2nd Goring and Streatley Blog

Well departure day has finally come round and everyone is excited about the camp week ahead. This is my first camp as Camp Chief and I've learnt first hand just how much Skip normally has to put into these trips. The planning and organisation behind the scenes for the
Camp is really quite a lot of work. But enjoyable work, I just hope I have remembered everything.

We all met in the car park of the Goring and Streatley railway station. We have 2 Patrols on camp this year. Lions patrol leader is Gareth with William acting patrol second as unfortunately Joe can't join us. Gareth also has Will, David, Sebastian and Harvey in the patrol but Will won't be joining us until Monday due to a weekend commitment. Sapan leads the Bulldog Patrol with Robbie the patrol second and Jack, Oscar, Dominic and Abbie. It's a shame that Ben also can't join but both Gordon-Potts boys are helping and involved this week with their family at the Kings Club run by the Free Church in Goring.

Akela and Stitchy are the other leaders joining the camp and because we have enough seats we are taking our cars. I have a trailer behind me on loan from TrailJunkies and heavily loaded with the camp kit and Akela has a trailer for the scouts own kit.

It wasn't long before everyone started to arrive at the station and we soon had the kit into Akelas small trailer and the back of cars. There really is a lot of stuff for the camp. I have the pioneering poles lashed to the roof and final checks were made before we set off.
Gareth, Seb and Dominic joined Oscar and Harvey in my car and I gave Gareth the job of Navigator. Harvey nabbed the rear most seat as I guess he'll go for the extra sleep. He and Abbie will be the youngest on camp and not yet full Scouts but SCUBS. Both will be moving up to Scouts in September.

Sapan joined Akela with Jack and Abbie and Stitchy took Will, David and Robbie. He was clearly going to be the most frustrated driver, not because of his journey companions :-) but due to having a 'souped' up fiesta, no trailer but having to follow me.

We had a good trip down taking the Swindon turn off  the M4 and using the A417-419 route towards Hereford. Even with a short 'comfort' break we took only 3 1/2 hours from car park to  the Locksters Pool field. Silvia the land owner met us at the gate and kindly said that we would have the field to ourselves, which gives us a great deal of room to spread out on the site, set up our pioneering projects and still have a large area for wide games.

After a talk about the site, identifying the no go areas and other camp rules, it wasn't that log before we had the camp set up. I was really pleased the way that everyone really pulled together and got the work done. We leaders still have the usual problem with matching the right poles for the QM store but each time is getting quicker. Screws to the front, screws to the back, no screws on the side ho! (in joke there).

The scouts played cricket with the set that Sapan had brought along with him at the far end of the field and it wasn't long before the first ball ended up in the river. The camp site to the north borders the River Wye which we will be paddling down later in the week. It's a very safe river with only a shallow depth and flow at this time of year. A few scouts were wondering what to do to get the ball back. Robbie however took matters in hand and didn't need much persuasion to go heading into the river to rescue the ball and the game.

 
Both patrols cooked a very good pasta and sauce meal on their own fires and it was difficult to chose between them. We're giving out points though not just for the quality of the food prepared but how it was prepared and the team work to pull it all together. Bulldogs points though were effected by a rather large piece of raw onion that Stitchy found on his plate and tried but didn't enjoy :-)

It had been a very long day but we still had a few games before a last drink, teeth brush and off to bed. Everyone was down by 10pm.

Finally I must say how lovely it is to be back on this camp site, it really is a great spot. We are all privileged to be able to share this week together in such beautiful souroundings. At flag down we mentioned in our prayers our thanks for this time together and for a watchful eye over us during our stay. We've had an excellent start today and if everyone pulls together the way they worked today then we will have a special time here.

Gunner