We are pleased to announce that we are now taking names for the annual sailing and mountaineering trips that are available to scouts who will be aged 13+ and our young leader explorer scouts.

Sailing

The SWAN sailing course is a week long trip on the Norfolk Broads where scouts and explorers live as part of a crew of 5 on board a traditional keel boat which they will learn to sail properly over the course of a week. The course is designed so that scouts can return year on year building on what they have learned until they are able to skipper a boat.

Its a huge amount of fun and an opportunity for older scouts to get an idea of what being in Explorers is all about!

Dates are 27 March – 4 April

Initial Mountaineering Course

The IMC is a week long introduction to mountaineering run by Hertfordshire Scouts at their centre at Lochearnhead in the Scottish Highlands. Scouts will be introduced to cross country navigation, use of ropes and belays, and if conditions permit (ie there is enough snow!) the use of ice axes and crampons.

For most of the week accommodation is at Lochearnhead Scout Station, a disused railway station in the Highlands. It culminates however in two nights wild camping in the mountains.

It’s a stretching trip but one that is some serious adventure and a great introduction to Explorers.

Dates are 3-11 April or 10-18 April

If you are interested in going on either trip please speak to Graham at Scouts as soon as possible!

After long haul summer camps to Northumberland in 2012 and Cornwall in 2013 the troop stayed at close to home this year with a cycling tour around the best that the local area has to offer. That didn’t mean it was any less adventurous with many miles of cycling, sailing, falconry and the center piece of learning to glide!

Day 1 saw an easy cycle up the river to Waterbeach where Cam sailing club were our hosts. The troop took part in a club picnic before before learning to sail traditional keel boats, common in the fens, including one previously owned by Swallows and Amazons author Arthur Ransome.

The troop camped in the grounds of the club, right next to the river before cycling on the next day, in glorious sunshine, to the Raptor Foundation near St Ives. Following an afternoon visit to the center, which acts as a conservation and rescue center for birds of prey, the scouts were invited to a flying session with the birds where they had the privilege of the birds flying to their hands and taking foods from their hands.

Camping in the grounds of the center the scouts discovered just how early birds of prey wake up at 4.30am when the massed dawn chorus of some of the world’s biggest birds gave them an earlier start that usual. That morning saw the troop supporting the center, helping clean out many of the aviaries and feeding the birds.

Monday afternoon saw the return of cycling, 19 miles to Great Gransden Airfield and Cambridge Gliding Center.

The next two days saw all the scouts learning to glide thanks to the Hertfordshire Scouts air activities team. Theory sessions on the ground culminated in each scout taking to the skies in a motorised glider and, after being shown the basics, each scout took control of the glider, the first and for many the only time they will take the controls of an aircraft over 3,000 feet above the ground!

There were a few unsettled stomachs from those that caught a big thermal but the  buzz of being in control saw some big smiles on landing 🙂

Those not gliding on each day cycled the few miles down the road to Charlie Mill where they got an introduction to horse riding including the process of getting the horses ready.

With the gliding and riding done the next leg saw the scouts continue the cycling to Shepreth wildlife park where they had the chance to get up close and personal with some serious creepy crawlies before a final evening BBQ and a gentle cycle back to Cambridge the next day.

Congratulations to Tom, a very well earned scout of the camp, and a sad farewell to Nick, our Senior Patrol Leader who is now heading to explorers.

Finally we like to do a “movie” of our summer camps. And of course with gliding as the center piece of camp there was only one 1980s Hollywood blockbuster we could have a nod towards…… Enjoy!

Full gallery of photos here

Following the highly successful Canadian Exchange in 2013 we now have plans to do it all again….. but on a much larger scale. In summer 2015 our friends from 12th Cambridge Scouts and Venture Scouts in Cambridge, Ontario (just south of Toronto) will be joining us for summer camp which we expect to be in The New Forest. That will then be followed by a week where they will be hosted by families of 12th Cambridge Scouts and Shackleton Explorer Scout Unit. In summer 2016 we will do it the other way round with as many of our scouts and explorers from Shackleton ESU travelling to Canada for a week long summer camp in the Canadian wilderness following which they will also be hosted by Canadian families. The camp in Canada will be an entirely different experience to the UK. In the UK scout campsites of 100 acres are considered large. In Canada they extend sometimes over thousands of acres and come complete with some serious local wild life including moose, wolves and bears. This promises to be the trip of a life time! More details of both legs will be sent to parents over the coming months but at the moment we are now looking for expressions of interest from UK families happy to host one or two Canadians for a week 24-30 August 2015. We are also looking for provisional expressions of interest for those who want to travel to Canada in 2016, including from those who are currently Cubs. If you are interested in either leg please contact Graham!

