The summer camp this year was held as above at Gilwell Park, in Epping Forest, London. The dates of the camp were the 1st until the 8th of August 2009. An inspection of the site was made in April of the year and plans put in place to take the scouts.
The actual site was a bit disappointing as in your mind you build up great expectations and as usual everything falls short. On the 1 st the mini bus came back from on loan to the thirteenth and we arrived at the site in the middle of a down pour of rain, but we managed to set up site and after tea we played a film for the scouts and had a talk about the general rules for the camp.
On Sunday the weather was sunny and we had a scouts own in the morning followed by a session of grass sledging. To round things of we had the scouts do the camp orienteering course which is good for teaching the scouts the layout of the site. This was followed up by a session on axe and saw. In the evening we had a site campfire to go to, and that rounded off the day.
Monday was a hot and humid day, which made it a bit hard on the scouts, in the morning we had a session on the zip line, and in the afternoon we had two sessions one was medium ropes the other was crate stacking which the scouts really loved. In the evening we had a wide game and a talk around the fire on how the day had gone.
Tuesday, started quite fresh. But the clouds burnt away and sun tan cream went on, the scouts had a session of aero ball which is like basket ball on trampolines, and in the afternoon they had one more activity, which was swimming, and a session on map and compass. That night we had a hike around the local reservoir, which ended quite late.
Wednesday was a really hot day, we went into London and had a look around the science and the natural history museums, we went to London by train and underground. In the evening we put on a film.
Thursday, started hot and humid. We had three activities that day the 3G swing, rifles, and the leap of faith, which replaced the fan decender, as that activity was broken. In the evening we had a thunderstorm, so the wide game was cancelled so we had a scout quiz, and then we invited some Irish scouts over for another film, as they had no cook tent or marquee.
On Friday, the rain cleared and the sun came out so it was really humid after the night before. The scouts had two activities one was canoeing and the other was a revolving climbing wall. In the late afternoon we went out to Waltham chase abbey for a look around and went out after that for a fish and chip supper.
Saturday we basically packed up and headed for home and ended up in a traffic jam on the m25 for three hours, which made us late getting home.
