Wow wow wow. What am amazing weekend I have just had celebrating the Kings Coronation with the Scouts. This blog is about my experience of the Coronation Camp.
After arriving on Thursday afternoon with lovely weather, we caught the shuttle bus to site. On route we stopped at a petrol station before continuing to head off to Gilwell. Once now at Gilwell, we registered in before putting up our tents and then going on a wonder. I helped with some cleaning before changing into my uniform for the briefing and uniform checks – as I did not have the Coronation badge, I asked the valet team for one. We then ate dinner before I headed off for an early night.
Friday was a very chill day. I waited about in the breakfast queue talking to some Australians and Canadians before grabbing my breakfast. I then sewed my coronation badge onto my uniform before handing it to the valet team to iron and then headed to our safety briefing. Here we learnt some basic safety training on how to look out for “HOT bags”, the procession route and how many horse drew each carriage as well as the name of the operation… Golden Orb. We then headed out for a walk around site with our Team Leader, Larry, before playing a Scottish game of “run, haggis, run”. We then grabbed a warm lunch before afternoon activities.
For the afternoon we could drop into varying activities, there was The Lid open with a climbing wall, ladders, a mini Jacobs ladder and other mini ropes courses. This was great fun as we queued and got to know one another more and played some cards. We then did some tomahawks before helping the valet team with sewing some badges.
In the evening, there was a small campfire and Blue and I, with my new friends, got to learn some new international songs such as “Hello Mr Worm” and the German Bear Hunt. We then headed to Buffalo Bar to compete in the Quiz, where we got 10/10 on the cryptic TV shows round, before heading for an early night to wake up nice and early Saturday Morning.
Saturday consisted of an early start at 4am to have a quick shower before heading to meet the rest of my group and grab our breakfast. We then walked to Chingford train station to grab the first train into London. The early morning tiredness was real as we made our way into London and headed for Green Park Station.
We shortly arrived in St. James Park and set up our base. At first the weather was gorgeous however soon it started to rain and proceeded to not stop raining throughout the rest of the day. We soon saw the King’s Procession towards Westminster Abbey before watching the main coronation at Westminster on the big screen. It was amazing to watch in a crowd with others cheering when he was crowned and joining in singing the national anthem, a lovely atmosphere. Before the Coronation Procession left the Abby, we headed out towards The Mall to get a good spot to watch. We then saw the Coronation Procession including the Golden Carriage and once the procession had finished we queued patiently to walk towards Buckingham Palace to view the Balcony Wave and watch the Fly Byes. As the weather was still very much raining, we only got to see the Red Arrows and I saw two of the Royals, who weren’t obstructed by the Victoria Memorial.
After queueing for the longest of time to escape The Mall we travelled to Victoria station to head back to Gilwell. There underground was long with delayed signalling and silly people obstructing the doorways we eventually made it back to Chingford before slowly walking back to site. I swapped out of uniform and played some cards before a delicious meal of lamb stew and then headed back to the Buffalo Bar. We did the macarena, cha cha slide and listened to music before heading to sleep.
Sunday morning was more relaxed, I said goodbye to my Scottish friend before heading to the Scouts Own/Closing Ceremony. We reflected on our Scouts Promise and how we did our duty to our country and King over this weekend whether it be by Stewarding or just being a friendly face. After some reflection and thank you, it was time for goodbye’s and Operation Cornetto. I finished packing my kit away before catching the shuttle bus to Chingford to head home. As I was early to my train, Blue and I went via. Liverpool Street to catch the Elizabeth Line. We then made it back home to Sunny Brum.
