This month, I have helped to plan and organise the Midlands Freshers Camp for SSAGO. On our small committee, I took on the role of being logistics and as such, I ensured we had enough equipment, helped here and there as well as create a timetable and ensured we kept to timings.
Friday evening rolled around and first I had to catch a train to Tile Hill with other BUSAG members – as I had a Friday late lecture 🙁 and would not be able to arrive early. As soon as we arrived, I got straight into helping, from annoying the kitchen staff to pitching tents to attending the quiz late to washing up. There was a small campfire before I headed to bed, ready for a long Saturday ahead + an early morning as I agreed to help make breakfast.
Saturday morning was an early rise, waking up at 6am, prepped to cook breakfast. After a well deserved cuppa (and watching the stunning sunrise), I started cracking eggs for eggy bread. Shortly, the campers started waking and breakfast was a go! It was one of the best camp breakfasts I have had in a long while.
After breakfast, I ran capture the flag. With a little bit of cheating here and there (I never said in the rules that I could not tell the opposing team where the other teams flag was hidden), we then stopped briefly for elevenses. Then, we had a mini firebuilding workshop before lunch.
Afternoon activities consisted of backwoods cooking or a rotation of an “eating challenge”, guess the object, free time and my base of the “elephant/monkey game”. It was a very fun afternoon before the rain came in. I then went on a campsite explore before heading back for a gorgeous dinner of dhal, rice and naan.
After dinner, we had a campfire. Due to it raining, it started off quite small as we created two smaller fires before combining them together once more of the wood had dried. We sung songs before many retired to bed. I agreed to stay up and watch the campfire die out (which meant I did not have to be on breakfast cooking duty Sunday morning). A few other SSAGO member stayed with me watching the fire and it was nice chatting and making new friends. We talked into the early hours of Sunday morning before deciding that we would head off (as the campfire was just now embers and ensured they were cooler). As soon as we reached back to camp, it started raining again which was typical.
Sunday morning was a later start where I ate breakfast before, visiting the amazing campsite shop. It was then time to dismantle camp and tidy the hut we had been using. We had a lovely leftovers lunch before walking back to the train station to return back to Uni.
It was a very rewarding camp, and I thoroughly enjoyed being behind the scenes this one time.