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!