expedition training camp

Started out on the friday over to Downe, met up with the explorers there, there were only 8 of them on this one, the Transporter and I had got all the food and bits of equipment over to the place, and got them to plan routes.
Took quite a while to actually get anything down on paper, I think that the best way to get things written down is in teams of 2, and just get them to do it like that.
Big groups arent particularly conducive to getting work done.

Eventually Day 1 was done, after a large number of mistakes and re-writes, but it got done.
Only about 12km, so I figured theyd be finished pretty quickly, and then got a shorter version for the second day.
all relatively good.
The tents went up ok, but the campsite was covered in long grass, which ended up soaking everything. (and a very unafraid young fox came along and chewed through a few guy ropes).
It was very very wet indeed, not through constant rain, but through the rain which had fallen recently, so it was incredibly hard to get a fire going - though eventually one was lit. (not by me, I must hasten to add...)

Day 2 was also written down, but by this point attention spans were waning, and they werent done as well as day one...
made food for the evening, bolognaise and then rice pudding, which was good.
No wide game in the evening, just sitting around the fire and talking, and then they all went to bed. No hot dogs, no hot drink, no-one really wanted any, so that was good.

Day 1 hiking, team 1 was meant to start at 10, team 2 was meant to start at 11.
Team 2 started at 11, team 1 started at about 1120.

Both were fine for the first part of the hike, and both got horrifically lost on the second part. I have no idea why, and thinking about it, I should have just let them get lost and find themselves again instead of chasing around trying to find them.
I guess it was the worry that I didnt know where they were, they didnt know where they were, and I had visions of not seeing them again...

Eventually after much running around on my part, they finally got to the camp site about 6 hours later.
Cooked food, which some of them like and some of them hated.
Point. Get them to bring their own food next time.
Also, another point, if they cant fit it in their bag, it doesnt get taken,
One more Point- remember to waterproof the scout boots before they get used. That was a bad thing. One Explorer borrowed boots, and I thought they would be fine. Not a bit of it- socks wet in minutes.
Also, on the Bag front- make sure they arent cheap, and they dont have zips on them. Zips are easy places to break, and they do so.

Anyhow, they slept in soggy tents, (as did I, just for the record), and the next day, instead of sending them off in 2 teams, I bundled them all together and then sent them out, making sure to meet them at a number of points along the way.
Which seemed to go a lot more smoothly.
Instead of taking 6 hours, they only managed to to do it in 4 hours instead, which was good.

They got back in good time to clean up, ready to be picked up at 2pm by their parents.
They learnt a lot. (I hope), including, but not limited to, bringing LOTS of socks, having smaller sleeping bags, what kinds of foods they like and dislike, and what they might bring on another hike camp, how to fold tents when they are wet, how to write up route cards, how to time their walking better, and the innumerable uses for plastic bags.

One good thing.
Ive already had a request for the routecards so that one of them can plan out their qualifying bronze hike- which he is writing up this afternoon.
Happy Days.

I just need to remember. I need to help less and let them do more for themselves.
When is enough, enough though? when should the leader intervene? I really dont know and thats a bit of a conundrum.

Expedition night- route cards

Had a few turn up, 3 who actually vaguely wanted to be there... the rest. well.
Managed to get route cards explained and 3 routes mapped out and writted down.
Didnt want them to actually do a route which they were going to do, but rather, a random route in a random part of the country.

Handed out various maps, and after a bit of confusion at the beginning, it all went ok.
Just wish that just the people who want to come would come... time wasters dont just waste their time, they waste everyone elses time as well. Bad vibes.

Alton Towers Sunday

The clocks went forward. Or back. Not sure which, but they did something in the night.
I was woken early by a couple of the explorers arguing sleepily over something, but they were quiet very soon, and I drifted off until about 830 when I got up- this is 830 BST, though how much difference that makes, I have no idea...
Chalky was up as well, and there was not a peep from anyone else. Dead to the world, not a sound from any of the tents.
It was a glorious day with blue skies, sun through the trees, and a light frosting on the tents.
Water set to boil and got the breakfast ready, just as they were deciding to vaguely wake up.
What a difference to the day before... they looked totally knackered, a mess, and certainly not ready to face the day at all. Ah the poor dears.
Still managed to get a couple of them to help out cooking.

As it was so nice I decided to move the tables outside, dual purpose of breakfast in the sun, and getting stuff out of the main tent, drying it out and beginning a stealth packing away.
After a slow breakfast, I got a couple of the louder ones to wash up the stuff, and set about getting everyone else to get their gear away- under a time limit, as we moved food out from the main tents, got things cleared up, took down the fold ups etc.
I found the best way to get things done was just to make sure everyone was busy at all times, and anyone that wasnt, ask them what they were doing and then assign them a job.
On reflection, I should have asked them what they THOUGHT needed doing, and then if I agreed with them, they would do it... make them think... but I wasnt thinking, so just organised them into groups doing everything.
Slowly everything came down, groundsheets got dried out, tents folded up, lunch made, pans washed and put away, did a rubbish sweep and got the remaining firewood taken back to the wood pile.

We were ready to move out at about 1ish, and headed on out, not too much of an issue, until driving down the motorway, chalky and the Transporter drew up alongside us and motioned at the roofrack- things looking dangerously like they might come loose, and the front wheel- looking like it was going to die- I was wondering why the steering felt so heavy.
so we pulled into a service station, where the air pump didnt work.
Watford Gap services, you are totally RUBBISH.

We then looked to get the spare wheel on the van... but had no jack.
At which point a random bloke came up and asked us if we could give him a jump start- happily, if we could use his jack to change our wheel....
The Explorers were out in the sun by now, away from the roads, chilling out while the leaders changed the tyre, for an equally squishy one, drove over and charged up the other blokes van, and filled up with diesel.