The Sun Run is back for 2014! The troop’s annual charity fund raiser will this year be in aid of Child’s Play.

On the night of 21/22 June a mix of scouts, explorers and leaders from 12th Cambridge Scouts will run, hike, crawl and do whatever else it takes to go the 18 miles from Ely back to our HQ in Cambridge. Setting off on the dot of sun set, at 9.24pm they will go through the night to get back before sun rise at 4.38am.

Sun Run 2012 – a 3am check point in the rain!

Child’s Play are a charity who provide toys and games for and generally try to brighten up the lives of children who are sadly in Children’s Hospitals and Hospices. While they are mainly a North American charity they also support a number of Children’s Hospitals in the UK and we have chosen the closest of these to Cambridge, Sheffield Children’s Hospital, for our donations to go to.

The work of Child’s Play is there to help those young people who are sadly not well enough to take part in the fun and adventure of scouting to remember what is like to be a regular child or teenager and it is massively to the credit of the scouts themselves that they have chosen this fantastic cause to raise money for. This wasn’t something the leaders came up with, it was the scouts themselves.

If you would like to donate to this fantastic cause and encourage young people who are working as hard as they can to support other young people please click on our donation widget below. Thank you in advance for your generosity

Well, sort of! When the leaders suggested that the patrol leader’s council come up with something a little bit different for this term they certainly didn’t disappoint! “Let’s try American Football” they said. So we got on the phone to Cambridgeshire Cats American Football club and a few weeks later two of their coaches turned up at the troop to put them through their paces.

The first “down”

Talking Tactics

After a brief introduction to the rules of the game and an all important warm up the troop divided up for a 7 aside round robin tournament where the scouts quickly learned that a game renowned for being very physical had a surprising number of tactics, emphasised by the fact that they were not playing the full contact version. It also became apparent that the biggest players were not necessarily the best as some of the 10 and 11 year olds wriggled past some of their teenaged friends.

Charge!

Trying on the proper kit

Touch down…..

A definite success of a night and huge thanks to Giovanni and Darren from Cambridgeshire Cats. They may well have tempted a few scouts into trying out the game for real!

Interception and counter attack…..

Tackle!

After a one year break the troop’s annual charity fund raiser is making a come back in June.

The Sun Run is an all night hike, racing against the sun. Setting off from Ely on the dot of sun set scouts will run, hike or do whatever it takes to follow the River Cam back to Cambridge. On route they will dodge cows (yes they do sleep standing up!), wake up people on house boats and generally find out what the small hours of the morning look like 🙂

A pause for breath – Sun Run 2012

Exhausted scouts reach the finish line – Sun Run 2011

It’s not just another hike though, as long as being incredibly long at 18 miles the scouts get sponsored for their efforts and every year raise a huge amount for charity. The scouts chose the charity to support, in previous years it has been East Anglian Children’s Hospice, SOS Children’s Villages and Jimmy’s Night Shelter. This year they have chosen Child’s Play.

Child’s Play work to try and brighten the lives of children and teenagers who find themselves in hospital and even sadly in a hospice by providing toys and computer games to hospitals. In doing so they provide a fun and welcome distraction from what can be a highly distressing experience.It can be anything from toddler’s building blocks to computer game consoles. You can read more about them here.

We hope to have details of how you can sponsor the scouts on this years trek shortly so watch this space!

Another busy term for the scout troop was brought to a conclusion on Thursday night with a fire lighting master class at Milton Country Park. Several weeks of fine dry weather gave ideal conditions for scouts to get up to speed on multiple methods and materials for starting the perfect camp fire.

From tumble drier fluff to tissues to cotton wool, scouts discovered the different things they can find around their own homes to take with them to camp to get a fire started. And who knew that the ever popular Pringles (other potato based snacks are available) are not just a good snack but also make excellent tinder?

It brought to an end a busy term which saw every scout select and work on an activity badge of their choice including pioneering, electronics, first aid, chef and model maker developing a range of skills along the way. They also celebrated pancake day and the Chinese New Year with a Chinese Tea Ceremony.

We’ve been out and about plenty as well. From winter camp in January to the district incident hike and swimming gala in March.

It doesn’t stop over Easter. We have contingents of scouts heading sailing in Norfolk for a week, living, eating and sleeping on the traditional keel boats that they will be sailing and also to the Hertfordshire Scouts Initial Mountaineering Course in the Scottish Highlands for a week.

We’ll see you all back at scouts on 24 April.