Nord 2017 . Day 4 - The land of the midnight mud!

The end of day 4 of our trip. Day 3 on camp and it began with a strange awakening
The weather is beginning to make movement around camp a little interesting as the mud is ankle deep in places. Of course, there is a typically Norwegian solution. Hire a massive wood chipper and shred the unused pioneering poles to spread on the paths. The noise that the thing made when they fired it up at 8 am was like some kind of monster from Norse mythology.
With everyone up, the day has been spent planning for the expedition hike. Poring over strange maps (1:30000 is an odd scale. 3.33 cm per kilometre) to plan the routes, filling in the safety cards and packing bags.
With all that done,  the Patrol Leaders took the safety cards to the office and checked out.
The patrols then set off, one walking from camp, the other two having a short bus ride.
As they'll be out overnight, the leaders have their own free time. 24 hours of it in fact. A walk to the supermarket for camp supplies was followed by a slightly longer walk to Bodø harbour for an excellent meal at the highly recommended  En Kopp  restaurant.

The leaders have a lazy morning to look forward to as well with no Scouts on site (none of ours anyway - the programmes are staggered so there's plenty of activity on site. We'll probably explore the site a bit more - we've already seen some awesome pioneering projects, including a multistorey campsite.

Loads of ideas for our "home" camp next month!

Nord 2017 . Day 3

Day three and the first full day of activities.

After a decadently late camp breakfast (9am is nearly lunch time) we finished off our campsite while the Patrol Leaders had their briefing. They'll be very much in charge of their teams this week as they work on different activities around the site. We've got 6 patrol leaders in 3 patrols so there's a bit of cooperative management going on.

With the campsite all finished and tidy, lunch was followed by the afternoon's activities.

Our 3 patrols were doing model boat building, stone age axes, and popcorn making.

It looks as if the teamwork needs some refining.

The boat builders managed to make a log. The axe makers produced a stick while the the popcorn chefs produced caramelized charcoal.

All came back to the site for a lovely meal of pan fried pork chops before heading out to the main square to mingle and meet other Scouts.

Bed time has been set at 2300 for most of the Scouts and midnight for those over 13. Everyone managed to get in with seconds to spare on the curfew!

Tomorrow's activity is the overnight hike. I hate to think what time they'll sleep!

Nord 2017 - day 2. Land of the midnight rain

After yesterday's marathon, we treated ourselves to a bit of a lie in, getting up at the decadent hour of 9am.
Today has been about making our campsite somewhere we can live for a week, mainly by building ourselves a kitchen and dining area. There's been a bit of exploration of the site (or at least the shops and cafes). After dinner, we made our way to the main stage area for the opening ceremony.
A spectacular start saw the camp mascot being lowered onto the campsite from a Coastguard helicopter followed by a fly past by 2 jet fighters of the Royal Norwegian Air Force.
Unfortunately, the rest of the ceremony didn't live up to it and people seemed glad that the threat of rain allowed them to drift away.
The Scouts spent the rest of the evening exploring while the leaders enjoyed a coffee (yes. Really. It's a dry camp) with our hosts from Madla.
After a surprisingly hot day, it's now cooled down and started to rain. The forecast is for a damp morning but drying up in time for the camp to start for real after lunch.

Nord17 Day1 - The Longest Day.

What a day. We've been travelling since 0530 bst. 20 hours on the move.
We've had a little minor wazzockry but no serious mishaps.

After a nice early start, we made our way to Heathrow and on to Stavanger where we were met by the ever helpful leaders from Madla Speidergruppe. Our bags safely stowed, we had a leisurely stroll to Solva Beach where dinner was served. After a few hours playing on the beach, we made our way back to check in for the onward flight to Bodø (pronounced Booduh apparently).
The sun was just thinking of setting in Stavanger as we set off but we soon caught it up and were treated to a fine view of the midnight sun over the Lofotens as we came in to land. Our bags were ferried for us and we had a gentle 3k walk to camp.
Unfortunately, the registration team had gone to bed so it took a little while to work out where we should be but we arrived at our site to find that the Madla advance party already had our tents up.

Time for a few hours well earned sleep before the camp starts for real tomorrow.

Hopefully, when they've had some sleep, we'll be getting a few Scouts to contribute to the blog this time!

Scarefest 2016: Closing thoughts

Well, that's another excellent Scarefest done. Thanks to the Scarefest UK team at Gilwell for a fantastic event.

