Summer Camp 2009 – Lake District

This year the scouts headed north in 2 minibuses to the Lake District for summer camp. After 2 scheduled stops we arrived at our site (field) down a rough narrow track below Loughrigg near Ambleside. The 4 wheel drive vehicles had an advantage as our wheels sank down into the soft ground of the field. The van containing kit needed to be pulled onto the field. The minibuses did not attempt to enter the field. The wheel tracks soon filled with water making our own duck pond for the visiting pair of ducks.

Camp was soon pitched: 6 patrol tents (5 for boys and 1 for girls); camp kitchen tent; toilet and shower tents; tepee and a variety of leaders tents scattered over the higher parts of the field. This was the first year that we had a tepee in the middle of which we had a wood burning fire to sit round in the cool of the evenings without being bitten by midges.

Other new items this year were an army kitchen range and a second stove top camp oven which made centralised cooking easier. We also used an open wood fire for cooking over. The food was excellent with each patrol taking their turn to cook each meal for the whole camp. One of the camp activities was for each patrol to plan the menu for the evening meal, being given money to purchase all the ingredients, walking into Ambleside (approx one hour walk away) to do the shopping and carry the shopping back along the same path and then cook it.

Naturally being in the Lake District the hills and lakes formed the basis for the camp activities. On Sunday we all went on a short walk (short as the scouts only started asking how much further when we were just reaching the furthest point!) over Loughrigg where we stopped for our sandwich lunch with fantastic views down Windermere and across the Lake District. Continuing on with views of Rydal Water and Grassmere we stopped in Grassmere village to take an individual look around (or just laze in the grass in the churchyard). The Grassmere gingerbread comes highly recommended. We returned to camp by a slightly lower route.

Each patrol took their turn going on a mini expedition where they went for a short walk, pitched small hike tents up in the hills and stayed away for 1 night, cooked breakfast, before walking back down to the main camp next morning.

Other activities included canoeing in kayaks on Loughrigg Tarn (a couple of fields across from our camp), swimming in the tarn, orienteering in the camp field (each patrol set up a route for another patrol to follow), rock climbing near Coniston Water. While one group climbed another would be paddling in Coniston Water or damming a stream running into the lake. Other than wood collecting and chopping wood with axes for the fire, one of the scouts favourite activities was the camp Olympics which included tug the titanic.

The week was a great success and was over very quickly. After striking camp we were heading south again with lots of happy memories and digital photographs – take a look at the photographs on the group website.

Camps don’t just happen they take lots of planning, so thank you to Nick and Paul for planning the camp, to the leaders for ensuring it ran smoothly and to Dave for his first aid skills.

See you next year – keep the bank holiday week at the end of May 2010 free for our next scout summer camp adventure.

Derek Forward ASL