10th March
Some mums decided that their day would be made complete by having their little treasures out of the house and running wild in the woods. Well, Eastwinds really. The prospect of Mothers day +1 being taken up with washing or disposing of horrible manky old clothes was not a problem.
All our Sixers and Seconds were invited along but half of them said on the Pack night that they couldn't come, shame. Akela was at home with a severe case of Peg. Abi doesn't have a warrant (yet!) so as Hathi's mum sees too much of him through the rest of the year he was allowed out to play with the other children.
Our team consisted of Alex, just Alex. If he had not turned up Hathi could have gone home and had a quiet day. So Hathi stayed and as he did not keep moving he was asked very nicely if he would mind helping. How could he refuse?
The person who should have been there to organise things had fallen out of a tree on Saturday while preparing the site for an aerial runway. He was taken to hospital with a suspected broken ankle. Alan stepped in at the last moment and ran the day with help from other leaders. Get well soon Tim.
There were a number of bases;
| Fire lighting; | Backwoods cooking: |
| Aerial Runway; | Shelter construction; |
| Sisal trail; | Parrot shooting; |
| Mapping |
Apart from getting muddy and wet Cubs enjoy setting fire to things, eating self prepared food and being dragged high into the tree tops for a high speed 'death slide' back to ground level. The sisal trail and shelter building was done away from the Hall and the Cubs all returned smiling from the experience so it must have been OK. The mapping was indoors and kept the Cubs quiet, so another hit. The Parrot shooting was a disappointment to some of the Cubs as it was really only doing things with a parachute.
The morning was fine, being in a valley Eastwinds is well sheltered, the sun even shone for a time long enough for coats to be taken off. However after lunch the weather turned less pleasant, it got colder and started to rain. The Parrot shooting went on inside the hall and the backwoods cooking was done under an emergency shelter.
The fire lighting had to stay outside which seemed fairly undemocratic but the Cubs were able to get fires going even with damp wood and without accelerants.
Five hours were soon over and the Cubs were collected, and disappeared into the rain telling their mums and dads how much fun they had had.
Thanks to the Scouts that turned out, the Leaders that turned out and to Alan for taking charge at short notice.
The rain stopped just after everybody had left, typical.