Despite being given the option to take advantage of the extra hour in bed with the clocks going back, most of the Scouts were up early packing their bags before breakfast.

Once it became obvious that the mist really was mist, not just excess smoke from last night's fireworks, we decided to delay taking the tents down in the hope that the mist would clear and the tents would dry out a bit.

This gave the Scouts another 2 hours to enjoy some more activities. It also gave the few who went to bed early last night to write up their thoughts on the weekend.

Thomas: I enjoyed all the mazes. All of them were very scary. The favourite maze was the Escape. All of them were very cool. If we go next year, I would really want to go.

Joseph: All the mazes are really good. The scariest of them all for me was the Escape. Someone got so scared he had to leave halfway through.

Dylan: I enjoyed the fireworks, they were outstanding! At the end there was an explosion and you could feel the heat hit your face.

Sion: I enjoyed the fireworks and the scary mazes. My favourite maze was the Factory. I want to go next year.

Having given up on getting tents dry, we packed up and headed home. A nice easy run around the M25 and M4 took a full 90 minutes less than the trip up on Friday.

Then it was all hands on deck to empty the buses and hang the damp tents out to dry.

We're not sure what the cubs had planned for their next meeting but it looks as if they'll be learning how to fold tents now instead ;-)

A fantastic end to our camping season. Loads of fun and a great first camp for the guys who joined us this term.

Got to check the dates for next year to make sure they fit the holidays but we'll definitely be back if we can.

We'll have plenty of activities going on over the winter, but this camping blog is going into hibernation for the winter.

Scarefest 2016

Well it's the end of the day (actually the start of the next one) and, although there are a few more activities tomorrow, it's pretty much the end of the camp.

Saturday got off to what is by camp standards a decadently late start. It was 8:30 before everyone was up and heading for breakfast.

The on site catering was excellent as usual and stoked us all up for a day of activities.

The day's activities, before and after lunch, included Crate Stacking, Caving,  Grass Sledging, Rodeo Bull Riding, Laser Tag, Archery, Caving, Total Wipeout and Fairground Rides. Everyone had their favourite and some Scouts managed to get 10 or more rides on the Cage.

Before dinner, we met back at the campsite to change into our Halloween costumes for a group photo then, with darkness falling, the camp really came to life.

Most of the activities were still running with the added excitement of the dark on some and spooky lighting on others. There were also a range of scary mazes now open for Scouts to really get into the spirit of things.

At the end was the spectacular finale, an amazing display of Fireworks, music and laser lights before heading back to our campsite for bed.

It's been a long, but very enjoyable day but, before they went off to their tents, the Scouts had time to write down their thoughts on the day.

Isaac: I enjoyed the three mazes and all of the activities.

John: I enjoyed the firework display that lasted 15 minutes and the cage.

James: I enjoyed the fireworks and all the mazes because the fireworks were well timed and the mazes adrenaline flowing. I also liked the radio. Watch our broadcast at scoutradio.org.uk/scarefest

Matthew: I liked the cage

Aiden: I enjoyed the the fireworks display as it was not only amazing but also in time to the music.

Dan: I enjoyed the firework display and all three mazes. The leaders were great for making this happen.

Evie: I enjoyed the fireworks and the laser tag

Lewis: I enjoyed the firework display and the mazes.

Ellie: I enjoyed skipping through the creepy mazes.  I hated all the stupid boys.

A few had snuck off to bed without leaving their feedback but we'll get them tomorrow and include it in the final camp blog.

Back on the road

It's Halloween and it's half term. That must mean it's time for Scarefest at Gilwell Park.

After loading the buses (loaned by Ysgol Y Deri again. Thanks guys) up, we hit the road. The plan was to get to Gilwell before the M25 got silly. It almost worked. Delays around Bristol and Swindon set us back quite a bit so we did get caught in the beginning of the rush hour build up on the M25.

Now it became a race. Could we get the tents up before it got dark?

Just about. The light was just running out as the last peg went in.

Dinner was an excellent Bolognese pre-prepared by chef Martin, then off to the evening activities.

Dodgems, Fire Circus, Scout Radio, cinema and the traditional Scout pastime - buying popcorn and donuts.

There's something like 600 Scouts on site so there's not much chance of it going quiet soon.

Hopefully they won't be too tired for a full day of activities tomorrow.