Personal Challenge:

Our four most senior Cubs (Shannon, Emma, Jess and Megan) are ready for Scouts but first we have to give them a Personal Challenge to enable them to earn the "Chief Scout's Silver Award". It was proposed that the Girls should abseil the equivalent height of Snowden. This filled the Cubs with a mixture of nervousness and excitement.

To add to the Challenge it was decided to do the abseil as a sponsored event. As we had recently had a Guide Dog visit the Pack with her Owner it was decided that the benefactor would be Guide Dogs. The Cubs were encouraged to only ask family and friends for sponsorship, for obvious reasons.

The Saturday of the great descent arrived and the Cubs were picked up from the Scutt by Hathi and taken out to the abseil tower at Woodhouse Park. Here they were met by a familiar face on the tower. . . Akela. He had been persuaded to run the tower for a group in the afternoon and was able to fit the Cubs into his schedule. He was joined on the tower by another Leader, called Andy.

After a safety talk and the fitting of harnesses the girls were ready, up the ladder they climbed and after a go on the short tower to get over the nerves the big tower was used. After each descent the girls had to tick and initialise a sponsorship form to prove that they had actually done what they said.

At first the Cubs were a bit hesitant and their attempts to bounce out away from the damp and slightly slippery wall were not 100% graceful. But after a dozen or so descents the Cubs were coming down like pro's. Emma was not impressed by Hathi's suggestion that she had her harness reversed to let her 'run' down the wall.

After a while the Cubs had abseiled further than the London Eye and Canary Wharf and were on to their last push. Jess's mum arrived to take her to the Bristol Old Vic as she was doing something exciting there that afternoon, but before she left, the Cubs reached the 'bottom' of Snowden and the Cubs were able to have a breather, and some lunch.

Hathi took the girls home and Akela stayed on for the afternoon session.

Naturally the sky was blue with strong autumnal sunshine so thanks to Akela for that and also to Andy for helping us out. Thanks to the girls efforts well over £100 has been raised for the Guide Dogs. Well done Cubs.