Great River Race (SEPTEMBER 2012)

Lewis Cox

(A.P.L of Kestrels)

On the 25^th of September the forth Streatham Sea Scouts set off on a race across London known as the Great River Race, it defiantly lives up to its name. The Scouts include: Myself, Ben, Ewan, Harry, Josh J, Johnny, Eleanor, Jake R and Mowgli as the cox. 

The Explorers (Freddie, Nathan, Mitch, Liam, Xander with Sub and Trick coxing) also took part in another one of our gigs (Thames Scout).

Friday 14th September

We arrived at the scout hall the day before and drove to the boat house, where we were briefed on the tide and safety in the boat. We went to bed early to get ready for the race (the excitement of the race kept us up a bit longer though).

Saturday 15th September

An early start, woken up with a daunting day ahead of us. This was my first GRR so I was excited to see just how the event ran. We were faced with a tire that after many hard years of tugging boats, popped into a useless layer of rubber. So with even harder determination to get this boat in the water we pulled our hardest and got the boat in and we were afloat by 07:00 hours. We had a tow by the Whaley across most of London and saw some amazing sites but in only a couple of hours we would be rowing our hardest the other way.

We arrived at the starting line. We got out the boat and looked around. They were offering free face paints so we all ended up with 4^th Streatham logo and iLTG on our faces (a lot of games were lost that day). After this the tide was rising quickly so we got back in the boat just as the last centimetres of shore were left.

The Race...

With might and determination we powered our way across the starting line and gave it all we could. It was an astonishing sight- more than 300 boats all in a small section on the Thames. Because of the fact that we were an under 14 crew up against fully grown men, women and Vikings. So we had a good head start and got to Tower Bridge before the sudden mass of boats starting flowing across the Thames for the hundreds of people on bridges to gaze down on us in awe. It was hard work. The water was all over the place and water was making our boat tip and turn. No wonder that 5 boats sunk before the race had even really begun. However in our gig we were safe.

We were making good time we were only a few minutes behind our set target. Though we were being taken over by boats left right and centre everyone had high spirits after the fist couple hours. I was surprised to see so many people in boats, one time I had to shout out to another boat as they were about to ram into our stern carelessly.

People started to get tired when we reached Putney. We were alone at this time, there were no other boats near us. We kept a steady row for a while more. We reached Richmond and we were attacked by vicious PIRATES! (Two men in a canoe and some water guns). We’d been slowly approaching this Viking boat for a while when we decided to put in some strength and overtake them. So not last but very close to last.

The tide changed on us, literally. So we had to row really hard to make any way. When we got to the last hundred metres and rowed with what little strength we had left and crossed the line. There was a massive crowd of people on the bank and it was really amazing to cross the line. It was defiantly better than I imagined. We completed the Great River Race in 5hrs 30mins and 45secs. Meaning we came third in the under 14’s class!!

The Disco

So after we got the boats docked up on the side. We went to the big marquee and had fun at the Disco. Lots of crews were in fancy dress. We danced for a couple hours, before everyone was so tired and we all went to sleep in our tents. 

Sunday 16th September

We rowed back and got the boats away at the boat house. We then headed home for a well deserved rest after a long weekend.

Thanks to the leaders for making this happen!

The Video...

Below is a video that we took of our epic journey during the race.

Cubs visit Pets at Home (SEPTEMBER 2012)

All the Cubs!

On Friday 14 September, the cubs went to Pets at Home. They were shown around the store, and where told about all the different animals in the store, and what they eat, how to look after them, and what types of cages or tanks they should live in.

One of their favourite facts was that Syrian Hammers could run at 200 mile per hour! And the Chinchilla can stead all their fur if they feel threatened. The following week at our meeting they did some drawings of the animals they saw.  

Scouts Summer Camp (AUGUST 2012)

By Ben Num
Patrol Leader of Kestrels

Friday 24th August.
We arrived…. LATE and it was already raining. Mud everywhere. Torches out, Ewan guided the mini bus up to the campsite. Straight away tents were being put up and the marquee was put up. We played around a bit, as we look forward to the week ahead.

Saturday 25th August.
In the morning we did the finishing bits to our tents, built a flag pole for the flag so we could have our first morning parade and then had breakfast, after that we planned a route for the Long Hike ahead of us. Druing the hike everyone got to a different stage.  Some stopped early and returned after a few hours, but others kept going. It was really late when everyone had gotten back. We had dinner, and sat around the camp fire for a while telling jokes and stories.

Sunday 26th August.
Breakfast, Parade, we were put into 3 groups instead of our patrols and off we went to our decided first activity. My first activity was pioneering where we made a bridge, after we did climbing on the climbing wall, Mowgli showed me how to belay and let me help with the rope work for other scouts who were climbing. Finally we also did rifle shooting, which was fun, and was indoors so got us out of the rain for a little while!                      

