I am sitting by a swimming pool in the sun as I glance down at my hands and see the ingrained dirt and I start to remember the fantastic weekend I have just had. Yesterday I was at camp cooking for 17 lovely, polite, and highly excitable cubs.
As the cubs arrived on Friday at 19.30pm, the 2nd Bracknell Leaders led by Mang had already erected the cub tents, the kitchen tent and shelter and the mess shelter. The cubs were shown to their tents and left to set up after being relieved of some most delicious looking cakes.
At 20.30 all 78 cubs were split into four groups and Mang led the wide game, the objective was to blow out the other teams candles as many times as possible. An hour later some muddy and hungry cubs came back into camp ready to eat their hot dog and drink their hot chocolate; it was then time to wash up and clean teeth before each cub climbed into bed and went straight to sleep… well almost.
Saturday morning started very early with cubs being awake and chatting in their tents from 5.00am. At 7.00 they got up and tided their tent and had breakfast of cereal, sausages, scrambled egg, beans and fruit juice. After washing up, cleaning their teeth and finding hats and sun cream at 10.00 the cubs split off into four groups and through the day completed the various bases: making totem poles and dream catchers, wigwams, using a lasso, making necklaces and headdresses, Tin Pan Alley, horseshoes & bows and arrows amongst other things. Lunch was served as a buffet and the cubs ate and disappeared off into their groups again.
16.30 came round very quickly and the cubs returned ready to eat, after cleaning up they sat down to melon, pasta and chicken and apple crumble or fruit flan with custard or whippy cream.
The cubs washed up, dried up and put their dinner stuff away; they are very good at this now and really must practise at home to keep the skill ready for their next camp.
No rest for anyone as the leaders got the cubs ready for Mang’s campfire. I stayed in camp obviously to tidy up and get supper up (it was very peaceful) I could hear the songs from camp and still have the peanut song as a mind worm. The cubs came back for hot chocolate and biscuits and went to bed, straight to sleep this time.
Sunday morning I awoke to a mist over the tents and the promise of a hot sunny day. The cubs slept until 6.00am and talked in their tents until 7.00am, I had some very helpful cubs to set up for breakfast and the cereal, bacon and eggie bread disappeared very quickly.
After finding hats, sun cream and making sure everyone had cleaned their teeth the activities started again. Pony rides for cubs that had never ridden, an inflatable obstacle course, airway runway (zip wire) adventure course and giant jenga saw the morning fly by.
After a lunch of wraps and crisp breads the cubs started to tidy and ‘break camp’. It is a strange time as everyone is excited about going home but not wanting to go home at the same time.
A closing ceremony and off home for baths and to sleep the rest of Sunday was on the agenda of every cub.
The camp was hugely enjoyable for cubs and adults alike because of the effort and organisation put in by the adult volunteers, the district team for the idea, Baloo for organizing and administration, Mang for leading the camp, running the wide game and camp fire. Van Man for driving, setting up camp and looking after the equipment on camp, Bagheera and Rashka for running the totem poles and dream catchers and looking after the cubs, Margaret for helping me with the food and Matt for helping to set up camp. Camps would not happen and would not be such huge fun without the leaders giving up their time, before, during and after the camp.
I hope this is the first of many camps I do as part of 2nd Bracknell.