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.

first wed night expedition training

Yep, went well.
There were only 8 people, who were all interested in learning. So that made it a fair bit better and easier than a normal monday evening.
Went through the grid ref system and how it works through the entire UK, basic trangia usage, map signs and 6 fig grid refs.

no one faffed around, there were no behavioural issues, just good, solid learning from beginning to end.
I reckon that lot will be able to rock on out expedition-wise very easily.

just need to make sure that everyone is able to do their own thing, instead of leaving it all for someone else to do.

Climbing supervisor

Was up at gilwell over the weekend, finding out about their new procedures and how it all affects volunteers and what we can and can't do.
One very good thing is that the current "anchors" around the climbing wall are going to be replaced with proper anchors.
There is going to be a 3 tier instructor system as well, which is a little too involved to go into as I'm doing this on a train, suffice to say it sounds entirely reasonable to me, though I'm sure there will be a number of people who will want to have their tuppence worth and will spout nonsense about it.

However, neil was also there, and assessed me for my climbing permit, which was good. I'm only qualled for scouts as opposed to scouts and guides, but I can take up to 10 kids on 3 systems to any scout wall in the uk, which iis good.
Important thing to remember is not to be in the system at anytime as far as you can manage.

district exec

well, what a palaver.
semantic arguements about the exact age kids should be made to go into explorer scouts, and if they dont like it they can leave scouting.
Seems a tad harsh to me, though thats apparently the party line these days.

D of E assessors are going to change as well, as of april 2010 there will only be 27 people who can assess people in the nation- for scouting, and we have to be trained by them, and have a supervised assessment with them before we can assess our own people.
not that we can assess our own people, we're not allowed.

whatever happened to just going out there and having fun?!

Wierd

Never really thought about it before, but haven't slept well recently.
Not because of work, but because of constant stress about explorers.

It may be self imposed stress, (or it might not), but its beginning to get me down.
Odd.
I'm meant to be really enjoying it, but all I can think about is everything I've got to do- its like having an unpaid second job with more stress and less reward.

tents

Spent the afternoon at the hut, sorting out the tents, counting pegs, fixing poles, and generally cataloguing what was and what wasnt there.
seems like there are a lot of pegs missing, though we do have a number of tents which seem to be in 1 piece.

Also made some records as to how long gas and gas cookers will last.
seems that a full 4.5kg gas canister weighs 10.8kg and uses 350g per hour.

Planning

Yep- a planning evening ensued yesterday, it being half term and all that. 

5 of us descended on an empty hut, me being 10 mins late as I took the bus. (I HATE buses, I could have got there faster had I walked)

The most useful thing of the whole evening was the year planner which is now ensconced in the hall, with all the relavent dates marked out with sticky colours and felt tip. Excellent. 

Camps sorted,

evenings sorted.

Extra hiking and expedition planning evenings sorted.

Outs are also sorted all the way down to the Summer, Nice. 

A very productive evening- now all I need to do is actually plan the flipping camps. 

International Night

In a big push to get badge work out the way, this Monday was International Night. Each patrol was given a country just before Christmas that they had to research

The countries we gave them were:
Sweden
Slovakia
Sri Lanka
The Seychelles

The information each patrol had to research on their county was:
Flag
Population
Religion
Scout uniform
A main meal (to be cooked on the night)
3 random facts about the country the leaders did not already know
Language (Hello, Goodbye and 1 to 10)
A game

The evening went off really well.

After a few quick active games (Ladders followed by Crust, Crumble and crumb). We started the cooking.

After our last cooking evening we realised that washing up was the big problem, so each patrol had two tables. One for cooking on and one for washing up on. This worked very well as long as we reminded them what the washing up table was there for.

Once the cooking was complete each patrol gave a report on the country they had been given to research to the rest of the unit and then invited everyone to try their food.

The leaders were all very pleased with the amount of work the explorers did (See Tim's post on the evening), and even with the added pressure of our guests the explorers excelled themselves.

Sri Lankan Tamarind Fish (Mackerel) Curry being prepared

Slovakian Dumplings with cheese sauce

Tandoori Chicken and Tamarind Fish (Mackerel) Curry with yellow rice

Roti Bread being prepared

Once all the food had been eaten and the remaining washing up finished, every one changed back into uniform. One of our guests, Andy Maxted (GLS County Commissioner for Network Scouts) presented three Jack Petchty Achievement Awards and one Queen Scout Award.

Me receiving my Queen Scout Award

The Badge and Certificate

That went as well as could be expected

Last night was the greatly amticipated international night.

Greatly anticipated by me, as there were a number of people from Rotary coming along to see what we are doing for the young community, and the fact that we are currently in a place that really isnt big enough to accommodate us all. 

Evidently not greatly anticipated by the Explorers by the fact I txted the lead protagonists halfway through last week to ask how their research was going, to be met with the unanimous response, "what?" 

Great. 

So last week was a study in getting peoples numbers, asking them what they would be doing, writing posts on facebook, prodding, pushing, suggesting and cajoling them into getting information, and working out quite what they were going to be doing on monday evening. 

At least I had a list of things to buy over the weekend in terms of the food... which I dutifully brought along. Only to have a txt as soon as I got there, to say I wouldnt be entirely happy with at least one of the explorers as they had forgotten EVERYTHING. 

Panic was averted as someone else had some information. 

The evening started 15 mins late, most people in uniform, with 2 games, ladders- a nice space taking up game, and crows/cranes. Then we launched straight into cooking. 

Kind of. 

with 2 tables to each patrol, one for cooking and one for washing up, we made them wash all utensils before starting, and then generally helped out with bits and pieces as the evening went on. just over 20 kids, 5 leaders and 5 people from Rotart meant that organised chaos reigned- and there wasnt much space to go around either, which was precisely what we were planning. 

