Scout Camp.....

A11 and his Scout Troop organised themselves a camp at one of the Leaders' places as part of one of their badges. The trailer was a popular mode of transport for getting to the campsite, they all jumped on with their bags:


They did a great job, organising the timetable, the menus, the budget, the gear list, the activities, the shopping, etc. They did all their cooking by campfire (no gas), which meant they had to gather the wood:


Luckily, there was some good supervision in place (I told Martin he did an excellent impersonation of a council worker, lol):


And then get the fire going well enough so that they could cook on it:


And work out the best way to do things like cook toast to have with your spaghetti, and what might be the best way to get the pot to sit above the fire to cook the spaghetti:


A11's patrol set up a Burma Trail (ropes through a course to be followed at night):


They also had some ropes and ladders tied through trees and they had to get from the start to the finish without touching the ground:


Bit of a trick to get to the Loo Tent the first night though, lol:


We went down a really steep cliff to get to a waterfall, we found out on the way back UP that there was actually an established track so we needn't have tried to carve our own through the underbrush!:




Scouts being Scouts, we had to keep the food under lock and key so it wasn't all eaten on the first day (we told them it was so the possums didn't get it):


The rope swing was pretty popular between activities:


There was some confusion in the orienteering/compass and map activities - A11's patrol were well off their game (check out how many different directions they got from reading the same instruction!):


Moa Eggs were a popular dinner - boiled potato wedges, a boiled egg, tomato wedges, cheese and bacon rolled in sausage meat, then crumbed, then wrapped in baking paper then tinfoil before being placed in the embers to cook while they did their next activity:



The highlight for A11, by far, was the go-kart and ride-on mower driving. They started out getting the hang of 'driving' on the ride-on, they learnt such valuable skills as how to drift and do handbrake slides:


Then they moved on to the go-kart on the grass:


Then they got to drive the go-kart round the track, complete with mud puddles and tight corners to go sideways round:


A11 had a ball being taken round the track with Tuakana, who is a REAL rally driver, I thought he would be petrified but I think there's a boy racer deep in the heart of every male:


Even though his Mum complained he lost a tooth and he had mud up his nose and in his ear holes, I loved this photo, it sort of summed up the weekend well I thought, a little bit of blood, a lot of dirt, and a smile that lasted till they fell asleep (early and exhausted) on Sunday night: