Sunday

After the mad rush to get everything together now was it. We met at 12:00 and the eager Cubs were given their car allocation, thanks to Julie for towing the trailer down and the parents Mrs Key and Dave that provided transport.

An uneventful drive down in lovely weather, we arrived and started to put things together, The Cooks Team, Peg and Dave unloaded and set up in the kitchen. Akela called everybody together and went through the camp and tent rules. He had been winding Vicky up for the previous few weeks about having to dig a small hole before going to the loo, and he presented her with a trowel and monogrammed toilet roll.

The Cubs were expected to put up their tents with a minimum of help from the Leaders. It never fails to amaze me that there are some Cubs that are willing to watch, with a mallet in their hand, while the Leaders and a few enthusiastic Cubs do all the work. If you stand over them they sullenly do as much as they care to hoping that by doing it badly they will be told to do something more interesting like football. Still the tents were soon up and the gap around them at ground level would mean that they would have plenty of fresh air. They could, possibly, have been put up sooner if the poles had not all been marked for tent 6. I'm not going to comment on the way the Cubs were putting the pegs in, they know better now.

After the Leaders tents had been out up, properly, we went off on a short walk to point out where certain things were like the Big Field, The climbing tower and small playground, the wood pile and the Aerial Runway that we would not be using. The Cubs swarmed all over the playground and a few found a football game to get involved in.

Tea was Chips, sausages and beans, which may have been a mistake when after tea we went down to the big field for a windy run around. We were joined by our G.S.L. for a kick and run around during this activity several Cubs got a little bit bent. As it got darker and a bit chillier we returned to the Tone Cabin to get the Cubs to put their sleeping stuff into the tents, the usual discussions of who was going to sleep next to who kept things busy for a while but soon everybody was settled.

While the hot chocolate was being prepared we had a quiz. General knowledge questions - girls against boys. The boys won round one but due to an infringement in round two lost to the girls. The overall result was a tie. The Cubs were sent off to remove the evidence of the hot drink by a quick wash. Some were amazed at having to go back a couple of times to get all the chocolate from around their mouth and some from in their ears.

The little angels did not let us down by  going straight to sleep, oh no it was well on towards 01:00 before they all went quiet. The Leaders retired as well but were woken up at 02:00 and 03:00. At 05:15 Akela had a 'whispered' shout at them, this had the desired effect and the Leaders got up at 06:00. We never did get to hear the alarm clock go off through the whole five days.

End of Day 1.