Amelia’s Report

What I expected:
I expected a relatively ‘normal’ camp, I assumed some extra survival (building – but not sleeping in – shelters, maybe covering fire lighting once or twice with leader assistance and doing some dough twists around a fire). I already knew it would be very fun (as with all scout camps, of course) but I thought my parents were joking when they said we would be eating squirrel. I must say, I am very glad I was wrong.

What happened:

We meet at an open field, and I was a bit surprised. Other than a few leaders’ cars and the remaining parents, there was nothing there. I had assumed that the camp was on said field, but I was wrong. When we arrived at the actual campsite, I was pleasantly surprised – as it was in the shade of the trees, I would not have to apply sunscreen, and as I was expecting that I get quite … unpleasant towards the end of the camp, I was glad that I would not be increasing my overall stickiness with sunscreen. After a brief introduction to the camp and leaders, I was already enjoying myself immensely. I had just witnessed a lifeboat expand, and not only that, but run around said boat with an orange smoke flair thingy like a hooligan.

We dived straight into the day’s activities with fire lighting and first aid, but not before doing a mini bit on survival kits and a very visual demonstration on how to do what bears do – most literally – in the woods. Never has anyone taught me so effectively how to use a toilet – and such an entertaining toilet at that.

One thing I really liked about the leaders was how competent they were. Not just at controlling – and indeed cat herding – a bunch of unruly scouts, but also at the activities we were doing. At one point, we had a short but informative explanation on some of the different plants of the forest, and many of the leaders knew a lot about it. They were experts on the different plants to use for fire lighting, the best places to collect sticks and were very fun/funny… oh, and all of them carried at least one knife with them at all times.

I aspire to be like them.

One of the very enjoyable parts of the camp was a fool who went by the name of ‘Little Timmy’. He held a very dear place in all of our hearts – the place that craves violence. When the words ‘what’s that? Little Timmy’s fallen down the well?’ were so much as uttered, every single camper’s face went white as an eery silence befell the camp. Suddenly, the sound of 14 scouts all dropping whatever they were holding and running for their tinder bundles could be heard. I undoubtably learnt a lot from these ‘Little Timmy’ occasions, for example: my fire buddy Pheobe and I had tried – very much in vain, may I add – to prepare for the fool to drown himself again. In fairness to us, we very much underestimated how well Russ can ‘throw a spanner in the works’. We had a pile of lovely firewood and a tinder bundle next to our chosen fire spot, but we had left it all there while we went on a walk. We had anticipated the news of Little Timmy falling down the well, so when we heard of the event we both started to rush back to the main camp – but then we were told we had to do it where we were.

I cannot explain the weird mixture of panic, urgency and stupidity I felt then – but I can totally explain one of the emotions – even though at this precise moment of writing, I have forgotten its name. I think it is rather important to realise how funny your own stupid actions are, and to laugh at them with retrospect. I like to think that I do this pretty well, and I can tell you I certainly felt quite tickled at the cleverness of the leaders at teaching me to always have my tinder bag on me – it certainly worked, as for the rest of the camp I could be seen with my tinder bag clipped onto my rucksack or survival kit. Also, my mug: for surprise hot chocolates.

This is all very nice, but if there is one thing I have learnt from Little Timmy is this: ‘see rabbit, make fire’. Oh, the paranoia he created. I want to do that someday and have a group of scouts start committing arson on a whim. Heh, heh, heh.

What I liked:

• The whole camp was amazing; I cannot express how much I loved it and I will most certainly be pestering my parents to sign me up for all the possible camps like it that I can physically do. Some of my personal highlights were:
• Skinning, gutting, roasting and eating a squirrel. It didn’t taste very nice, but it was a learning experience for all of us, for example: there is a membrane between the skin and the flesh of a squirrel, some leaders know too much about skinning animals, and scouts are morbidly curious by nature. I also enjoyed telling my horrified friends.
• Gaining a nickname. I have 2 nicknames, and those are both mainly used by my dad. It was very nice to receive the nickname ‘Eleven’ from Russ. I know very little about her bar the fact that she is a character from stranger things, has cool mind powers and is scary. Compliment taken.
• Having the best den to sleep in and being able to brag about having dug us a highly effective ensuite.
• Winning three out of the five fire lighting competitions (everything is a competition) – for several reasons. One, because I won a prize each time (and they were cool prizes); two, because I didn’t have to sleep in the highly uncomfortable lifeboat (ha ha other people); and three, because it proved that I am the best at setting things on fire. Heh, heh, heh.
• I won the first and only Major Tom Wills award – a huge honour that I am extremely proud of and grateful for.
• There are three ways to do something: the right way, the wrong way and the Russ way, which is just the wrong way but faster.

My thoughts on improvement:

I thought that this was a near-perfect camp, but I have decided to rigorously assess the miniscule faults so that this is an informative – as well as (hopefully) humorous – feedback email.

Firstly, in a survival situation, we would be a) a lot more panicked and b) a lot worse prepared. I could hardly carry my bag, that’s how big it was (still lighter than my schoolbag though). It would be quite good to try and do at least something that addresses this and thus prepares us for the unfortunate eventuality that we require our survival skills outside of a controlled environment.

Next, it would be good to do a bit more of the food ourselves – though I know we cover that a bit more in the more advanced levels. I am not suggesting you give us all riffles and get us to shoot some badgers, but some more foraging for plants.

Thirdly, if you could have controlled the weather, that would have improved it a bit. I know the sun was lovely, it didn’t rain once, and it couldn’t have been more perfect weather, but seriously, do you really expect me to carry one whole rucksack up a short track in the slightly hot weather? Unacceptable. Tut tut.

Conclusion:

All in all, this was my favourite scout camp ever, I will definitely be back (you couldn’t scare me away that easily) and I think that everyone who walked away from the scout camp walked away a better person. (We don’t know about the people who didn’t walk away.)

PS. They also walked away a more paranoid person.

Amelia M