There are those that believe that camping is for the summer months. Not us! A small but enthusiastic band of scouts from Raptor troop spent a November weekend on camp at Phasels Wood in Hertfordshire. Yet another camp planned by the scouts themselves they went shooting, crate staking and braved the dark of Phasels artificial caving complex. They also made their fire lighters in the shape of char cloth and spent a morning learning CPR. Sunny days gave way to heavy rain both nights and allowed the scouts to show off their ability to cope with some quite difficult conditions underfoot.

Most of all though the scouts burned an extraordinary amount of wood and set what must be a new record with a fire that was lit first thing Saturday morning with one match staying fully alight until the last possible moment before we left Sunday afternoon.

While summer 2017 will mostly be remembered for the Canada expedition the fact remained that the scouts who didn’t get to go were just as busy! Summer means camping and the weekend trips to Gilwell Park and Thriftwood were fantastic fun….

Gilwell was a very much patrol based camp with patrols from Raptor troop scattered across Gilwell, independent of each other and adults who sat in the corner, drank tea and ate cake! Although we did have a sneaky go at the zip wire 🙂 The camp was planned and run entirely by the scouts themselves although a particular highlight was the massed site campfire and encountering Vincent, the magnificent campfire leader from South Africa. The troop has a new super hero!….

Thriftwood meanwhile was more group based, with the cubs in tow with the scouts getting the chance to be a thoroughly bad influence on them!

Gilwell

Thriftwood