Summer Camp traditionally takes place in the first week of the school Summer Holidays. This year we returned to the delightful Gloucestershire village of Cranham. The theme was Star Trek. Hopefully some of your memories will be captured in the photos.

The village is in a valley – camp site on one side, houses on the other and we had wonderful weather for most of the week: You don’t need a forecaster when there is a red sky at night

During the week we completed several activity badges including Cooks, Campers & Map Readers. We shared the site with Cubs from Cardiff. Their packs changed over mid-week and to celebrate the end of their camp they set up a waterslide on the hill. After they had finished our Cubs had a go although some found it a bit wetter than they had expected

We were fortunate to have a good collection of Venture Scouts and helpers. One of their favourite tasks was running our nightly campfire. The campfire circle was just behind our site so it was very convenient. Some of the songs required the group to be split to see who was the loudest. As you can imagine, it was a very close competition

Being at camp can rather take it out of you. The leaders were generally up around 6am so that everything was ready when the Cubs got up. Sometimes the  early morning walk to the showers was a bit tricky. However, there is nothing like a  nice cup of tea  to get you going in the morning. Of course, when it gets a bit quiet in the afternoon because the Cubs are off doing other things there is generally the chance to  catch up on lost sleep. The Venture Scouts decided that they would sleep outside in the nice weather. However, they hard bargained without the  effect of sleeping on a slope which meant that they didn’t all manage to stay on the groundsheet during the night.

There were no serious injuries during the camp but at one stage surgery was required when Robert Morgan discovered that his teddy has lost an arm. Luckily Baloo and Raksha were able to assist.

One of the main themed events of the week was the Banquet. Just the mention of it is enough to send shudders down the spine of generations of 2nd Bracknell campers. The idea is that each group has a limited budget (£10) with which to buy and prepare a 3 course meal. The competition judges look for presentation, quality of entertainment and teamwork as well as the food itself. This year the competition was judged by Baloo and a visiting dignitary – Rikki’s mother who didn’t seem to be put off by the rain. The overall winners were the Vulcan team.

One of the tasks that the Cubs found hardest was that they had to do their own washing up after each meal. Maybe they need to get a bit more practice at home!

Our closing ceremony on the last day marked the end of a great week. If you are wondering what happened to our St George’s flag you will have to ask our neighbouring campers from Cardiff. During the night they switched it for the Welsh flag instead!

The rain stayed away on the last day so that we could get the tents down in the dry (always a big relief). The closing ceremony was also dry but we knew we had pushed our luck when the rain started as the  group photos were being taken.