The Mess Dinner & Xmas Camp (December 2010)

By Frankie Postles (P.L. Eagles).

They all said that there had not been a scout mess dinner in a very long time due to so and so circumstances, but at last the whispers turned into fact and us scouts all found ourselves over at the hall on Friday evening. Sparks had said that the scenario was that we had found ourselves in the wild with no tents and had found a derelict building to camp out in. We could use anything we could find. With ten individual imaginations all buzzing away, the creations that were to be our shelters all took different shapes from the bizarre to the practical. That evening died away in a hum of chatter.

The next morning it was cereal, a trip to the shops for me and Sparks and a bus ride to the boat house that get us going. The plan was that everyone would have a go at doing different things, one group rowing, another cooking, another doing maintenance and a final kayaking. In practice it all went along those lines. A great day of activities was the result, but the main event was still to come.

The mess dinner itself was to be in the galley with drinks, food, crackers and all the spirit we could muster. The immaculate presentation was down to Nathan and Jack while the more so immaculate food was down to Chief, Skip myself and Boson. After Skips most enjoyable speech we all had a toast (which was sitting down due to the restricting height on a ship.)

Finishing off the meal were a series of speeches, Alistair bringing a whole new dimension to the word “speech.” Sparks gave a wonderful tale of his youth in the olden days and Akela’s televised speech brought a tear to everyone’s eye.

It would be unjust not to mention the disco that went on for a couple of hours after the meal. Such a day’s events even saw Ben sitting down looking tired! A wonderful evening.

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Firework Camp - Lewes (November 2010)

By Jake Ruibal 

We drove to the train station when we got there; the train was packed with people. When we got to Lewes , there were loads of drunken people. We saw a parade and a set off bangers everywhere. We went to a chip shop then we walked up the road. We saw a huge bonfire then we climbed up the hill and watched fireworks. Then we walked to the mini bus, it took about half an hours to got there! We stopped to got some food. When we got to the camp site we had to put or tents up it was raining and very dark. The next day we started to make a fire then we cooked breakfast we had porridge and bread and cereal. After we packed up and went to Lewes castle, where we look around the castle and played with some swords. Then we went home I really enjoyed it.

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Chilly Camp - Fishborn (October 2010)

 By: Hugh Skepper

It was a warm October day when me and two friends (Hugo and Joshua) set off for Fishbourne, near Chichester. To camp with  the 1st Southborn Sea Scout group. The journey should have been relatively short, but our pathetic map reading skills soon sent the time soaring. We were also stopped by an upturned pickup truck, which had smashed into the side of a ford Ka. 

Once we arrived, we were swamped by the scout group we were spending the night with. At first, most of us were shy, but we soon became good friends with the other scout group. They were making different types of fires, ones on stands (alter), ones underground (indian) and many more (pyrimid and mud oven).

There was a tree nearby that you could easily climb. We attached a plank to it, and soon enough it became a full fledged tree house, with people constantly guarding it. At around five dinner was ready. It was a meal of hot pasta with bolognaise. For desert we had pancakes... After that we played a wide game (a game played over a wide area, usually in the dark). We played a game called German spotlight, where everyone but a few have to try and extinguish a gas lamp, whilst avoiding the glare of the spotlights. We played this a few times, but after that we were tired. 

We decided to go to tell some stories around the fire, before going to bed. It was a peaceful night, and we woke up in the morning refreshed. Soon everyone was awake. As a gift to the scouts we dunked Mowgli in a pile of hay. Temptation was too much, and we all jumped in. By one we were leaving, and, as we said goodbye to the other scouts, Mowgli floored it. A few of the other scouts tried to jump on, but we were soon out of range. It had been a very fun camp, even if we were short on numbers!

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