Summer Camp 2009 - Loch Venachar
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Unplugged and up for it!
With the progress of technology, our kids are able to play virtually with friends from school, or much further away, in whatever fantasy game world they share. The need to see people or indeed move (other than your fingers on the controller) is not a requirement. If something doesnt go your way, you can stop playing and deselect that person from your friends list.
It comes as a shock then, to find yourself at Scout Camp. For those who come with ipods/phones etc, theyve only got as long as their batteries hold out!
Here theyre sorted in patrols with people they dont know particularly, and told they are the people theyll be working, eating, sleeping and competing with. Theyre immediately directed to large piles of equipment tents, cooking shelters, cooking equipment, tables, benches, and given directions to where to set up their patrol site (up a steep hill!). Day1 of Scout camp is hard work.
The older scouts struggle to remember how to pitch a stormhaven (but we only had lightweight tents in Iceland!) and to cope with how best to get the group working together. You little guy pick up that mallet, yeah, the wooden hammer thing, and start pegging in the smaller guys. The younger scouts are overwhelmed by instructions (or lack of them) and being generally hyper, after an initial bit of graft, seek out their friends on other patrol sites and have to be tracked down and encouraged to join in the work again.
Despite unfamiliar faces, unfamiliar equipment, and unfamiliar roles, What! We have to do our own cooking everyday? all the patrols manage to produce an evening meal, to which leaders are invited to share.
Having survived the trauma of Day1s hard graft, together with the withdrawal symptoms of a life without electronics, Day 2 starts with the daily challenge of preparing breakfast, washing up and preparing the tent, kit, site and yourself for inspection, If you wanted to go home early, how would that happen?, then the fun stuff starts; sailing toppers and wayfarers, making a coracle and using it youre joking itll never float - how much bracken do we need to collect?!, walking a giant A frame, and making and using a rope ladder.
By now the patrols have been together for 2 days and are starting to gel. Scouts begin to accept their role within the patrol and develop an understanding of what work needs to be done. The strength of individuals starts to show through as does respect for previous knowledge gained. They have to learn to cope with characters who theyd have happily deleted from their friends list by now. Gravitating to older scouts who lead by example, who cajole rather than boss, and volunteering to get the job done all determines the successfulness of the patrol.
The patrols do succeed, to varying degrees. Leaders draw lots to avoid dining with the patrol who solidifies and cremates rather than cooks the food. Ive never had a fried egg that resembles a lorne sausage before!
Peer group activities bring a welcome relief from the pressures of patrol life, and the Scouts are kayaking, powerboating, first-aiding, sawing and axing, geo cache stashing and finding out about the massive range of badges Has anyone got all the badges?
The week rolls on with an amazing range of activities a cycle up Loch Katrine and a ferry back, or vice versa, sonic bat detecting at Brig OTurk woods at dusk, powerboat treasure hunt round Loch Venacher , culminating a mega water fight circle round so we can get closer to soak them...quick!! , building chariots and racing them before their dodgey lashings become undone, Im not going on that, itll break! swimming at Callander pool, eeeuwwah, look, youve got a tick on your neck! followed by a chippie, the best wide game ever That was legend!, and a soggy, but highly competitive Olympics but he cheated!! The highlights however were very definitely the Expedition and the Regatta.
The older scouts were sent by bike to the next loch Loch Achray, to rendevous with a car boot full of tarpaulins, polyprop and sisal, sleeping bags and food. Go, create were not helping you were the instructions. The site (no water or toilets) and the weather were just stunning. A campfire was built and sleeping mats and sleeping bags radiated out from the fire. Just chillin. After a small cheese war,(dont ask!) the campfire broke up and all went to their bivvies. There was only one bit of nocturnal sabotage, as one group found themselves wearing the tarpaulin on their faces!
Meanwhile back at junior camp, the mini patrols are thrust into the front-line of organising dinner and running the patrol. If that werent challenge enough, add to the mix a disaster dinner where unlabelled cans of food are found washed ashore, so be scavenged and made into an edible meal. After much toil opening the cans, various meals merge. Prunes and leaf spinach it looks like poo! are immediately rejected, as is the extra hot curry!! Meal are produced, and the junior patrols struggle to organise themselves into the discipline of washing up and tidying their kitchen for inspection. After which theyre invited to abandon camp, take their sleeping mats and bags, as theyre about to all spend the night in a tepee at the loch edge. this is magic!
On a perfect evening, our Regatta opens with a plane pass by our brand new RIB the Berserker. Swimming, kayaking, topper racing, wayfayer dragon racing; the heats are played out against lack of skill and at times lack of wind just lie on your topper and paddle with your arms! The competition between the Explorer Scouts and the Leaders is very real, with much cheating and general bad behaviour ..especially from the leaders!! As the sun sets, the equipment is returned ashore, the scouts are dried off, and the evening finishes with a fabulous campfire, the harmonic tones of which could probably be heard at either end of the loch!
Our week completes with a magnificent thanksgiving banquet for 65. ( a catering miracle given the food had to be lugged up the hill for serving in the marquee. It has to be said that the newly installed marquee cellar was a great advantage here)
Its a wet strike on the last morning, as lorries and trailers are loaded. All are returned to Cramond. Within mintues of stepping into their homes, the scouts will take up their world of electronic messaging, facebook pages, and fantasy virtual worlds. But with them comes the experience of coping with the real world, of facing challenges both physical and emotional, of being part of a team, of learning to get on with people, of trying new things, of achieving things together, and having fun.
Looking back at the camp however, you can certainly say our scouts were unplugged and up for it!