Rugby District Cub Camp 2023
Postscript
Another Great Weekend
After weeks of looking forward to camps, they're over far too quickly, but when we look back we realise how much we crammed into a packed weekend.
The planning for District Cub Camp began in earnest in January this year, and those plans came to fruition as the circa 100 Rugby District Cubs began to arrive at Ullesthorpe on Friday evening. And once again on camp, blessed by clear blue skies.
Friday Night
Was setup. The leaders arrived first, but by the time we'd all finished our work commitments and got to camp, it wasn't that long before the Cubs arrived. The Cubs were tasked with getting the tents set up. Three tents for the boys, and a tent for the girls. And they did a great job of getting the tents up, and then unpacking and setting up their sleeping arrangements. As seems to be traditional on camp, there was a late snack of hot dogs. Although I'm not sure about the hotdog plus ketchup and mayo as favoured by William!
After hotdogs it was soon time for lights out, and all four tents settled very quickly with only a few having to be reminded that there was a long day ahead packed full of activities to come. The next day came sooner than expected when after about 5 1/2 hours sleep I had to get up and tell one of our tents to be quiet, it was way too early. Twice!
Saturday Morning
Started with a big breakfast. Choice of cereals followed by bacon, sausage, beans etc. Good to see all the Cubs tucking into breakfast. During camp we also had local to 6th Rugby snacks available of tangerines, raisins, shortbread biscuits, and cheesy biscuits. Almost all consumed!
The first activity of the day was pioneering, building a catapult from nothing but canes and elastic bands.
There was then a competition seeing who was better at firing pine cones at the target.
Next up was craft and making dream catchers.
During breaks between activities there was time to fill our water bottles, and great to see everyone sensibly wearing hats on what was a very hot day.
The great thing about bigger camps is that it's possible to offer the Cubs a wide range of activities that we simply couldn't match at a Group Camp. This time including archery, an activity that can only be provided by specially trained instructors.
After archery it was tracking, with the Cubs learning about how we can leave signs for people to follow using the natural materials we find.
It was then time for backwoods cooking, apples or bananas stuffed with a combination of marshmallows and chocolate buttons wrapped in foil and heated in the embers of a fire.
And then the most popular activity of the camp. Throwing angels. Like a cross but with angel like wings (hence the name) at wooden targets. Great fun, and at this activity the leaders got to have a go as well.
Saturday Night
Saturday night dinner was spaghetti bolognese plus grated cheese and garlic bread with as always veggie and gluten free options available.
After a busy day, some of the Cubs were beginning to flag, and so it was only about half that made it to the camp fire singalong. Or maybe they just didn't want to hear Toad's singing?
Those that did make it joined in with some very traditional songs such as "On top of spaghetti..." and the very active "My name's Joe...".
It was then time for lights out.
And funnily enough instead of telling tents to be quiet at 04:55 Sunday morning, we were having to wake tents instead!
Sunday
Sunday morning it was time to pack up. And the good job that the Cubs had done at keeping their tents tidy and organised made it much easier for everyone to pack their kit away, and we didn't have a lost kit auction asking owners of joggers, socks, t-shirts etc. to come forward and claim their kit.
The Cubs then moved on to breaking down the tents, and did an excellent job. Definitely less help from leaders required than on previous camps.
Extra kudos to Elliott who accepted the challenge of fitting one of tents back into its bag along with poles, pegs, mallets etc. with nobody else's help. And succeeded. Earning extra points for his tent in the process.
Sunday was a quieter day in terms of activities, and even quieter when the Pack voted to skip a repeat of archery to focus on breaking camp and then having more free time. And probably fortunate that it turned into a quieter day than initially planned. The combination of two nights camping and a full day of activities during a very hot day meant that more than a few of our Cubs were getting tired.
We did join in the quiz. I have to confess, we weren't very strategic in our thinking. We split the Pack into two equal teams, each team a mixture of young and old. If we'd been more focused on progressing to the final, we'd have put all our older Cubs in one team, and younger Cubs in a second team. But we had fun, and they did well. Although we might have to go through Scouting History again!
After a picnic lunch, the quiz final, and a group badge presentation, our Cub Pack had a small badge presentation as Kerr was awarded his Chief Scout's Silver.
As we were one of the first packs to arrive, we were one of the last to leave. So our Cubs were great at doing a last walk of the site picking up rubbish, finding property left behind (not ours!) And then goodbyes as parents arrived and took some very tired young people home.
Big thanks to my fellow leader Oak AKA Ann-Marie, and our parent helpers Kirsten, Tomas, Katalin, and Natalie. All of whom contributed to make it a great weekend camping.