January
It had been noticed that there were ten Cubs that would be old enough to attempt their Personal Challenge. This would be the last part of their Chief Scouts Silver Award, the highest award that Cubs can attain.
Eight of the Cubs were invited to organize a hike. The fact that they would be doing the hike as a group does not, in the Leaders opinion, invalidate the challenge to each of them. They all had several planning sessions with Hathi to organize a route, what to wear and what to take with them on the walk. Also discussed was what potential dangers they might encounter and how to avoid them.
As they would be walking in the country their memory of the Country Code was refreshed in a question and answer session.
February 21st
After many weeks of planning by the Cubs it was now time to earn their Badges. The date had been changed at the last moment as Akela had to do some Scout Leader Training on the Sunday. This meant that Jess, our senior Sixer was unable to attend as she had a dancing competition that required her attention. The only other female Cub decided that she would wait for another opportunity to do the Trek with at least one other sensible Cub.
Saturday dawned clear and crisp. The sun shone, no surprise there, but the wind was lazy, instead of going around you it went straight through. The six Cubs (Bradley, Robert , Mike, Ryan C, Ryan S and Shaun) turned up on time and with everything they would need.
They were dropped off at Norton Malreward and the Leader’s hearts sank, as
without even looking at the map, they set off – the wrong way! Akela left to
go to the first check point and Hathi took the Cubs to the start point, the
Church (with Tower) of St Andrew and pointed in the right direction. Off they
went with a very worried Leader wondering if they would ever be seen again.
Hathi went on to the second checkpoint. Akela phoned to say that the Cubs had been seen across the main road, and were walking towards the next area of possible confusion Check Point 2. He had parked his car and moved along the path the Cubs would have to take. The Cubs found the car but not Akela. “Where could he be?” “Let’s ring him and find out”. This resulted in a very unhappy Akela. He made his feelings clear to the Cubs, about having a phone for an emergency - not for help at the first little problem.
The Cubs were taken across the river past a hollow tree (photo opportunity) along the riverbank and pointed in the right general direction. At this point Hathi, at his checkpoint, was delighted to see a tractor with attached muck-spreader drive into the field that the Cubs would soon be crossing. If only he had been ten minutes later he could have got them properly. The Cubs were soon with Hathi, complaining about the smell. Their location on the map was confirmed and their next target was pointed out to them and away they went.
The village of Stanton Drew was their target and here they would meet up with Akela; if they managed to get past the sewage works and the Badger set. Hathi met up with everybody at the Church (The Second of the three towers) of St Mary the Virgin. This is a very pretty church that the Cubs enjoyed wandering around.
Back to the walk, the next part was worked out by the Cubs and their trek continued. Hathi had the next checkpoint where the Cubs would have to leave the main path and cross a foot bridge over a small stream. Hathi hid up in a hedge and waited, the Cubs could be heard from several hundred meters away, but they found the bridge and crossed it. Robert was the only Cubs to see Hathi and he gave him a cheery wave.
The Cubs were on the last part of the trek, after crossing a couple of fields they found Akela hidden behind a bush. Sadly they were going in the wrong direction but they were happy to see him as they thought they were doing so well. It was pointed out to them that they were not following the route marked on the map. Suitably contrite they trekked on, were escorted across the main road and left to find their way to the Church of St Andrew in Chew Magna. The Leaders met up at the Church and waited and waited, had a look inside the Church, which is very nice. After a little more waiting they heard the Cubs wandering along outside, they had found us.
They were whisked away to have a drink and bag of crisps at the Harvester.
Then they were driven home with the task of writing up their experience. Once
that has been done they will get their badge.
The background:
We had a very worried mother ask us about this walk, her Cub had gone home and said that they were doing an unsupervised walk of about 5 miles. She was reassured by the explanation that the Leaders gave her. She was told that although the Cubs had planned and set the trek distance it was with subtle prompting to avoid a number of pitfalls. There would be a number of checkpoints, mostly at areas of risk such as road crossings. The Cubs would be monitored for almost the complete distance of the walk with only a very few places where they would be out of sight, normally across a couple of fields or along a bridleway with no turnings.
As part of this exercise the Cubs were asked to say where the danger spot would be and they recognized most of them. The fields with heifers in was not highlighted that would have to be a surprise!
The Leaders walked the route the previous weekend 15th Feb and made a slight change in the walk, making it a little bit longer and making the last part a lot safer.
Highlights;
We passed a local oh his Quad bike in Norton Malreward and he waved to us as we passed. As Hathi walked back to his car after waving the Cubs farewell the Quad bike rider inquired “Lost them already?”
Towards the last checkpoint there was a farmer putting in fence posts when he
saw Akela hiding in some bushes, this obviously caused him some concern as he
stopped for a while and was keeping an eye on the suspicious action, especially
when six young people came wandering along. He was reassured when the Cubs were
happy to see their Leader and more so when he heard Akela explaining in graphic
details how they had wandered off the route and had found him by going the wrong
way.