On Sunday 26th October 7 leaders, 3 explorers and 8 Scouts represented the 5th Dartford Scout Group at the Craft Fair held at the Dartford Masonic Centre; All were well turned out and helped raise funds and promote local Scouting.

44 Scouts, Explorers and leaders attended this year’s summer camp at Butchers Coppice Scout Campsite in Bournemouth. The camp site was very good with a large flat camping field with good facilities and excellent activities. The scouts were divided in to three patrols which they names themselves (CTC, Somalia, Should of Gone to Spec Savers) and the Explorers worked as a team, dividing themselves in to groups for the cooking rota and activities.

The traveling to and from camp was problematic with Bournemouth being such a popular holiday destination leading to heavy traffic in all directions, resulting in 5:30 hours there and 5 hours back, even when diverting of the motorways and taking the TomTom diversion.

The first full day, Sunday, we hit the ground running by visiting Christchurch beach and then in the afternoon running Ready Steady Cook. On Monday, the older Scouts and Explorers prepared for the overnight expedition with the younger scouts taking part in on site games and sports challenges. With the equipment checked, food provided and route set, the minibuses dropped the expedition teams at Corfe Castle, with the Explorers setting off first whilst the Scouts stocked up on refreshments, before heading off on the ridgeway to Tyneham and meeting up again at Steeple Leaze Farm to pitch camp enjoy a hearty meal of bean-feast around an open fire under the stars.

Tuesday saw the adventurers return at lunch time just in time to enjoy an afternoon at Spashdown Water Park with all the fun of the flumes.

Wednesday saw all members take on the challenge of the camp sites high rope challenges and actively taking part in the sites camp fire (My hands are high, my feet are low, how do you like to bungalow!).

Thursday was a full day of sailing and kayaking at Hengistbury Head water activity centre with a sausage and chip supper and then drove out to Burly, where light pollution is minimal to meet with the local Astronomy Association and enjoyed an educational evening star gazing, observing the Moon’s craters, the rings of Saturn, Mars rising and the closest galaxy system Andromeda to mention a few.

Friday, the last full day on camp, saw us utilise the climbing, abseiling, power-fan and zip-wire activities & I’m very impressed with the Explorers video, which can be found below. With the clouds slowly rolling in, we enjoyed an evening BBQ.

Saturday was a wet start and a wetter pack down, with even more rain on the road home, resulting in all the tents being aired back at the hall.

Many thanks to all the leaders giving their time knowledge and experience to make this summer camp so successful, without them it would not be possible to organise and provide such an excellent experience for our Scouts and Explorers to enjoy and learn from: Maggie & Jim Lilleycrop, Del & Ashley Hurd, Dave & Felicity Monteith, Jason & Kay O’Brien, Darren Watts, Matt Parry.

Orienteering Challenge:
CTC – 16:40 mins, Somalia – 14:00, SoGtSS – 10:40.

Over Night Expedition:
Scouts: Nathan, Nathaniel, Ben, Chris, Henry, Joe, Matt & Angus.
Explorers: Dom, James, George, Cian, Shea, Jessica, Abi, Jake & Adam.

Paul Boreham
Group Scout Leader

Following 9 weeks of practice, our team of 24 competing archers plus Pauline and Tim supporting, arrived at Phasels Wood Activity Centre for the 9th National Scout Archery Competition.  We had a clear run on the journey to camp and were fortunate in securing a good pitch and set camp in favorable weather conditions.

Alas the weather turned wet, with heavy rain and gale force winds gusting, and mud everywhere, but the team’s spirits were not dampened as our shooting detail times could not have been better.

Everyone represented the team well, but a special mention to to our two Scouts, who between them took silver in the under 11s field targets, silver in the under 14s 20yd targets and bronze in the under 14s overall.

Full results will be posted once available.

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Another well attended Easter Camp, which this year was blessed with warmer weather owing to the later holiday weekend. Many new faces attending their first Scout Camp, learning new skills as they start their new adventure. Activities included Kayaking, Climbing, Archery, Fishing, Backwoods cookery, Campfire, Wide Games, Axe & Saw, Whittling & Survival Bracelets.

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