Cubs and Scouts make the most of July rain
“Let’s plan a Scout camp and Cub camp in July, the weather will be great!” said some wise volunteer leaders, several months ago.
Hmmmm.
The plan for the weekend was for our Cubs to camp Friday and Saturday night at Duke’s Covert at the same time as 2nd Grantham Cubs, with whom we had planned multiple shared adventurous activities. On Saturday our Scouts would hike through the South Kesteven countryside from Great Gonerby to Duke’s to join the Cubs, before heading off to Aisby on Sunday morning to complete their hikes.
However, Friday morning started with a flurry of phone calls as we realised that the volunteer Cub Camp Chef was poorly and unable to attend the weekend. A contingency plan was quickly pulled together to enable the Cubs to meet 10am-4pm at Duke’s for a fun day doing many of the activities they would have been doing, but without the need to cook hot meals.
Cubs Outdoor Day
The Cubs arrived and settled in with a game of French cricket before we met up with the Cubs from 2nds and split into three activity teams, each with Cubs from both Packs and led by one of the wonderful Young Leaders. This enabled us to run three activity bases during the day. These activities covered a wide range of activities, with a tie-dying craft allowing the Cubs to show their artistic side whilst a slacklining activity allowed them to show their physical prowess and challenge their fears. At the third base, each Cub set and followed a tracking sign trail through the woods at Duke’s Covert, as well as to taking a physical and social challenge by following a blindfold string trail.
In addition to the activity bases, we made up for the absence of our wonderful Chef as each Cub to made their own picnic lunch and there was also time for a bit of wood collecting and several games of ‘sardines’ across the campsite, before we left the site just in time to get home for the football.
Scouts Hike and Camp weekend
Split into teams of five or six, with younger teams accompanied by adult volunteers and older teams navigating themselves (supervised from a distance) the first challenge was finding the footpath at the end of the village! Scouts hiked 13.6km through fields, down paths, up a Lincolnshire hill (Minnetts Hill, to be precise, which definitely gets the heart going!) and alongside RAF Barkston Heath to reach their destination. The weather was mixed, with much time spent either putting on or taking off waterproofs, and there was one huge downpour that tested even the best Gore-Tex and walking boots!
Arriving at Duke’s, Scouts then had to put up their tents, cook their tea on stoves, and then had time to chill out (some played Uno in tents, others suddenly found the energy to play football, while a brave few listened anxiously while the England match and penalties were broadcast from Sam’s phone). We were finally blessed with reasonable weather and even some blue skies!
Bedtime soon came around then before we knew it, it was time to get up, get breakfasted, and get the hiking boots back on. Sunday’s route was shorter at 8.4km, with teams once again leaving at five minute intervals to head out of Duke’s towards Kelby and on to Cultherthorpe Park before heading to the village hall carpark at Aisby to meet with parents. The hike routes involved a lot simpler logistics than moving all the Scouts’ kit around!
It was a quick 29 hour blast of great Scouting in the damp outdoors, spending fun time with friends and making the most of the beautiful countryside around our locality.
Next stop…. Summer Camp!
We currently have spaces in our Beaver Colony and Cub Pack for girls and boys aged 6-8 (Beavers) and 8-10½ (Cubs) in our Group. We are also looking for a Beaver Leader to run our Beaver Colony. If you’re interested and would like to find out more, please contact us at 1stCaythorpe@granthamscouts.org.uk

