1st Claremont Scout Group: Lighting fires since 1908

Oct 31 2026

Meerkat Amaze – An Amazing Race Adventure!

31/10/2026

On Saturday 17 October, Meerkat Den Scouters and Assistant Den Scouters gathered at the V&A Waterfront for Meerkat Amaze, an exciting Amazing Race-style event organised by Mandy Lochner from 1st Durbanville.

The fun began well before race day, with participants given the opportunity to solve riddles during the preceding week to earn valuable advantages for the big event.

From 1st Claremont, Den Scouter Emily Gammon and Assistant Den Scouter Kirsty Gilmour joined in the action, kicking off their adventure at Battery Park before racing their way across the Waterfront. Along the way, teams tackled a variety of challenges, put their problem-solving skills to the test and enjoyed plenty of laughter and friendly competition.

The adventure culminated in a grand finale back at Battery Park, bringing an exciting day to a close. A fantastic opportunity for Scouters to connect, work together and experience a little of the fun and adventure they so often create for their Meerkats!

A big thank you to Mandy Lochner for organising such a memorable event!

Kirsty Gilmour

Permanent link to this article: https://1stclaremont.org.za/1stclaremont-scouts/meerkats/meerkat-amaze-an-amazing-race-adventure/

Sep 28 2026

A Carnival of Fun at Mob Day

28/09/2026

On Saturday, 19 September, Meerkat Dens from across Cape Town, and as far afield as Paarl and Onrus, came together in Muizenberg for a good old-fashioned, carnival-themed Mob Day. With around 138 Meerkats in attendance, it was a fantastic opportunity for our young Scouts to meet Meerkats from other Dens and experience the fun of being part of a much bigger Scouting family.

First Claremont Meerkats were proud to run two of the carnival stalls: a tattoo stand and a fishing game, both of which proved popular with the Meerkats.

There was certainly no shortage of things to do! The Meerkats could try their hand at Sponge Toss, Bingo, Feed the Clown, Mask Decorating, Pin the Tail on the Lion and Shooting Squirts. With so many games and activities to choose from, there was plenty to keep everyone entertained.

The weather may have been very windy, but that certainly didn’t dampen the Meerkats’ spirits. They threw themselves into the activities with enthusiasm, laughter and plenty of energy, making the most of a wonderful day together.

A huge thank you to everyone who helped make the day such a memorable one, most especially 1st Muizenberg who were our hosts. We think it’s safe to say that Mob Day was a carnival of fun!

Kirsty Gilmour

Permanent link to this article: https://1stclaremont.org.za/1stclaremont-scouts/meerkats/a-carnival-of-fun-at-mob-day/

Sep 26 2026

Orienteering 2026 – junior winners!

26/09/2026

I love orienteering and I think it’s a great Scout activity. It is fun, it is like a big treasure hunt and you get to be outside. This year the Scout WC Orienteering competition was held at Bloemendal Wine Estate near Durbanville and it was the 3rd one that I have competed in. PenOC (Peninsula Orienteering Club) organises it and so they have all the proper orienteering equipment. This year 1st Claremont only entered two junior teams unfortunately. Our A team was Declan and myself, and the B team was Sarah and Micaela. There were over 50 teams in the junior category, and there was also a senior category and adult category. The overall trophy goes to the troop with the best overall placed junior, senior and adult team. Next year we should definitely try for this. Declan and I won the Junior category which we were really happy about, and Sarah and Miceala came 17th which is still a really good result. It was a really fun day and I encourage other Scouts to do it next year. PenOC runs short events every month and has a discounted rate for Scouts who enter.

Christopher du Toit

Permanent link to this article: https://1stclaremont.org.za/competitions-2/orienteering-2026-junior-winners/

Sep 23 2026

Emily’s Springbok Pioneering Project

23/09/2026

On Sunday morning, Sam, Emily, and I were at the hall bright and early to pack. We arrived at Keurboom Park at about 8:45 and started unloading the equipment. There were lots of dogs. Soon Michaela arrived to help. We started the construction by tying 2 very tight sheer lashings. Throughout the day various other scouts came and went but me, Sam and Emily were there the whole time. The construction went really well, lots of people, who were walking past, stopped by to see what we were doing. At one point, we had to move some pickets out of the ground. I had the bright idea of pulling all 6 pickets out of the ground at once using a leverspar. Surprisingly, the stave snapped… It was all Seb and Andy’s fault (definitely not ours). We ran a little (cough cough) behind schedule, but once the bridge was up, it was really cool. We all got to walk across the bridge. It was really stable. Deconstruction was super speedy. We finished packing the cars just as the sun had set.

Overall it was a really amazing project and was lots of fun

Well done Emily!

