Summer Camp

        Day 4 (Thursday)

Normally on one of our summer camps this would be going home day but not this camp. The day started late at  07:30. Breakfast was cooked this morning as one Cub (you know who I mean Miss Thompson) had asked if 'eggy bread' was going to be provided, as it would not be a real camp if it wasn't. There were a few Cubs that turned their nose up at the mention of this delicacy, Everybody was going to try it or it would not be made at all. This was agreed and Akela cooked some. Some of the first time eaters said "yes very nice, can I put what's left in the bin?"  One of the dissenters tried it and found that seconds and thirds were available.

The morning session was to start with caving, the artificial caves at Huish were dry after the hot summer so a little dampness was added. Well rather a lot of dampness was added, some into the caves some over the female Leaders who had managed to use an egg on James in some fashion and were now paying the price. The caving was a success but a few Cubs were unhappy with the way the helmets blocked their view forwards and did not relish the idea of crawling into the unknown with out proper vision. The added water added to the dust in the caves made things lovely and muddy, which made the Cubs happy .

After the midmorning break Hathi took the Cubs for a short bike ride. Described on the activity list as cycle-X. eighteen Cubs and seventeen17 bikes might have been a problem but this was overcome. We took the bikes onto the big field for choices to be made depending on stature of Cubs. The bigger Cubs trying to get the better bikes.  This was a success in that all the bikes were less than satisfactory for our Cubs. Onwards to the cycle track through the forest. This was walked with Hathi showing where people could come to grief and where in the past people had been killed or seriously maimed. This was taken in their stride by the Cubs who knew Hathi's little jokes.

Within five minutes of starting we had a badly shocked Cub who had turned right instead of left and nearly fallen into some nettles, at the bottom of a metre drop. He was checked by Hathi to make sure that there was  no major damage. The Cub was then taken by James to see Akela and have a quiet sit down. The bikes were shared with each partner doing a lap then swapping over. This was popular and there were Cubs all over the forest. Julie as a course marshal soon had lots of help as the Cubs got tired and informed Hathi that they were going to help her. The really keen cyclists (you know who you are Mike) had to be informed that time was up and yes they could have just one more lap, several times. Then it was lunch and that's more important than cycling, so we pushed the bikes to their container and went to find something to eat.

The afternoon activities started with completing the rockets from last night.. the last wings were glued or tie-wrapped on and they were taken down to the big field for flying. Akela had fashioned a launcher before camp and with a compressor plugged into a car's cigar lighter we were ready. Akela's demo model rocket was fuelled up, cork with car tyre valve pushed through was jammed into the rockets exhaust. The compressor was started and chugged away pressurising the bottle, at some point the friction holding the cork was overcome by the pressure in the bottle and was pushed out with considerable force, Newton's second law then happened and the rocket shot into the sky on a tail of expelled water. Having found out the direction of the wind was pushing the rockets towards mission control (Hathi's car) the launch ramp was repositioned. Pointing down hill almost at a few of the site workers who didn't know what was about to happen.

The first rocket from the Cubs was pressurised for a while before a flaw in the bottles outer skin was found. The rockets owner was not too disappointed in this and we moved onto the next rocket. The following table was recorded by mission control.

 Some of the designs were more decorative than functional but all of them showed the work that had gone into making them.

Our Alternative Athletes Badge was next. It was meant to be four events but one had to be cancelled as we ran out of time. While Akela and Hathi set up the equipment for event two Julie, Abi and James took charge of event one.

Event one: Foot race,

Equipment: 

Size 8 Wellington Boots

Water (large amounts)

Fill Wellies with water, Cubs run 20 metres in wellies. Amount of water in boots divided by time Multiplied by 100 to find winner.

Event 2

Relay race.

Equipment:

2 litre plastic bottles cut in proportions of two thirds (bottom for receptacle) to a third (to carry water in.) (One for each team) 

1 metre pole per team

Tape, string, lots and lots of water and a table tennis ball, per team

Each team has the larger part of the bottle taped to the pole with the ping pong ball in it.. they have to get the ball out of the bottles by pouring water into the bottle. The water is transported a short distance from the water source to the target bottle, on the head of a Cub, in the smaller bottle held in place by the string that is tied through holes in the bottom of the bottle. This resulted in a little leakage, but so what?  The water is poured from the Cubs head into the receptacle. First team to float ball out is the winner.

Highlights of this event was Jamie getting confused and pouring his water into another teams bottle and Akela and Julie seeing how cold the water in the bottles was by pushing their hands deep into the leading teams' bottle causing a little sloppage.

Event 3

Catch the water filled plastic bag

Equipment

Plastic (sandwich sized) bags, water (there seems to be a pattern coming out in the equipment lists)

Akela ties the bag as tightly as he feels appropriate and throws it at to a Cub to catch. Driest Cub wins

This was cancelled as there was no time as we moved onto . . . 

Event 4

Long Slide

Equipment

Large membrane/ sheet of plastic, pegs to hold said sheet, some cheap washing up liquid (Tesco value) and perhaps a few drops of water, well bucket loads really.

The membrane is pegged out on a slight slope, the surface is made slippery with water and washing up liquid, the Cubs run jump onto membrane fall onto their backs and give their heads a real whack. Third Cub realises that sliding on knees or stomach is likely to be a lot less painful, repeat until all the Cubs have hade a slide and even the stupid keen ones have had enough.

This turned into a bit of a water fight, well a big water fight, which is why there are no photos.

We had to pack up as we had the climbing tower booked for 19:00. Tea was rushed through, the less wet Leaders making it as the Cubs were dried off and got changed. We managed to get to the tower just after seven to find that our instructor had not turned up!

The Site staff who supposed to be going out to Bournemouth for the evening stepped in and saved the day. They told the Leaders about the inconvenience and then just got on with giving the Cubs an experience that will remain in their memories for a long time.

Akela with his experience of Abseiling was called to the top of the tower to assist our star stand-in instructor. Hathi was given the job of attaching the Cubs to their safety ropes when the Cubs climbed the tower wall. After a while doing this he was called up to the top of the tower to give Akela a hand. 

On a personal note I am not keen on heights so this was not easy for me. I was shown how to tie an Italian hitch for the safety rope, how to feed the abseil rope through the figure of 8 thingy and watched very carefully with my first Cub. Luckily he was a lot less bothered with this arrangement than I was. The Second Cub I sent over the ledge was done with only a cursory check or so it seemed to me. The feeling of having somebody's pride and joy relying on me to see that they enjoyed the experience safely was / is hard to describe. Once the last Cub had gone down the feeling of relief was enormous. However the biggest buzz was when one of the Cubs said that they would prefer to wait for me to come free rather than go down on Akela's side. Fantastic!!!

We had a few Cubs that really, really wanted to have a go but . . . they got hooked up, ducked under the bar but could not quite let go of its reassurance. They were perhaps a bit happier when told that they were doing something that Hathi would not do in a month of Sundays.

It was getting rather gloomy when the last two had been persuaded to have a go and Akela and Hathi thanked the people who had made the evening possible and wandered back to the cabin happy in the knowledge that we would not have to do that again for at about a year.

The Cubs were waiting for supper so a Bar B Q was organised, which was very popular. The Cubs finished their day with a nice early night (We Wished). Last night at camp, Hathi and Akela were in bed just after midnight while the other three, Julie, Abi and James stayed up a bit later talking and finishing off the few stubbies that were left.