How would you celebrate your 40th Birthday? We spent the weekend with nearly 500 young people and adults at one epic District camp.
Cubs, Scouts, Explorers and Leaders from across the District came together for a our 40th Birthday District camp. Arriving Friday night to pitch tents all young people were full of excitement. Once all the tents were pitched it was time to welcome everyone to camp and start our first activity of the weekend, decorating a camp bag. After that there was time to explore the campsite before having a hot dog supper and officially going to bed (Although we are sure the Leaders will tell you not much sleeping happened!).
Saturday came and it was time for a day full of activities. With the Explorers going off site to Walesby Forest to take part in a 3G Swing, Crate Stacking, Air Rifle shooting, Paddle Boarding, Canoeing and Kayaking, whilst the Cubs and Scouts stayed on site and taking part in a huge range of activities.
One of the popular activities for the Scouts were the team from Peak District Survival School who lead sessions in Axe Throwing, Fire Lighting, Water Purification, Traps and Snares and Braiding. These bushcraft activities taught the Scouts some of they key Scouting skills.
Other activities over the weekend included archery, climbing, laser clays, glass engraving, slot cars.
A very physical Cub activity from the weekend was Mini Warriors, a hour long boot camp session where they, and some Leaders who thought they could stand back and watch, took part in physical challenges to improve fitness and develop their team working skills.
But that wasn’t the end of the end of the actives on the Saturday! We also had gun carriages, grass sledging, soft archery, soft tomahawks, cross bows, drumming with Rhythmicity, of course the tuck shop and circus skills with i Circus.
Another one of the popular activities was Cyclone Works, an innovative bike company who use custom built bikes for some amazing activities- traffic light racing bikes, paint spinning bikes where they put records on a spinner, added paint and you cycled to spread the paint over to create unique artwork and a smoothie bike which had a blender attached to it so you could make delicious smoothies.
After a day full of activities, there was still one more thing to do and that was a campfire! Lead by the team at Sherbrooke Scout campsite with songs to get everyone involved.
Finally it was Sunday and another action packed morning with some new activities coming to camp with Drumba and catapults. After the activities were over it was time to pack down all the tents and say good bye.
As well as all of the fun had above, there were several Chief Scout awards presented and investitures of young people and Leaders.
Thank you to all the Leaders who volunteered their time over the weekend to make this one amazing experience!
Take a look at the pictures below.