Saskia Berry

Permanent link to this article: https://1stclaremont.org.za/advancement/springbok/emilys-springbok-pioneering-project/

Sep 23 2026

Doc Trophy

23/09/2026

This year’s Doc Trophy was held at Appleton scout base on signal hill. The morning started with packing all the equipment into the trailers. It was my first time being a PL for a competition so I was determined to take everything that we needed. Upon arrival at Appleton, me and Sam realised that while we had brought the required water barrels, we hadn’t filled them with water! Luckily Michelle was able to go take two scouts to find somewhere to fill them up (You’re a lifesaver Michelle). After registering we started setting up camp and had lunch. I had got us burgers so we had to cook them, all the other patrols looked at us like we were crazy, but personally I just think they were jealous of our delicious lunch. Throughout the rest of the afternoon and evening we were busy with bases and campsite development.

For one of the STAs we had to make scones using sprite, and remarkably, it worked. We also had some cream to whip but we mixed it too much so we ended up with butter. When me and Sam were walking to a base, I suddenly realised that we had forgotten table slats for our table. After some panic (and a phone call with Simon) we were left with the unideal situation of having to put our metal prep table onto our pioneering table. The weather had been nice and hot all afternoon, with clear skies and the ocean taunting us from below. For dinner we had risotto and bread. Our meal with the judges was quite entertaining.

When we were cleaning up after dinner, there was some commotion at the other 1st Claremont campsite next door. We ran over to discover that they had put a hot Dutch oven onto a plastic chopping board and the two were now firmly stuck together. Next we had night bases, which I think we had too much fun at because we got in trouble for being too loud. We managed to get a decent amount of sleep and woke up early the next morning for campsite inspection. Packing up was not very fun, partly because we didn’t want to go to school on Monday, but mainly because of the combination of juniors and not enough sleep. Eventually the closing parade came around and I was really proud that my patrol managed to come 5th. The prize we got was a nice big bottle of Coke. Which we were very grateful for.

Saskia Berry

Permanent link to this article: https://1stclaremont.org.za/1stclaremont-scouts/doc-trophy/

Sep 23 2026

Emily’s Springbok Community Service

23/09/2026

For Emily’s Springbok Community Service we painted murals at the SPCA facility in Grassy Park to make the space look fun and funky.

When we arrived at the SPCA, we were given green volunteering shirts, then we went to the first wall and started painting dogs. Emily sketched a few dogs on the wall in chalk and then we painted them in lots of different colours. There are some blue ones and some green ones. After the first mural, we painted a second slightly smaller mural, which was also in blue and green. These 2 murals were outside. Our 3rd mural was in the dog adoption centre. There was a green band along the wall at waist height and we painted dogs on top of the green band so it looked like the dogs were sitting on the wall. It looked very cool and we painted a lot of dogs of different kinds and sizes – all in blue and green. Every now and then we went to look at the dogs (even though we weren’t supposed to), and they were very cute.

The next area that we painted was in the cattery and we painted some cats in a mural on the walls (we saw lots of kittens which were so cute). We finished at the cat mural which was painted in red and orange.

At the end of our 4 days at SPCA our volunteering shirts were mostly blue with only a little bit of green visible!!!

On the last day we got some material to build a dog kennel and then we took it back to the Scout hall and built it there. We bent a lot of nails (!!!!), but Sam George somehow managed to hammer all of his nails in straight .

Christopher du Toit

Permanent link to this article: https://1stclaremont.org.za/advancement/springbok/community-service-springbok/emilys-springbok-community-service/

Sep 19 2026

Julia’s Springbok Widegame

19/09/2026

The theme of my widegame was The Very Hungry Caterpillar , based on the very well known children’s book. All of the bases and STAs were somehow linked to the story itself, or caterpillars in general. One of the most important STAs asked the patrols to plot all the bases of the widegame on a map, disguised as a butterfly, as Baden Powell supposedly did himself during his time in the army. This is important as Springbok Widegames are centered around orienteering (mapwork). The bases ranged from important Scout skills, to complete nonsense, all of course relating to caterpillars. Some of my favourite bases were the First Aid base which involved the Itsy Bitsy Spider falling from a water spout and gaining various injuries, Identifying Smells because caterpillars have a very good sense of smell, and Paper Chain Caterpillars where a paper strip could be earned by completing a silly task from a list of very silly tasks. Overall I had an amazing time planning and running the widegame, and I hope everyone who attended did too. Thanks to everyone for making this widegame possible, to Scouters for enthusiastically bringing my vision to life, and to the Scouts for being the whole reason to run the widegame.

Julia Webb

Permanent link to this article: https://1stclaremont.org.za/advancement/springbok/julias-springbok-widegame/

Sep 19 2026

Matthew First Class Hike

19/09/2026

Matthew’s First Class hike was super fun. It started off with a trip to the Hottentots Holland Nature Reserve where we hiked the mountain range and reached a peak. The incline was quite hard but the descent wasn’t too bad. The view from the top was amazing because you could see the whole of Stellenbosch. We ended our hike right where we started and Matthew’s dad drove us to a nearby scout hall where we slept for the night. We made a campfire and had a jolly time. The next day Matthew’s dad drove us to the Franschhoek area where we did a loop around the dam. At one point it started raining and hailing which was actually fun to hike through. By the end of it though everyone was cold and glad to be heading back home.

Oliver Ringrose