Tag: Damboree

A Scout is to be trusted (but not on Beaver camp…?)

The 7 Scout Laws:

1) A Scout is to be trusted.
2) A Scout is loyal.
3) A Scout is friendly and considerate.
4) A Scout belongs to the worldwide family of Scouts.
5) A Scout has courage in all difficulties.
6) A Scout makes good use of time and is careful of possessions and property.
7) A Scout has self-respect and respect for others.

How many of these laws did I manage to break in a period of 5 minutes on Beaver camp. I think in the end it was about 4 of them. Here’s the story of how we pranked Beaver Leader on Beaver camp. I’ll be using our Beaver names to protect the innocent, you can decide who I was.

Lion asked Bat (the Beaver Leader) whether he wanted a brew (no laws broken quite yet but we have reinforced being friendly and considerate).
Snail proceeded to make the brew (coffee, white, 1 sugar) until Lion decided it would be funny to put in some salt and we all agreed eventually of the portion of salt (only a little spill as if we’d muddled up the salt with the sugar).

As Lion poured in the salt, Giraffe thought it be a good idea to tip the salt bottle in further allowing at least half the bottle of salt to submerged into the now very, very salty coffee (here I realised we had broken the laws of how a Scout should be trusted, loyal, friendly and considerate and have respect for others at least we didn’t break a 5th by dropping Bat’s property).

Once we agreed it would be absolutely hilarious to still give the very salty coffee to Bat, we waited for Lion to take it back over. According to Bat, he thanked Lion and noticed how Snail and Giraffe were virtually the Chuckle Brothers in the back and Lion had a huge grin on his face asked out of interest whether we had done anything to the coffee. Lion quickly said no and ran back to the kitchen quickly (yet again breaking the law of how a Scout should be trusted).

Once Bat had left the room we quickly called over Mole (another Beaver Leader) to tell her of our greatest achievement and how proud we were but quickly learned that Bat would not be impressed. He came back in after a sip out of his coffee exclaiming that there will be revenge.

So, that evening, Giraffe’s tent magically collapsed. I am still waiting for the revenge to be taken out on me but at least afterwards I will know I will be able to have courage in all difficulties.

Thunderbolt and lightning very very frightening

No click bait here, well ok I’ll admit maybe a little bit of click bait …

So last weekend I went to Beaver camp! My adventure started on Friday evening when according to my Mum I spent far too long packing for one night away.  Does she not remember the key rule – there’s no such thing as bad weather only bad kit! Well as the weather forecast was a mixture,  I wanted to ‘Be Prepared’.

Saturday morning arrived and I headed to where we would be camping and helped unpack the bacon (mmm yummy).

The Beavers arrived as we were setting up their huge tents, all prepared for their jungle camp.

First up was splitting the Beavers into their lodges each with their own young leader. My lodge’s first activity was putting up a tent, followed by archery and then fire lighting. They got a stamp for each activity they completed filling out their jungle passports.

After a ‘short’ break filling up everyone’s water bottles we did some more activities. My lodge did a blind folded maze, followed be creating the word Damboree using natural letters (Damboree is the Beavers version of a Jamboree) and then completed an endangered animal activity.  By this point it was time for dinner.

Dinner consisted of the Scout camp classic “Spaghetti Bolognese”. Whilst I refuelled on caffeine the Beavers played some indoor games as it was too wet outside for their campfire as some of the Beavers missed the memo about there’s no such thing as bad weather only bad kit.

They then sat round the small campfire and sang some classic songs. After this, they were read a bedtime story and got ready for bed.

The Beavers were specifically told to not wake the leaders up in the early hours of the morning or to stay up late all night talking. However, they didn’t listen to us. They stayed up till way past midnight and woke me up at 5:30 in the morning. This was officially the shortest amount of sleep I had ever had on any Scouting camp – even less than my very first Jamboree camp.

Whilst waiting for the Beavers to be quiet we could see lightning lighting up the sky.

The next morning I packed my kit and tent up and ate the breakfast I was waiting for since the beginning of the camp, bacon.

They first did some backwards cooking by toasting marshmallows. As I was on putting the marshmallows on sticks duty once the Beavers had all had a s’mores one Beaver told me that I had to make one for Bat (one of the leaders). They then told me (after I had already made myself one) that I could have one so I replied saying that I was going to have one anyway.

The activities for that morning included animal mask making and knot tying. They completed both these activities and then went on to tracking where we set up tracks (made with sticks) around the field with the Beavers having to look for them.

After a busy morning it was time for the jungle banquet. The Beavers selected an array of jungle themed food with pudding savoured last. The pudding (might I say so myself) was the best. We had animal cupcakes with slime, twigs and dead flies.

Once lunch was finished, we returned any lost property to the Beavers and then it was time to go home…

… But not for me, I still had to take down the beavers tents and wash up in the kitchen.