Following the postponement of our 2020 group camp, in September 2021 it was great to get all of the 1st Egham Scout Group sections back to Walton Fir’s Camp Site. Below is an account of the activities our Beaver section enjoyed during camp, as shared with parents by our Beaver leaders.
Dear Parents
Firstly, apologies for the long mail and we hope that you managed to get all your Beaver Scouts up for school this morning, I know our start was a little slower than usual!
I just wanted to drop a little note to say what the Beavers got up to during camp as from experience with my own sometimes information can be difficult to get.
After a very excitable Friday evening mixed with a tinge of nerves, they made pitta bread pizzas and had them cooked on an open fire topped off with smores for pudding. A bit of a late night with lots of excitable voices pretending to be quiet in the tents although still talking at normal volume 🙂, they eventual all drifted off to sleep.
A nice early start with both tents waking around 6.30 but not leaving the tents till 7.00, they had cereal followed by cooked sausages with beans and toast to set them up for an action-packed day.
With the Scouts and Cubs off on their activities we utilised the fire pit and did some more fire building but this time using a flint and steel to light the fire, each one of them managed to create the sparks needed to start the fires. We also did some slack lining in camp which was well utilised over the duration of the weekend.
We moved on to our next activity, which was Night Ropes. This is where you hold and follow a rope around a set course with obstacles in the way blindfolded, listening only to your leader or fellow Beaver to guide you around the course. Each Beaver took their turn to lead their group so they could communicate what was coming next. After completing this they all did it without the blindfold so they could see the difference between having sight and no sight. We then did it in a time trial format setting them off at intervals to try and catch the person in front of them. This was then followed by lunch.
After lunch, the Beavers moved on to Archery where they had an instructed course in how to use a bow and arrow, all the Beavers did really well during this activity all hitting the targets set up.
Next up was the Boulder Wall where the Beavers had the opportunity to test their strength and endurance by trying to complete each side of the boulder, which had various sized hand and foot holds to use.
After a short biscuit and drink stop the Beavers braved the Caving. Basically, it is a small man-made cave with lots of different passages and routes you can go through in varying sizes, using you helmet and head torch as your way through. When you all turn your torches off the cave is completely pitch black. The Beavers all really enjoyed the many games of hide and seek in here.
By this point we had one more activity to go to complete our extremely busy day. We finished off practising the Archery skills they had learnt earlier with some Bows and arrows (non-pointy ones!)!
Back at base camp the Beaver’s had free time on the slack line and general playing in the woods before tucking into to some fabulous spaghetti bolognaise whipped up by some of our committee members and parents followed by apple crumble on the campfire. I am pleased to say that all Beavers were asleep by 21.30 on Saturday (even sleeping through one of the loudest fireworks display I have heard) in preparation for another cooked breakfast and assault course in the morning before you came to collect them.
You should all be extremely proud of the Beavers who have overcome their first night nerves to hopefully have enjoyed an action-packed 1st Egham Group Camp (this is one of main reasons we Scout, for weekends like these). We were also told by our instructor for the Caving and Archery that our Beavers were some of the best-behaved groups he had taught all day.
When you unpack your Beavers bag it is highly likely that you will either be missing some items or have gained some items that may not belong to you. Could we please ask that you wash whatever it may be and bring it back to our next session so we can try and reunite them with their rightful owners!
If you check out the 1st Egham Facebook page you will see lots of picture’s from during the weekend from Leaders and Committee members.
Lastly a massive thank you to all the parents that came and helped, whether it was supporting the Leaders during the activities or helping the committee with the cooking or camp cleaning, camp cannot happen without this support.
We will see you all soon
The 1st Egham Leaders and Committee