LIPHOOK DISTRICT GUIDES

Weekend camp Heron's Wey, Tilford May 27th - 29th 2005

This was organised as a test camp by Heather, assisted by Victoria as First Aider, Lucy as QM, and Rachel and Anna organising various other duties.

The theme was The Jungle Book and we had three Patrols totalling 14 Guides, plus 2 YLs and 4 adults. It was a lovely site right next to the Rver Wey. We had all sorts of weather from scorching heat on the Friday, to gale force winds on Saturday and gusts of heavy rain followed by sun on the Monday. But the weather was mostly fine and didn't stop us doing any activities and we packed a lot into a short time.

We fitted in archery, pedal karting, surf skiing on the river (a surf ski is like a kayak but without a top), melting chocolate on hike fires, a campfire (we think we out-sang the Liphook cubs who were on an adjacent site), and completed crafts, a challenge book and generally had a great time. All the campfire sketches were hilarious and will go down in history, particularly the 'Chavs'.

On the first morning we suspected the Guides of raiding the biscuits (the Hob-Nobs and choc chip cookies were gone, but the Asda basics were left) but our suspicions were proved groundless when it was discovered that the culprits were the local badgers.

In the evening while the Guiders sat around the fire after the Guides had gone to bed, loud scuffles were heard in the store tent and it was the badgers again, but this time everything was in secure boxes. We saw quite a lot of the badgers at close quarters which was very enjoyable.

We had one disaster when the wind caught the event tent and blew it over, but we managed to overcome the problem by the time the assessors arrived from Portsmouth to observe us in action.

After all the initial fuss before we went, none of the Guides had a problem using the chemical loos and also surprised themselves by finding that they were not difficult to clean!

It was agreed that the camp went very well and the Guides all really enjoyed it, although everyone was exhausted by the end, especially the Guiders!

Fortunately Heather was awarded her camp license in September, so all the hard work was worth it.