The 34th annual Father and Son camp took place from Friday 14 until Sunday 16 September. It was held at Earleywood Camp Site in South Ascot. The theme this year was ’2001 A Space Oddesey’. Thanks to Michelle Dye we are now able to publish pictures of the event.

This year 2nd Bracknell was by far the biggest group at the camp. We had over 80 campers. However, with the tents spread out under the trees it didn’t look that many. It looks lovely with the sun shining through the trees  but it was quite chilly at night.

Catering for 80 people when you have no refrigeration facilities or running water and your cooking is limited to 4 gas burners is no mean feat. Unlike other groups which made the parents cater for themselves we decided to call in our Summer Camp caterers – the SMICCTSO team. Although they didn’t stay overnight they were there in time to cook the bacon rolls for breakfast. Once the rush had died down even Akela couldn’t manage another bacon roll. He was helping out the SMICCTSO team – note his ‘trainee’ badge on his very smart SMICCTSO T-shirt.

One of the tasks put onto the caterers was the preparation of a theme meal which is judged as part of the ongoing competition. June and Lesley from the SMICCTSO team had done their homework here and had watched the appropriate section of the Space 2001 film to see what they ate. The result was quite a work of art, although some of the 12 lucky people who had to eat it didn’t seem quite so sure.

Of course there was more to the camp than just food. One of the keenly fought competitions was go-karting. Although the Cubs seemed to fit into the go-karts nicely it was a bit different when the parents had a go and almost disaster whenone took the corner too fast.

Another event involved flying saucers. There was also an ongoing task to make various space themed objects from everyday materials although insparation seemed to have left some of the people gathered around the craft table.

At the end of the camp it was Baloo who collected our awards from the judges.