one pot meal, surprisingly there was very little left overs as compared to the breakfast porridge.
Another fine evening enabled more wide games to be played, followed by the traditional Hot Chocolate around the camp fire.
Sunday – Pancakes proved to be very popular, with the predictable flipping competition. Following breakfast, the Scouts walked the camp site collecting an array of different leaves from the trees and identifying the various wildlife as well as sampling the plentiful blackberries. All participated in a Scout Own reflecting on Scout and Scouting focusing on how we as individuals can achieve so much working with other scouts. The walk ended up at the assault course where the cargo net proved the most popular obstacle. With lunch devoured the last few field games were played out, with a flag down ceremony where all Scouts were presented with a Thriftwood ‘Intents’ Camping badge to close down the camp.
2019-09-20 – Earley-Troop Night Hike
Whilst Earely Troop converged at Ingress Abbey they completed their route card, checking the equipment they had, the weather forecast, detailing the planned route. Before setting off, time was taken to look at and review the history of the stately home which is still a family home (Lord and Lady Hailes) which was built in 1831 from stones from the old London Bridge, the follies surrounding the gardens and the curse laid on Henry VIII and all future owners of the estate from the last Abbess of Dartford! Continue reading