Monday 27th August.
Today is the day that we made rafts. We walked to the lake and there was our equipment so off we went and build 3 rafts (3 groups). 3 rafts were built and in the end 3 rafts failed but it was very fun. After all the rafts were dismantled. During the rafting Mowgli brought up the 10 man Life Raft from a boat, and went through some survival at sea exercises with us, we had to do a little course of what we did if we were abandoning a ship and we had to all get into the life raft after doing different positions in the water. We wanted to sleep onboard the raft that night, but couldn't as we found there was some holes in it, once we get them fixed Mowgli says we can spend the night in it on the water!

After we were all showered and clean we walked back up to the campsite where we began to get ready our equipment for cooking in our patrols, we had to do it reastraunt style and serve some customers!!! We cooked Chinese.          

Tuesday 28th August.
Today we are woken early because we are going to aqua sports centre, where we do sailing and kayaking. Our fist activity was kayaking, we paddled around and played some games. We made chariots where you have to people and two kayaks and you put them together. Before the end of the Kayaking we did an ALL-IN  capsized drill, where everyone has to  capsized and help rescue each other, and get everyone back into their kayaks in a fast time. This was our first time at doing an all in, and we did very well, and were all back in a kayak within 10 mins. Afterwards we had lunch and it was quite cold. Then we did sailing, first we sailed up and down the lake and then we did  capsized drills in the sailing boats too, and when through what we should do if it did happen. (luckily we had wetsuits on but the water was warm as well) we went back to the campsite after, and sat around the fire for a while singing songs.

Wednesday 29th August.
Mountain biking…It was an epic day of racing around different tracks, people falling off, and going over the handle bars (me) but overall it was a fun day what ever happened, and it was so muddy too! At some point the bikes sank and were stuck in the mud. We had to cycle across this bridge with no sides and if you fell off, splash in the river you would go! Luckly no one fell off!

Later that day… it was Patrol Cooking, make your own 3 course meal with a budget of £10.
I’m not sure about other groups but my group made, tomato soup followed by Chinese chicken stir fry and for pudding a nice sponge cake. And guess who won!!! Ravens (I was in Ravens).

Thursday 30th August.
This day started breakfast and parade like normal, then we were all told we were going swimming!!!
At the swimming pool people got told off a numerous number times for back-flips and front-flips. After we played a big game of volley ball in the pool!!! And after a play in the little pool a relay!!! After swimming we went to EVOLUTION climbing centre which was sooooo cool, it had no harness but just crash-mats and an upside down wall and this tunnel that people just casually jammed in! We kept on trying to complete one of the hard routes, where you climb up the centre wall, and swing across the ceiling with out dropping to the other wall, and then climb down, we all managed to go up and across   but then all fell on the downward incline of the second wall. It was very hard, but fun to watch everyone fall off.

On the way back we got chicken and chips but while we waited we went on to some grass and played football and benched people, when It was ready we headed back to the campsite to eat it around the fire.

Friday 31st August.
Our final full day of the camp, and off to the beach we went. We went to Hastings beach. Mowgli and Subs set us a Sand Castle Challenge, knowing full well there was no sand at Hastings! But some of us found some sand as the tide went out, and started to build some sandcastles. We then visited the ship-wreak museum which had lots of stuff from boats that had sank hundreds of years ago. Later we got to all split up and did our own things in smaller groups, first of all me and my friends went to McDonalds to get food, then we went to the casino and spent all our money and practically got nothing. After we met back up we all had a fish and chips supper on the beach and then headed back to the site.

Saturday 1st August.
When we got up we started to pack our kit away, and sort out packing the trailer. We were allowed to eat all the food that was left over from the week, which is always one of the best bit about camp. We finished packing away all the tents, and then swept the sight making sure all the littler had been picked up. When everything was done we had some free time, and were climbing in this tree, when the branch brakes and Jake falls out of the tree with a crash! When we were all ready to go, the mini bus wouldn't start so with all the scouts pushing it we manage to get it to start and then we set off for home!!!

Cub Summer Camp (JULY - AUG 2012)

Miranda Van Heel 

White Watch.

On Friday the 27^th of July the cubs went to Broadstone Warren for summer camp for 8 days! First we went on a hike. It was great fun but a bit tiring. Then the beavers came to camp, but they only stayed for one night.             

This years theme was Ancient Greek Olympics, and the 4 teams were, Sparta, Athens, Corinth and Megara. 

With the Beavers we did a course on the low ropes and none of the Cubs or Beavers managed not to fall off.   After lunch we went outside to work on our Athletics badge.  We had to run 1000 meters non-stop.  My sister Claire (a Beaver) came third, beating most of the Cubs including me!

After they left we split into two groups and went rifle shooting, and we did archery.  The instructor asked us not to aim at anyone else’s head….

We went on a treasure hunt and when we came back we played a game. Later we play Push Ball, the ball was huge, bigger than any of the cubs. 

Over the week we did lots of other activities like climbing, and built Umbrella rafts, which all sank!

On one of the days we went to the Lama Farm, were we got to stroke and feed the lama’s there. They were very friendly. In the evening it was raining very hard so we couldn't play out, so instead we build catapults out of bamboo and elastic bands, with a jelly pot as the shooter. We fired ping-pong (table tennis) balls at each other for hours. It was brilliant! 

Overall the camp was great fun, and we all enjoyed it very much and can’t wait to go on the next camp!