Thursday

For some reason the Cubs slept later than they had done previously, breakfast was cooked and ready before they were fully awake. One or two of the girls had to be encouraged to leave their sleeping bags to their by being dragged out of the tents and then up-ended to remove them from their bags.

Breakfast was again cooked, and plentiful.

Our activity this morning was to be archery, this had been held in a secluded area between two buildings as the big field had so many people camping in it that it was too dangerous. However when we arrived at the secluded area we found that the archery was to be on the main field as so many people had gone home. What great news! Akela gathered the Cubs together and pausing only to stock up on drinks, biscuits and sun-block we ambled down to the field. We watched from a safe distance as the butts were set up and the safety netting hung correctly. Akela managed to get all the Cubs well covered with sun-block. Megan along with most of the female Cubs was showing her midriff and in a startling display of marksmanship  Akela filled her belly-button with one burst from the sun-block dispenser from about 30cm away.

At last the archery was ready and we found an 'old' friend, Ben from the climbing, helping the instructor Neil, from the same group. The usual safety rules were explained and two by two the Cubs all had a go. Some of them have done 'bows and arrows' before and needed little in the way of reminding, others including the Cooks Team and their offspring were doing it for the first time. As we were doing the firing in pairs there was a lot of time between goes and, bless them, the Cubs were well behaved. We paused for a drink and biscuit before going onto the competition phase. Akela and one of the male Cubs hit the outer gold but the closest to the centre was Zeze.

Lunch was sandwiches and fruit with lots of liquids as it was very warm.

Glass painting was the afternoon activity, some small glasses were provided and a paper template for the Cubs to design what they were going to paint onto the glass. It was explained that the brushes that would be used were not suitable for fine detailed work and that the designs should be bold and colourful, they could be any design that the Cubs wished but it would be nice to include some elements of the fact that we were on camp. Acrylic paints were provided and the Cubs started. First they had to copy the template provided, then with the template inside the glass, paint their design onto the outside of the glass. Simplicity turned out to be the key, some of the painters gave up with trying to follow their designs too closely and took a more free-hand approach.

After the excitement of craftwork we had our annual alternative athletics event, catching the partly tied bag of water, running 50metres in large water filled wellies. The long slide was cancelled as there was a feeling that in the middle of a dry spell the water 'wasted' on the slide was not sustainable. So we managed to get everybody fairly wet and some very wet indeed. After drying the Cooks Team and the Cubs we sat down to a roast dinner. Marvellous. How the Cooks managed to feed 20 people a roast dinner with only two small cookers was a mystery.

After writing up the Cubs journals and changing into old clothes we allowed them to visit the 'Monkey Paradise', an area of adventurous playground. Our previous visits had been noticed as there was a sign asking for the rather steep mud bank not to be lubricated. Shame, most of the Cubs had been looking forward to the death defying out of control descents that had been so memorable on previous visits. We still managed to damage two Cubs, A 'bum' landing and an arm that had bashed an errant tree, both of whom recovered quickly when they realised that they were missing out on the fun.

To finish the day and prepare the Cubs for going home the next day they all had a shower. The girls taking much longer than the boys as the boys managed to move about in the shower and avoid the water. that's what it looked like from the state of their soap and towels anyway.

Our Last night at camp and the Cubs settled down by discussing which of the boys fancied which of the girls and how these had changed over the previous few days. None of the Cubs stayed awake too long as it had been a long week. The Leaders on the other hand had some finishing off to do. All the bottles were recycled in the morning.