Day 1
On 14 September 2024, the 107th Gordons began. This year, each troop could only enter one team, unlike previous years when multiple teams were allowed. Our team consisted of James, Holly, Tim VZS, Joel, Ethan, Laura O, Peter, and Oliver H. We arrived at the hall at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday to pack equipment and prepare to leave for the competition. Surprisingly, we finished packing on time and set off, but we didn’t actually need to leave so soon because we ended up waiting at the Engen garage for about 30 minutes to avoid arriving at Hawequas before the gate opened. Once we reached Hawequas, we went to registration and completed all necessary tasks before the opening ceremony. Afterward, we immediately began with pioneering and setting up our campsite. Shortly after we started, the bases began. The bases this year were noticeably easier than in previous years, which was quite a surprise. For dinner, we prepared a three-course meal: baguettes for starters, braaied chicken with sauce, rice, and vegetables for the main course, and whipped cream, honeycomb pudding, and tinned apricots for dessert. After dinner, we started the night bases, which were actually quite fun, except for an obstacle course base that we retried about 15 times before finally completing it. Once the night bases ended, we couldn’t go straight to bed as we still had a bunch of pioneering and cleaning up to finish. As a result, we only got to bed around 2:30 a.m. on Sunday, and woke up at 5 a.m. to complete any tasks left from the previous day.
Day 2
Thankfully, there wasn’t much left to do in the morning, so we could take things a bit easier, although it was still pretty stressful because this year’s inspection was at 8 a.m. instead of the usual 9 or 10 a.m. Fortunately, we finished everything on time and were surprised at how relaxed this year’s inspection was—they didn’t even jump on the table! After inspection, the bases resumed, and we finally had breakfast, which we hadn’t managed to eat beforehand. We also began working on a paper mache model of Lumière from Beauty and the Beast for one of our STA’s. Today’s bases were also relatively easy and short, but even so, by the end of Gordons, we were all incredibly tired from the amount of work we had put in. We finished in 2nd place, which is an excellent result out of about 35 teams. A big well done to everyone in our Gordons patrol for all our hard work and for achieving such a fantastic result!
Joel Foord
