11th and 12th October
This was a major undertaking by our ADC Simon, assisted by the various Akelas from the district. In past years this has been a single day activity based around a themed cook-in. It must have been good as we have won it for the last few years.
This year ten teams of six Cubs battled for the Challenge, the 148th put in three teams. One from the Tuesday Pack and two from Wednesday Pack, one of young males and one of young females.
The format of the Challenge was to be a back to Scouting basics. It would consist of a 24 hour camp, under canvas, put up by the Cubs with very limited help from the Leaders, at Chelwood. There would be centralised cooking, provided by some of 'our' mums. There would be ten bases, including. Fire lighting, branding, plaster casting, friendship bands, knotting, tree naming and others. These would be split over the two days with marks being awarded to provide us with a 'winner'.
The Wednesday Cubs were coached in putting a tent up over several weeks, which we hoped would be a head start for them.
Naturally as soon as our Akela got involved the weather was guaranteed to be pleasant.
Saturday morning arrived with the promise of lots of warm sunshine, close enough as it was very warm. The food for ten teams plus helpers had been bought. Bagheera, Hathi and Akela arrived at 08:00 at the Scutt ready to get our camping gear loaded up for the journey to Chelwood. Julie was under the impression that we were meeting at 08:30 so was a little delayed in joining us. She was to pull the trailer with some chairs and the tent pegs. The tents were put into Akela's car, some tables attached to the roof bars of Hathi's car, the interiors of all the cars were filled with other important stuff like food. Julie popped home to pick up her Cub and was to meet us on site at 10:30.
Some of the other Akelas and a ADC (Cubs) [Simon] were already on site. A tent line was established ready for the Cubs tents. The mess tent was a little late to arrive as they were involved on a night hike Friday night. Our three tents, poles, pegs, guy ropes and mallets were placed ready. An alter fire was assembled ready for a base.
The Cubs were dropped off at the camp site at 10:30 and by 11:00 all the parents had left and the Cubs were at our mercy. A brief introduction by Simon and the challenge started.
First tents were put up, naturally our boys forgot most of their training, the girls put there tent up too close to the boys tents and found that the side guy lines would be crossing with subsequent confusion. This was resolved by moving both tents. With very little help from the Leaders the tents were put up. What help that was given was shouts of encouragement. This part of the event was not marked to our slight dismay as we had hoped that the three weeks practice would have give our teams a head start. The Cubs made sure that all the guy lines were in exactly the right place, which would be reflected in their score when they were inspected on Sunday morning.
After a short break to eat the packed lunch that had been brought with them. The bases started. Akela and Bagheera were on a base doing friendship bracelets, while Hathi was doing his best with hot bits of metal and small bits of wood. Other bases included backwoods cooking, knotting, french arrows, tracking glass etching and a few others that were hidden from me.
The branding took a lot longer to get through than a couple of the others and there was soon a queue with our boys being told to move on as they would catch up on Sunday, Akela came to my rescue and we were able to get through the branding a lot quicker.
Each team had to be scored for their work on the bases which was not an easy task as all the Cubs were attentive and well behaved, some had long names and so lost points because it took so long to burn them onto the wood.[1]
After several hours it was time for tea, our Cooks Team (Mandy, Trudy and Julie) catered for about 80 people, for a first effort it was magnificent. There was very little wastage so the Cubs had enjoyed their meal, the Leaders certainly had.
A few wide games including find the match-sticks, find and read the letter off the hidden CDs, arrange the letters onto a grid and read the message. Another game required some of the Leaders to make odd noises, sometimes with the aid of equipment, such as bugle, duck call, door bell and complete silence (the hardest in my opinion.)
A camp fire sing song was organised and several Akelas took part, some of the songs would be still irritating some of the grumpier Leaders late into the next day. While this was happening in the mess tent supper was prepared. The cooks had some unnecessary help from one or two Leaders in cooking the burgers and preparing the hot chocolate drink. Again this was made short work of and seemed to be enjoyed by everybody.
Bed time eventually came round and as usual there were a few Cubs that were not happy to have their day end so early and it was not until about 01:30 that the hardened Leaders managed to drag themselves away to their tents.
At first light the cooks team were up water was being boiled, some of the rowdier Cubs volunteered to help wash up the last few things from the previous night while others were sent into the woods to get as much firewood as they could. This resulted in a huge pile of wood, all of it dead , just right for the day ahead.
Breakfast was produced; eggy bread, beans, sausages, bits of burger and anything else left over from the supper. Letting the Cubs chose their own food meant that again there was not much waste, then on with the days business the last few bases were completed, the tents 'flown' and then we had the grand inspection, each team had to have their kit nice and tidy, most had small bits of wood with the Team member's names on them stacked just outside the tents that was a nice touch.
After an buffet lunch of sandwiches and what was left from previous meals. the final scores were worked out and we found that we, i.e. the 148th had managed to win it again! Tuesday's Team of boys had equalled our (Wednesday's) girl team for joint first place, a few points behind was Wednesday's team of boys. we were well pleased.
Then all that was left was to clear away the tents. The nice wind and sunshine had dried the tents completely so we could put them away as soon as we returned. The Cubs were picked up by their parents and were taken to the Scutt for the handing out of certificates. One to each Cub one to each Helper and one to each of our Cooks Team. Inscribed tent pegs for their first camp with us were awarded to Mandy and Trudy.
The weekend was a big hit with everybody that took part, thanks to Simon and his team of helpers for organising it, for the cooks for feeding the multitude and all the Akelas and various other Jungle Book characters for their time and effort.
The sungod did his usual bit.