3rd Hampton Scout Group

Well done to the 12 scouts that made up our two teams in the competition. Once tents were set up and the scouts had been fed and given their compasses etc they set off on the hike along with 42 other teams.

Teams were set off at 5 minute intervals from 5.30pm until 9.10pm. Our teams went out at approx 7.30pm and 8.30pm with a target time of 4 hours for the event. Both teams reached the halfway point (Base 3) but like many teams before and after them they struggled to find Base 4.

Like many other teams they were ferried back to the camp site in the early hours by minibus, had a snack and then went off to bed. On Sunday morning it was announced that only 4 of the 44 teams that started managed to complete the course – all the others had dropped out at or before base 3.

Clearly some valuable lessons for all those teams to learn from and build on – such as correct use of the compass and map together and not to simply follow other teams of hi-vis jackets as they are not necessarily any the wiser!

In the end we can be comfortable with a finishing position for both teams of 5th=, albeit along with 38 others!!

The only way for next year is up!!

16 scouts had a busy weekend at Belchamps on winter camp taking part in a variety of activities from archery and zip wire to fencing and squirrel skinning!!

They had the luxury of indoor accommodation – but most of the activities required them to survive the cold.

Next camp is in March and is the County Night Hike – would be great to have a couple of teams in this to see if we can follow our success in the District Day Prowl with a strong showing in the night hike.

Lots more photos on Flickr – including the squirrels…  If any scouts have photos they took they should send them to me so I can add them onto Flickr.

21 Scouts had a sleepover at the HQ after the scout meeting and then spent the following day exploring London – playing Monopoly for real – lots of photos will soon be on Flickr. Three of the groups played Monopoly “in 3D” taking turns to roll the dice and navigate their teams to the place they landed on – taking in the sights as they went – all the teams managed to visit M&M world as well as enjoying a MacDonalds lunch.

The fourth team of older scouts took the chance to prepare for being explorer scouts and managed to visit all the streets and stations (except the Brown) – the screen shot below shows how far we walked doing that!

The other screen shots show how far two of the other groups walked – no wonder everyone was tired at the end….

Well done to the team – going to have to put up a shelf to store all these trophies….