Cave Camp Clip

It rained - a lot - really lots! So the caves were  too full of rain to fit any scout in them... but it was a Gill Scrambling Camp - just like caves with high ceilings :)

Here's some pics of the w/e: some are green 'cos the underwater phone case is green to balance underwater colour saturation, some are boggy 'cos it it was, some are just chilling about the hut 'cos that was dry so we did...

There's a mix of scouts and explorers here so I'll post it to both blogs! BOGOF!

Yum....

Good to get everyone signed up to do DofE and check off the 'Food and Cooking' competence in your expedition checklist in the 'Keeping Track' books - well so long as you survived the night after the cooking!

I was so busy running around that I was a bit late taking photos so here is my record of your achievement (DofE speak)!

Hmmm... we didn't quite cover all of 'cooking and food' as we missed off the washing up bit (which would have been much easier with boil-in-the-bag food :) ) but it obviously tasted good.

You do need to start to keep records and evidence and upload photos etc to your e-DofE accounts - you'll need it at the end and anyway, DofE is something you'll want to remember so it's a good way to get a journal of what we did together! If you got some better photos of us cooking put it on our facebook page or send me a copy, and upload it to your e-DofE - if you didn't, why not copy this one!

Next week is our White Water Rafting trip on Sunday 2 October, but I've been checking through the practice expedition checklists (that's what they're there for!) and we probably need to spend some time planning if we are going to go camping in the half term, and some delegating too - it's your expedition! So we will meet up at the hut as usual on Thurs 29 September. Come with ideas about what you would like in your expedition! Its a working meeting so bring some music/snacks/paper/maps....

Splash!

It's going to be wet! Here's the consent form for scouts and the consent form for the National Whitewater Centre.
Please get them to me asap (tonight?) with the £20 contribution (bargain!)
PS The form says pick up about 2:30 but we probably have to collect at closer to 2pm for those in the west of our area, having checked out the AAroutefinder.
PPS I missed off the centre number on the form - it is 01678 521083 for use in case of emergency - for keeping in touch - use leader numbers

Filthy - lucre

Last week was about planning and I was pleased to see you plan to give me £35! (gorgeous!) Please bring it asap as we have spent it all already!

It went on....

• White water rafting on Sunday 2 October (which will cost an extra £20 - it seems easier when it's only £35 subs and £20 for rafting instead of a lump of £55!)

and

• DofE registration

Oh well - the rest of the prog will have to be cheap!

D of E intro

We have Iain Adams, the scout county DofE coordinator coming this week to get you all signed up. I thought we'd break up the burocracy part by checking out lightweight cooking options... As we discussed, bring along some lightweight food that you think will be sustaining (medium term sustaining like for the next day's hiking- not chocolate - thats just a short rush energy boost!) (OK bring chocolate then - and rush around a bit....)
If you have a lightweight cooker, bring that too and we'll try lots of different sorts and see which is best.
When we sign up, you need to complete the registration form, which includes the general parental consent so please download and complete it, or make sure your parent signs one of the ones I have when they drop you off.

And finally, we meet at normal time - normal place - 8:30 to 10:00 at PGL

Oh no! Noro Vomo!

It's a plague in all their houses at PGL and they're into a deep clean! We need to STAY AWAY!!! (don't go there!)

We need somewhere else to meet - and it's our first meeting! - so I've arranged to use Baschurch Primary School after the Drum Corps finish, just for this week I hope!

We will meet at 8:00pm to 9:30pm (early!) at Baschurch Primary on Thursday 15 Sept

Back to basics

Hey - thats a scouty thing... but we are back and basically up and running from this Thursday at the hut at PGL from 8:30-10:00.
We need to do some planning and agree the prog and subs etc and generally get to know each other. We have Caving camp with SSGMG, the National Rifles Champs (well shot at the practice session today!), and the 'Shadow' incident hike exercise camp coming up and a meeting with the Asia-Pacific Region (it's just another English county but sunnier! :) ) and DofE to sort out, so lots to do! Try and make sure you come to our first meeting!
See you then!

Climbing wall at the Corbet

This is a joint thing with scouts 'cos I know you can't wait to get back there either! And now you can - sooner! The LJC (the local council committee that gave us the money for our hut) are running a community event at the Corbet tomorrow, 3 September, at 12:00. We're helping support it by running the climbing wall we've borrowed from the SSGMG. Come along and join us - better yet, come along and help put it up! We hope to be there from about 10:00 struggling to get it put together in time!!!

(I know the blog post is same as the scouts one, but it's easier to plan 2 progs if scouts and explorers do the same! ;-) )