Tiger Cub Scouts Senior Cub Camp

Tiger Cub Scouts Senior Cub Camp: Saturday 11th – Sunday 12 June 2022

The leadership team arrived on site at Beacon Hill campsite on Friday evening to set up for the following day to mayhem in the carpark from other groups trying to leave, having already escaped mayhem in the carpark of our Acorn HQ too. The leaders’ tents and the kitchen shelter were set up, then the leaders sat down to fish and chips before bed.

Saturday morning was bright and sunny but cool with a dew on the ground. The site was finished setting up ready for the cubs to arrive at 10am, although they started to find us from 9.30am. After sorting the Cubs into their groups, they began putting up their tents with our assistance. Once complete they laid out their beds and changed into camp clothes more appropriate for the warm conditions.

After a snack and drink the Cubs went off collecting wood for the fire which was already going well before their arrival. The Cubs cooked burgers on the fire for lunch followed by banana split with chocolate buttons also cooked on the fire.

With lunch finished and all washed up they were split in their tent groups to learn how to
use knives to whittle and strip a green stick to a point to use for marshmallows on the fire in the evening.
prepare the potatoes, vegetables and meat for dinner later on.

use a saw to saw the log for the fire, showing an appreciation of how hard work it can be.

Following this they had some free time to explore the campsite more and to collect wood for the fire. Although there was a store of pallets on site, which we used, we also needed to collect fallen branches to keep the fire going.

In the camp introduction when they arrived, it was explained their main task of the weekend was to keep the fire going and stocked all weekend, as there had only been one group in the past to have done this. the gauntlet was down, and they rose to the challenge taking it in turns to keep an eye on the fire with the leaders’ advice on how to keep it going.

The evening meal was chicken/turkey in a sauce with vegetables and potato cooked in foil dishes on the fire with corn on the cob and garlic bread. For some unexplained reason one dinner didn’t want to cook at the same rate as the others, the first on and the last to eat, it just wouldn’t cook! This was followed by apple crumble or jam roly-poly also cooked on the fire.

After washing up and warmer clothes put on, we all donned our camp blankets and joined 34th Reigate Meadvale Cubs, who were also camping at Beacon Hill, as they had invited us to join their campfire. We sang songs with them and some of our cubs led songs too, including waking up Horsham with “there ain’t no flies on us” and Craig’s favourite “The crazy Mousse”. The campfire concluded with sharing marshmallows with Reigate Cubs and chatted to their leaders discovering we had 2 Bagheera’s and 2 Raksha’s at the campfire.

We trundled back to our site for some hot chocolate before getting ready for bed, everything was finally quiet by 11.15pm.

The Birds singing woke the camp up early at 5am, but they were soon drowned out by the Cubs!

The Cubs had gathered around the fire, they had managed to restart the fire by fanning the hot embers. Following the suggestion that they needed some twigs and dried leaves to fuel it, very soon they had it going fully putting on bigger branches to keep it going. The Cubs then went off to collect more wood which the young people sawed to fit the fire.

After breakfast we started to take the tents down as they were virtually dry apart from the ground sheets, so, the collapsed tents were walked into the main field in the sunshine to dry.

The morning saw Bagheera demonstrate the safe use of an axe and all the cubs had a go for themselves splitting wood blocks.

Lunch was toasted sandwich created by the Cubs to their own taste and cooked on the fire, followed by camp cones filled with marshmallows and chocolate buttons cooked on the fire.

Following lunch was time to strike camp, folding all the tents up, and loading the kit back into the trailer. The young people worked hard transporting on the camp trolly all the camp equipment (including the leaders’ bits) to the car park.

The camp concluded with the traditional sweep of the site for litter before the debrief and the cubs returning to their parents.

A very enjoyable camp helped by the beautiful weather conditions.