Scouts - Snow Flake Camp (JANUARY 2013)

By Jaz Lee

APL of Falcons

As we arrived at Frylands Wood there was a big surprise because we had been welcomed to an astonishing amount of snow and ice. The time we had arrived there was about midday and we had to unpack our personal luggage and the storm heavens [tents]. We all new that it might be a bit hard to carry our equipment up a small hill, what would of made even trickier was that the track was smothered in ice and we slipped up and down the path from just walking on it, let alone carry the storm heavens up. A couple of other scouts went to fetch a trailer while we were having a small snowball fight. The trailer had now been pulled to the campsite the final time we all got into our patrols and had to set up our tents. The names of our patrols are named after a species of birds, of prey, for example my patrol is called Falcons there are also Eagles, Hawk and Ravens.

Our tents were set out are personal kit were in the tent there was a fire, so the scouts aiming for their silver dragon badge went to make a fire and a bivouac I am one of those scouts aiming for that silver dragon badge. Unluckily for me I had to stay behind and make a fire with the scouts which had never gone on a camp before, so we showed them in about enough detail how to get a fire going. Another scout and I took two groups of them and showed them how to make a fire not needing to use fire lighter so the other scout  told the new scouts what bark they should collect off a tree in case your not certain yourselves it is silver birch, look it up on the internet if you haven’t heard of it before! The idea of teaching the scouts how to start a fire worked but I didn’t really work when they attempted to do it by themselves. We ended up abandoning the fire. I walked up to where the scouts aiming for their silver dragon badges were, they were in a little pyramid shaped room it’s hard to say what it actually was, but we all wanted to sleep in it so that we could complete 2 challenges in one camp. But we were told that you can only complete one challenge per camp.

Challenge: Challenges start when you are aiming for your silver badge you need to complete 12 challenges, over 12 more months of camping to get your silver dragon badge, and then you have to complete another 12 challenges over another 12 months to get your gold dragon badge.

Dragon badge: The dragon badge is one of the most rewarding scout badges, it is when you go on a camp every month of the year when you get your bronze badge to get to move onto your silver and gold you need to do a series of challenges but you have to complete them or you don’t get the next dragon badges.

We all walked back to camp to receive our food before we had to head out to the massive field to play our night activity games. Dinner was pasta and meat balls, which was prepared by the new scouts. As we finished our delicious meal, we were told to prepare for tonight night activities. The night activity could be anything from a 5 mile hike or a game that would involve physical contact for anyone who would like to join in the game. 

Tonight’s game was different to any activity I had ever done in my time of being in 4th Streatham Sea Scouts. The aim was to get to the top a huge hill which was about ½ a mile away and get back without being caught by the leaders (Sparks, Mowgli and Sub). We were put into groups of 4, and you were to stick to that group. I didn't listen to that rule and became the first scout to get to the goal on my way to the finish, I came upon two leaders. All the other scouts seemed to be, either evading or had already been caught by the leaders. As we got back to our camp it had started to rain so a lot of scouts’ first instinct to do when it rained was gets to their tent before they got drenched in the rain water. We all settled into our tent and every scout got a good night’s sleep except me because if anyone in my patrol had to get out the tent for some reason - let’s say they needed to go toilet they would have to wake me up before they got out the tent so each time someone had to go somewhere they woke me up and then when they open the door of the tent my sleeping bag would get drenched in water.

We got up in the morning about 07:45hrs we got up to see there was not a single flake of snow and ice left the Iceland had turned into a plain and very muddy land. We finished off taking the tents down and loaded them into the trailer so we could load the equipment into the mini bus. We left like we had conquered Britain. – One of the best camps yet!