The Seychelles team cooked up a lovely fish curry- with an amazingly smelling mix of spices, kindly provided by Braddles, it somehow tasted of lemon, even though none was put in it. Sri Lanka sorted out 2 curry's, Slovakia, a very good dumplings in cheese sauce (though it didnt look appetising, it tasted excellent), and a Swedish something or other, that I cant remember what it was called. 

All equally delicious. 

in the last half hour we had a presentation of each country, and then we all tucked in. 

The result was an excellent evening, full of activity, colour, constructive youth work, bustle and information. 

To cap it all off, we had 3 Jack Petcheys and a Queen Scout Award given out. 

Cushty. As Im sure the Explorers would say. 

communication issues

Seems I havent been communicating correctly with everyone.

This was brought up today as we cancelled explorers because of the weather, and the message didnt get around to everyone.

From now on I shall endeavour to keep all people in the loop as far as possible.

Actually feel quite bad about that. pretty bummed out.

Tidying up

Braddles and I went up to the hut over the weekend with the intention of clearing up the back room.

Cue music and tea, and off we go.

Started out taking pretty much everything out of it, attempting to catalogue some of it and putting it back.

wow. there was a LOT of stuff in theere, Im not going to write it all down, but suffice to say that there were 9 opened HP sauce bottles in there.

So its a bit tidier in there now, and there is a shed load of gumpf to throw away, but it is more organised. 

Part II of this is to go back of a weekend, with a BBQ or something, and really get it sorted out shelf by shelf, audit the tents, and make sure we know whats there.

Second week

Well the second week giving control of the night over to a patrol was not as successful as the first.

The night did not even start well, as no one in the patrol managed to turn up on time. When the first of the patrol turning up I had decided that no one was coming so started the evening myself.

Patrol turned up just as we broke parade for games asking for time to prepare for the evening. So whilst our 'leaders' prepare for the evening the scouts got changed for games and we play two rounds of the Minute game (All sit down count out 60 seconds and stand up when you think the minute is up, Closest one to a minute wins).

The 'Leaders' now 'organised' ran their first game of the evening. Which was a one on one football game (split the unit into two teams giving each member of a team a number. When your number is called you run up and try to score a goal before your opponent).

This game was cut short and not all the scouts got a turn. when some of the other 'leaders' decided that is was time for the next activity, painting. Each Patrol was given a selection of brushes, a palette of paint and a canvas a where told to paint a portrait of their patrol leader. This was given no dead line as it seemed that the had no further plans for the evening. The majority of the scouts soon getting restless and the painting activity did not really involve the entire patrol. So pretty quickly carnage ensued.

At this point it was decided that the actual leader would take over as the patrol had completely lost control of the evening. We got the paintings cleaned away and got the patrol to mark the paintings and the had out points.

before the evening ended we invested a new member. make the count up to 6 investitures in the year already.

Next weeks leading patrol have ask everyone to bring along a baby photo, which should be interesting.

Not as much carnage as expected

SO it went off quite well actually. 

Other than the fact the flag was upside down, and I cut myself... (on a kitchen knife, nothing more serious than that)

The idea being that a patrol runs the entire night, with no real help from us, to give them an idea of how much effort it is to co-ordinate and sort things out week after week. 

First up- was good, started with a game of quarters, or some such thing, with the novel way of non random selection for teams. which worked ok actually, and then let loose. It was good as there was no physical contact, but still very competitive- which is a good thing to think about. 

Then a game of wink murder, swiftly followed by getting on with the evening. 

As leaders we were tyring to be slightly disruptive, just to give it an edge, but not too bad. 

During the cooking, Braddles and I did most of the prep work, while Whitey sorted out 3 of them for investiture next week. 

Each team was given the same ingredients in the style of ready steady cook, and off we went. 

Mild chaos ensued, but I made sure we concentrated on our own stuff, and didnt intefere, letting the duty guys get on with keeping order and making sure nothing drastic happened. Which worked quite well. 

Food was done by 9pm, and as a point for future cooking stuff, it should be noted that hot water and bowls should be out on the tables for immediate washing up use, to expediate clearing up at the end. 

The leaders and the duty guys ended up staying for about 20 mins after, clearing stuff up, but was kind of to be expected really. 

oh, and the leaders are clearly kicking butt when it comes to getting points. 

a success so far. Lets see what happens next week. 

Ye Gads. 

First in a series

So this evening is the first evening in which we let the Kids (ahem, young adults) take over for an evening. 

This one is meant to be something along the lines of ready steady cook, and I suspect that the actual cooking and clearing up is going to take a fair bit longer than they think it is....

Im predicting total chaos, but it might be ok... 

first week back

Entertainment abound...
only really a skeleton idea of what was going to be happening this evening, so the fact it went off quite well, was a very good thing.
Started off with blindfold punch and judy, followed by a thinking/practical game with candles, mugs, string, gaffa tape and bits and pieces.
That was organised by Braddle, and it progressed excellently. Though I think that we need to make it a little more complex and more difficult- they were surprisingly quick at it.

After break we sat down and told them basically what was going to go on this term, camps and outs and things like that.
The First is to Alton towers- just for a weekend at the end of March.
There will be a camp on the second May Bank holiday- which will probably be at Youlbury, or maybe in Gloucester, and Summer camp is going to be- probably- at Hawkhirst waaaay up north.

A minor point about the May camp is that GCSEs and exams start around that time, so it might be a quiet one...

We are also looking at getting 100 nights collective expedition nights out of the Explorers, and the person with the most nights by the middle of the year will get a free Out- which we are planning to be at Milton Keynes snowdome.