Oct 17 2023
On the 22 July 2023, Laura Hoffa lead us on her Discoverer hike. We started off at the Silvermine car park, and we hiked up to Elephant’s Eye. We then did the panorama circuit around the dam towards Noordhoek Peak, where we had lunch. We then walked to a ledge overseeing the dam. From there, we walked back down to the car park. As of Daniel’s distrust of jeep tracks, he told Laura to go on paths that either won’t there, or they were flooded. All in all, it was very fun.
Matthew D
Permanent link to this article: https://1stclaremont.org.za/smoke-signals/ss2023q3-laura-hike/
Oct 17 2023
Day 1
We arrived at the wild fig cafe near the liesbek river. We started off by getting into pairs after Joel told us that whichever pair collected the most rubbish got a chocolate (and because of the buddy system..).
W.e started off our trek by walking along the side of the river and picking up what we could find. In a short while we moved across the river to where most of the rubbish was and started on that side. When we were almost done we sat down and started on our lunch. We finished picking everything up and moved down the river. We finished up quite quickly.
Day 2
We arrived at the Wild Fig cafe near the Liesbeek river. This time with some other patrol members. We started on the same route as the first day going along the river and then crossing it. Crossing wasn’t as easy this time because the night before it had rain so we tried to walk across our, shoes sank into the mud. This time we made it a bit further going all the way around the river to the other side with about 30 minutes till the community service was finished we went back to go to one last area when it started to rain. Although there was rain we continued on until the community service was over when while waiting for our parents we watched reels on Laura’s phone.
Bridget H
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Permanent link to this article: https://1stclaremont.org.za/smoke-signals/ss2023q3-jamboree-photos/
Oct 17 2023
Holly’s springbok community service, a mixture of fun, shenanigans and long hours of work. Holly community service was held at Marsh Memorial Homes. We spent five days at home doing a variety of different tasks. Our main project was sorting their store room for them. We Sorted out curtains into pairs, sorted blankets, uniforms, shoes and other clothes. This day was a freezing cold start and we did far more than we had expected to do (Which caused a slight dilemma because we didn’t know what we were going to do for the next Four Days)
Second day consisted of more clothes sorting and after that the sorting of random donations and packing them into the garage. We then packed a large amount of hangers (I didn’t know you could have so many hangers) This was done by me having a good system and the others causing shenanigans in my system. We then re-packed the garage (Me and Peter used our tetras packing knowledge to fit everything in.) This was broken up with sessions of baseball and speeding down the hill on james ricketty bike and a scooter.
Day three. We deep cleaned. Did a Mary Poppins in that store room. We moved everything around and cleaned all the surfaces and the before and after photo was quite something to behold. We sorted some hiking bags and packed more into the garage. After that we started our gardening. We weeded some flower beds, cleaned some gutters and did some other small gardening tasks.
Day Four. Did some weeding, and we cleaned the pathway to their imported church building from the US. It was a funky thing to have imported but it was done by the original owner of the land. That was about all that we did. The sunrise was quite spectacular and throughout the day we did some more cycling races in our breaks.
Day Five we planted some spekboom, did some more weeding around the roads and the old house and sorted linen for the children’s Houses. All in all it ended up being a very fun few days for all of us who attended.
Permanent link to this article: https://1stclaremont.org.za/smoke-signals/ss2023q3-hollys-comserv/
Oct 17 2023
Another Patrol Meeting involving food, work and shenanigans. We attempted to make our patrol meetings different to usual. After some long discussions on what we were going to do we decided we were going to break into James’s house. Luckily we have an easy way in because Julia shares the same house as him. (Next is Ethan’s House) As gordons was a week away my patrol very kindly offered (were pushed to agree) to Re Whip most of our green ropes for the competition. I taught them how to do it and then While my patrol laboured away whipping ropes I finished my pioneering model for my pioneering course the following day. After that I joined in to help complete the ropes. Our final act of the evening was us making a cake. Julia had pre-made the cake and decorations so we made the icing and decorated it. It has to have been the best patrol cake ever made. All in all it was a fun evening.
Timothy vZ-S
Permanent link to this article: https://1stclaremont.org.za/smoke-signals/ss2023q3-bats-patrol-evening/
Oct 17 2023
On the third of September I had my first advancement day where I got 22 tasks done. I talked, tracked and drew a map. I had to preform a skit and talk about safety. Some of the skills I learned have been helpful for scouting competitions like Gordon’s. And others I am yet to use.
It rained that day so we moved inside where I drew a map. When the rain was lighter we were outside where holly had set up a tracking story for us to uncode. We performed a play on the importance of the buddy system. We had to think of hazards, and see if we could fix them. I learnt how to tie knots. Everyone had different ways of doing them. For me I got some and others I couldn’t quite grasp. But all in all I learnt a lot.
Saskia B
Permanent link to this article: https://1stclaremont.org.za/smoke-signals/geagles-advancement-day/
Oct 17 2023
On the 7th of July we had a patrol camp. We were supposed to camp somewhere that wasn’t Hawequas but unfortunately the campsite flooded because of rain – and because the campsite was flooded the camp had to change location and that new location was…. Hawequas.
It started raining while we were packing the equipment at the hall and we all got quite wet and soggy. Once we had packed all the equipment that we needed into a trailer we were on our way! On the way to Hawequas we stopped by at Exotic Animal World previously known as Butterfly World. We saw lots of really cool animals and one of the parrots we saw copied Laura if she danced. 🙂
When we finished at Exotic Animal World we began stage two of our patrol camp – the camping part. We arrived at Hawequas and started unpacking the equipment. We were camping in the terraces and we found a nice campsite to camp at. We set up camp and we put up a tarp to use for shelter when cooking.
The next day we had a lazy start as it was rainy and no one wanted to get out of bed. We did campsite development and Simon and Axel completed a lot of advancements. We also made plaster casts of footprints which unfortunately did not dry as it didn’t stop raining for the rest of the camp. 🙁
Just after lunch it started hailing and it thundered and lightninged for a bit.
For supper James did his Cook’s meal but unfortunately some of the food did not cook as the fire kept going out. While we were waiting for the food to cook Laura gave her HIV/AIDS talk. The next day we packed up and went home, luckily it wasn’t so wet, just very cold.
All in all the camp was loads of fun! 🙂
Juliet D
Permanent link to this article: https://1stclaremont.org.za/smoke-signals/ss2023q3-kestrels-camp/
Oct 17 2023
Springbok community service is always a ton of fun for everyone involved, alongside getting a bunch of stuff done to benefit a worthwhile organisation. Woodside Special Care Centre is a home for mentally and physically disabled children and young adults situated in Rondebosch East.
On Saturday the 22nd of September a few scouts from our troop arrived eager to help out, and throughout the day we helped clean out their fundraising book room, in which they store second hand books to sell in order to raise funds for the centre. We put up shelves, sorted books and majorly cleaned up the room over the course of the day. Tea was enjoyed , amongst fizzers from Simon and Bridget, who loyally came along, even though it was their birthday!
By the end of the day you guys had helped me complete an amazing first stage of this project, and I am extremely grateful to all of you who helped out. We helped streamline and organise a process that raised around R20 000 for the centre! I am looking forward to the next stage, which is coming up soon, where we will paint murals, and put up swing sets for the children at the centre to use. (also come to the movie night to raise funds for all this)! See you all there!
James W
Permanent link to this article: https://1stclaremont.org.za/smoke-signals/ss2023q3-jamescommserv/
