Baloo, Akela, Hathi, Mike and Shaun put the tents up Saturday morning and with the strong wind swirling around the tents acted like enormous kites. Finally the tents were pitched correctly and we could relax. Well almost, there were still a few things to be done, admin details to be finalised etc.
Fifteen Cubs (Sammy, Alice, Levi, Charlotte, Aimee, Georgia, Beff, Jess, Ryan, Dan, Shaun, Mike, Bradley, James, Tom H, Matt, Tom W and Robert) took part in the night hike and sleep over. Peg, Abi, Baloo, James, Hathi and Akela were the Leaders.
At 18:00 hours the Scutt car park was full of cars, parents dropping of Cubs, parents waiting to give a lift to the hikers, and the Leaders cars that would be needed later to pick up the food. At 18:30 we were dropped off at the bottom of Guy Hill just outside Pensford, Those of you that have read the report of the Cubs Challenge hike will notice that this hike used the same route. The geese were still there, but quieter perhaps because this week we outnumbered them. The next field with the horses was quiet. The sheep were the same in the next field where the hill got quite steep. A quick run up the slope around a tree stump and back had the Cubs warmed up. Their delight in finding that they now had to climb past the tree stump and onwards and upwards was a small highlight of the night for me.
The big field at the top of the hill has been planted with some crop, possibly maize so we were informed, and we had to walk around the edge rather than straight across as we have done in the past. Several Cubs started their collectors badge by picking up stones with fossils in them, mostly ammonites, well entirely ammonites. A few bags were now much heavier than they had started out.
We had a break at the church at Norton Malreward while Robert had some remedial work done on his boots, a little padding was to make the rest of his hike a lot more comfortable. Cubs when asked to be silent usually respond with cries of "what?" this time was no exception, "Please be quiet past the houses." Was met with talking and laughing.
We left NM through a field of stubble, this had a couple of nosy horses in it that were not worried about our number and came over to say hello. This made a few of the Cubs nervous as horses are huge creatures to the smaller Cubs and very intimidating. The Leaders were able to move the Cubs along at a much increased speed in this field until the horses gave up and went away.
Two fields later we had the first problem of the night, one of the Cubs had just come back from a sunny holiday in Cornwall and was feeling the cold, as we, the Leaders, have seen the results of hypothermia this was taken very seriously. The Cubs parents were phoned and warm clothing requested. It was while waiting for this to happen that several other Cubs started to complain about the cold, mostly because the wind was lazy, it could not be bothered to blow around you but preferred to blow right through you. At this point the group split up with Hathi and Abi taking the Cubs across the field to find shelter behind a hedge. The cold Cub was picked up by her mother and taken back to the Scutt to meet us later. The Cubs were a little warmer by now and were ready to continue.
The next exciting thing to happen was a field of cows, now horses are large and nosy but they are nothing compared to cows, these cows were very nosy and worried a few of the smaller Cubs especially when the bull that everyone was sure was in the next field turned out to have easy access to our field, this hurried the Cubs up significantly. Hathi, brave as a small lion, turned on the cows and told them to "b*gg*er *ff!!" which to his enormous relief they did.
The route was the same as last week but could anyone remember the way? No! So we had a little side trip into an unnecessary field, this meant that it was now getting past tea time and the last section of the hike went very slowly for some of the hikers, Jess asked Hathi the time every five minutes to keep his spirits up and certainly not to annoy him, oh no.
Eventually we made it back to the Scutt and Baloo and Hathi went off with Akela's wallet to get a supper from the local Chinese food shop. This was quickly done and the food was soon on plates being devoured with gusto, and knives and forks. The only slight hiccup was the sausages hidden under the chips were not found until later
All good things come to an end and the Cubs went to their tents quietly and fell asleep in no time at all with hardly a word spoken . . . NOT!!! they were rocking and rolling until about 01:30ish when the last of them, with no audience drifted of to the land of Nod. We had an early night, to celebrate this we had a little drink, then into our sleeping bags and out. . .
Naturally Hathi was the last Leader awake and was awarded a cup of tea by Akela which was most welcome. Abi and Baloo had been awake for ages and had told the Cubs that the time was an hour prior to the real time so they stayed in their tents until 08:00. By this time the tables were set for breakfast and after morning ablutions the Cubs sat down for cereal and toast and a cup of tea. Three Cubs were picked, by rolling a die - if they rolled a 1 or a 6 they were out, to do the dishes, a fair way of getting the youngsters to help.
As the sun shine was a bit hazy it was decided to strike the tents and get them put away before they got wet, this was achieved with little bother and the back garden to the Scutt was soon clear. Pegs were cleaned, sorted and put away.
Except six pegs, these were kept for our first game. The Cubs were split into four teams each stood in a corner, with a chair with a peg on it. Two pegs were put in the centre of the hall and a member of each team had to get three pegs onto their chair to win, they could only carry one peg at a time and could not block anyone else from taking a peg from their chair. This was very popular and was modified with a peg taken away from the centre or with more than one team member playing at a time. A game of knocking over the skittle was played. Then Akela's grand game, a short quiz of nine questions, that were put into a word search grid and finally rearranged to form a command. The command was to ask Akela for an Easter Egg saying please. Each Cub got a small egg and was happy with their prize.
This passed a few hours and parents started to arrive to take their youngsters home, Akela's final surprise was a real Easter Egg for everyone, except the Leaders. Still there is always next year.
Thanks to Akela for organising the camp, Baloo, Abi, Peg and Hathi for helping making the camp so memorable.