Day 3 (Wednesday)
Today was our big day out; an early rise, 06:00, washed, dressed, packed, breakfasted and we were off to Bishops Lydiard for the train to Minehead bang on schedule. Apart from a worrying moment when a local idiot pulled out in front of the bus causing Akela to use a few non-Scouting words we arrived safely.
We were on a diesel on the outward journey, actually it was a railcar. The couple in the first compartment we entered stopped cowering when we moved to the front carriage. We sat just behind some 'anoraks' and were able to see the track ahead. Which was cool. The journey took just over an hour and much excitement was had when the sea was glimpsed for the first time.
Minehead was sunny with a cool breeze, the Cubs all looked smart in their camp tee shirts and did us proud. Akela sorted out lunch, twenty sausage and chips and three fishcakes and chips (no discount but a free sauce sachet in each meal) to be ready at 14:15, this was paid for up front so if we were late it was our loss. Hathi and the other Leaders had taken the Cubs onto the beach, shoes and socks off and down to the sea. The Cubs had to be restrained from swimming in the sea as we had booked a session in the Aquasplash centre. Sandcastles were built, moats dug and washed away as the tide came in.
At the correct moment we wandered off the beach towards the swimming pool. Luckily this wasn't far as some of the Cubs had sandy feet and no shoes on. The Aquasplash was just as we remembered, wavey, flumey and bubbly, but not too crowded. after over an hour in the water we started to get the Cubs out, not easy as the Cubs looked different out of uniform and with wet hair, this was not helped by Hathi not wearing his glasses.
We walked back to the chip shop to find them doing the last few meals spot on 14:15, well done to them. We sat on the promenade and devoured our lunch. Then while a Leader wandering into Minehead looking for lip-salve and petroleum jelly for some of the girl's dry lips, the Cubs went onto the beach again.
All to soon we had to cross the road to the station and start the journey back. The train, a steamer, was much busier than our outward journey, many people got into our carriage before seeing us in it and moving along the train. Eventually even our carriage was full, Akela and Hathi standing up to let a small group of mums and kids to sit down. These holiday makers were from Bristol and one of them was a Cub from the 160th Pack. He and his brothers were soon part of the card school being run by Abi. Julie very wisely found a quiet area and got her head down for a short nap. Our plan to leave her on the train was spoilt when the lack of movement, when the train stopped at Bishops Lydiard woke her up. For this she was left at Sainsburys to do a little food shopping for the last two days of the camp.
The Cubs were dropped off at the site and did what was needed to their swimwear, while Hathi rushed back to have a leisurely coffee with Julie. After tea, I can't remember what it was, it was time to prepare the rockets for tomorrow.
We had acquired a large number of two litre plastic bottles. Hathi had also gone to the 'Scrap Store' in Bristol and had got a large number of pots, tape and sheets of various thickness. There were also stickers of various colours and shapes. The rockets were built using the bottles as the main body with fins / wings made of corrugated plastic or cardboard sheets or for the really adventurous from solid plastic card. These wings were glued on using Bostick cool glue guns. This had proved acceptable in the trial runs by Hathi. The tie-wrap alternative by Akela was more sophisticated as it was adjustable but at 20:45 after a long hard day was not the easiest thing to get right. It soon got too dark to continue so the rockets were put to one side for the next day.
Bed was welcomed by everybody.