As July drew into August and our various international contingents made their way home a contingent of scouts from both troops headed off to somewhere a little closer to home for a hike a long the Norfolk Coast.

Friday night saw us hosted by our friends at 1st Sherringham Sea Scouts who we would like thank for their brilliant hospitality! Saturday saw our intrepid gang first encounter a seal basking in the sun at Sherringham life Boat House before we headed along the coast.

Hiking is all very well but when its a sunny day…. and you happen to come to the beach at Cromer early afternoon… what else can you do but go for a swim? Even if the north sea is a touch fresh! Fully refreshed the scouts headed along the increasingly remote and beautiful coast reaching Mundesley for fish and chips and epic stone skimming competition on the beach at dinner time.

We were hosted for the evening by the very hospitable village hall and would like to thank them for the excellent accomodation 🙂

Sunday saw the scouts head in land and navigate their way through the Norfolk countryside to North Walsham, tired but very proud of a long trek well completed.

In March our scouts entered 4 teams in the national scout and guide Monopoly run in London. A day of running around the capital as thousands of scouts and guides from across the country swamped the capital. Weirdly our team who had an adult who had never been to London before did best of all…..

With our usual start to the year, the annual mud bath that is Gilwell’s world famous winter camp cancelled this year it was time to find something different for this year. And we found HMS Belfast! The Second World War cruiser, now part of the Imperial War Museum, welcomed 40 of our scouts aboard for the night, where they crewed the bridge, created morse code transmitters, manned the guns and got as taste of what life on the Arctic convoys was like.

July 2022 and summer camp very much a come back for the group! With 2020 and 2021 being badly affected by the pandemic it was the first time for 3 years that our scouts and explorers were able to make the most of a full week away which took them to Hawkhirst on the banks of Kielder Water in Northumberland.

Kielder Forest is one of the most remote places in the UK which gives great opportunity for everything from mountain biking to sailing and hiking to canoeing. It is also a place of outstanding beauty and wild life where the scouts were able to see everything from the very small like Great Crested Newts to the enormous, our site being circled by a magnificent Osprey regularly over the week.

All the photos of a fantastic week below 🙂

On a fine June evening 16 scouts and 4 leaders gathered in Ipswich for a big step up from the last scout sailing trip which had featured two man dinghies. This time the scouts would find themselves crewing a pair of 49 foot ocean going yachts in the North Sea.

A gentle sail down the Orwell Estuary Friday night saw the boats drop anchor just short of Felixstowe before the next morning they headed out to sea with all hands on deck for a proper adventure!

After 18 months of not being able to camp due to the covid pandemic scouts from Raptor troop made a welcome return to nights under canvas with a summer weekend at one of our regular haunts of Thriftwood.

A weekend of fires and wide games, archery and kayaking, as our scouts got back into the swing of living outdoors.

A spectacular lightening display on Saturday night added a sense of peril to proceedings and despite it being accompanied by a torential the scouts showed their fire lighting prowess with Sunday lunch cooked on fires including a one match wonder from one of our patrols 🙂

Looking forward to more camps!