We drove a few miles down the road to the next service station where they had an air machine that actually worked (wonder of wonders!) where we tanked up the tyre and were fine for the rest of the way home, eventually getting there, bang on 6pm.
Got everything off the van, stored away, and the van cleaned before any of the parents showed up, and then, after a short talk and dismissal at the end... all good and done.
Happy Days.
just have to wait for the paperwork to come through now.

Alton Towers Saturday

Up at 630, put on the water as soon as we could.
Windy. Very Windy. So windy in fact that the tents were happily nearly blowing away...
Cooking took a LONG time, there has got to be a faster way to cook breakfast for 17 people, one massive frying pan on a small hob just doesnt work, I might have to look into using the massive wok hob we have...

So we didnt actually get out until about 840, (meant to have left by 8), and drove like a mentalist- (apparently my driving was the worst thing about the entire weekend, the only time at which any of the kids threw up...hmmm.)

Got there just at the right time, Braddles, who came up by train that morning was standing in the queue as we got there. I took the executive decision to go to the express parking- for an extra tenner, I really didnt want to faff around with everyone else in a battle tank of a mini bus.
Got our tickets, told everyone where to meet at the end of the day, gave out the tickets and told them to get lost.
4 leaders together- we then ran over to the far end of the park, did Sky, Nemesis and Ripsaw in quick succession, went over to Rita, then Oblivion, then a little pinball thing which was the longest wait in the whole day, then over to a log flume, an expensive burger and chips, mine train ride and back to Sky for a last ride of the day where we caught up with the kids and walked them back to the bus.
Perfect.

Drive back, and set Braddles up to cook pasta bolognaise thing, while Chalky got the kids dragging wood around, lighting fires on the altar fires, which kept them busy for long enough.
I then did a bit of stealth dinnerage- getting them to go up in 2s or 3s to get food, instead of having them all bundle up there at the same time.
Chalky was very impressed with a couple of them who have never really made fires before, who really persevered, and had a good deal of success.

After food, I organised wide games. as it was dark I used tea lights under small cones which lit up brilliantly and made excellent bases.
First game was putting out the other teams candles, which was a fast and frenetic game, but turned a little violent, so we didnt really pursue it. (some of the explorers really werent into the whole thing, so we changed and used the candles to a different effect)
Second game was- what I know as Touch Can In. basically, stealth and speed to get back to base before the catchers catch you.
the base was set out with the candles, as was the area where the catchers werent allowed to hang around, (which probably wasnt big enough) and the games commenced.

Once we had a couple of games with the leaders being the catchers, we changed over and let volunteers catch, others who had opted out earlier came in and joined, and by the end, even those who had no luck at the beginning of the evening, were getting it and had success.
And they were totally knackered out at the end as well. which was a bonus.
Explorers dead to the world after a quick hotdog supper at about 11.
nice.

Alton Towers Friday

Well, This weekend just gone was my camp assessment, or whatever its called, so there was a fair bit of stress leading up to it, particularly as Ive not planned a camp for anymore than 2 people at a time, and that generally involves grabbing a tent, driving somewhere and picking up food in a supermarket on the way.

So I had it all relatively planned, got my Nan form in (eventually), planned the food anf bought it, made sure that all the gear was out in the hall ready for putting on the van, and tried to get everyone to arrive at 620 in time to leave for 7pm.
Things started well with me getting a migrane at 3pm and not being able to see anything. Issue. So I lay down for a bit, took a load of asprin and waited, which is the only thing you really can do with migraines.
Walked up at about 430 to get there at 530, still feeling a little fragile, made sure that everything was in order for people to come in.
They started to arrive at about 620 or so, we started with a patrol box, tables (3) benches (6) on the roof, followed by tents and general baggage.
Most of them remembered their emergency contavct forms, those that didnt, luckily had parents on hand to re-write them and sign, so not too many worries there.
Managed to get it all on and food in the back and off by about 720, which really wasnt bad.
Driving up to Drumhill was fairly uneventful and we got there with no massive hold ups- no little ones either, was a straight drive, at about 1030-11.
Tents went up- the kids were in popups, and a dome, we had a little more trouble with the mess tent, but that was up and all gear in it by the time it started to rain a little.
Managed to get everyone in bed by about 1.

Preparing for this evening

I think i may be more excited about the plan for this evening that any of the explorers that bother to check the weekly plan for tonight is balloon and rocket night.

I am running a session making tissue paper hot air balloons (I have not made one since i was a cub) and tim is going to be making match stick rocket (sorry no link, will add one with some photos after the event).

I have spent my lunch break making a scale model to give them an idea of what they are doing and we should have enough stuff to the leaders to make a balloon as well.

I do hope the explorers enjoy it as much as the leaders do.

Quasar

Ok, so I was a little stressed before we did this for a couple of reasons.
I was going to a station in a dodgy part of town, to meet a lady Ive never met before, to pick up a vehicle, the likes of which Ive never driven before, to drive back to the hut on a route I didnt know, to pick up 20 screaming kids and then navigate to quasar, which I didnt really know where it was, to get there no later than 50 mins after I picked up the bus.

However.
I managed to pick it up and get to the hut in good time- thanks to a good bit of Follow Me action by someone else in a car. Picked up all the kids, and managed to get them all to quasar.

The seniors managed to all get on one team- which could I suppose, have been what they would have like to be called the "cool" team. The rest were lumped with us, the leaders.
2 games,
2 utter slaughterings for them, by at least 700 points.
Also invested a newbie and a leader, which is all good, and then proceded to drive back with no great mishap, which was good.

Still couldnt sleep though.