Roll up, roll up as Charnwood Circus has come to town.
Over 300 clowns, acrobats, Beavers, Cubs, Scouts and Explorers headed over to sherbrook campsite in Nottingham for a weekend of fun, challenges and friendships. Cubs, Scouts and Explorers all arrived on Friday evening and right away the fun began with designing a camp t-shirt and bouncy castles, all with a bag of freshly made popcorn.
When Saturday morning arrived, so did two buses full of Beavers! Which scared off the Scouts and Explorers, but we will get on to what they did later.
The Beavers gathered at the flag circle where Charlie Charnwood welcomed them to camp! After leaving the flag the Beavers ran off to the many activities on site. They had Bouncy castles, which included the bouncy bungee run, cross bows, go karts, where they had to race around the track to become the fastest Beaver. Other activities the Beavers had were the brand new grass sledging, which had just opened for the first time for our camp and tunneling in a converted barn.
As well as all of the activities, at the end of the day the Beavers had a huge campfire where they sang songs, including the poo song! During the campfire several Leaders were given long service awards for the many years they had put in supporting the young people. After some more singing we awarded the fastest Beavers from each colony with trophies. Also we had four Beavers who made their promise and became members of The Scouts and Charlie Charnwood came to the campfire to present four Chief Scout Bronze awards, the highest award a Beaver can achieve.
After the camp fire the Beavers hopped back onto the buses and went home after having had a fantastic day!
Whilst the Beavers were running around doing activities the Cubs were too! The Cubs had some more adventurous activities, Archery, fencing and fire lighting. The Cubs also got to try their hand at circus skills with the i.Circus team! They span plates, juggled, rode unicycles, walked tightropes and so much more!
We said earlier that the Scouts and Explorers ran away from camp when the Beavers turned up, well they fled to Nottingham city center where they took part in a tram treasure hunt. The young people were divided into teams and sent out on the tram network to complete the treasure hunt. Whilst out and about in the community they took photos, some had selfies with police officers, one group joined in a dance troop in the city and another group managed to get invited into a wedding photo! (We can confirm that it wasn’t Harry and Meghan’s wedding).
After riding around on the trams and completing the challenge, the Scouts and Explorers took in a game of crazy golf in the city center before heading back to camp.
Once the Scouts and Explorers returned to camp, they teamed up with the Cubs to take part in the evenings wide game, dressing up the leaders as the best clown. Each group had to find the fancy dress items from around the site and then dress up their leader as the best clown they could be!
Once all the leaders were suitably dressed and made up everyone gathered around the campfire to judge the best clown and sing songs. After the campfire, and another round of the poo song, it was time for bed. Although Sunday brought the final day of camp, it wasn’t the end of the fun! The Scout and Explorers took part in all the on site activities which the Beavers and Cubs took part in on Saturday. Whilst the Cubs had their own off site adventure to pirate crazy golf!
They had 18 pirate themed holes to navigate all on mini islands surrounded by blue oceans. Crossings bridges and a raft to get to each hole. A few Cubs, and leaders ended up with soggy feet as they hunted for the balls which they lost in the deep blue sea.
Once back at camp it was time to say goodbye, but before we left we had some special awards to present, as well as some more awards for leaders, more young people making their promises and becoming members, as well as Chief Scout awards!
Also before we departed we had one very special thank you to make. This was the last official event for Bill our ADC Cubs who has stepped back from the role to take up the position of District Nights Away adviser.
Check out the huge gallery of photos below from a fantastic weekend.
