Apr 04 2024

The Swift Cave

  • 04/04/2024

The Swifts dynamic has changed a LOT with the new patrol shuffling. We now have five new people in the patrol (Two of us also being new to scouts!). Five! Out of seven! Only two scouts have stayed in Swifts for a while. Considering everything, Swifts has been thriving. Although we have not run as much as we would like this term, we have been doing pretty well in meetings and been having the BEST time.

Newer scouts are set to pursue their advancement goals and all seems to be going well. Except for Joel – his cooking has turned into an art of how well he can turn edible food to processed metal and rubber and is quite worrying. Otherwise we seem to be doing ok.

We even have an awesome patrol acronym now (it’s definitely way better than Bats’):

                         S – Scouts

                         W – With

                         I – Incredible

                         F – Finesse

                              (In)

                         T – Tactical

                         S – Skills

I cannot wait to see where term 2 brings us and I am extremely excited about the amount of activities we are running. Farewell to all our Swift fans out there, we love and appreciate you all. Until next term.

Swifts, Out!

Nah wait it should be something else better like; “Swifts, sustainably cycle (s)that way!”

Permanent link to this article: https://1stclaremont.org.za/smoke-signals/the-swift-cave/

Apr 04 2024

The Eagles’ Nest

  • 04/04/2024

Eagles Term Report

This term was a great term. Our first win was in February when Laura Hoffa ran a spiffing patrol camp at Hawequas, and let us just say that the eagles couldn’t fly very much after that since we ate about 2 tons. Many games such as the renowned ‘Taco Cat Cheese Pizza’ and ‘Exploding Kittens’ were played (and mostly won by Saskia). Aside from the patrol camp we had two wins in the meetings – winning the pancake evening along with another one I cannot remember. Our pancakes were supremely cooked atop the roof of the hall, luckily we didn’t break it as that would have caused a need for another twelve fundraisers worth of roof repair money.

Coming up in term 2 we have a patrol outing to the NSRI, and some patrol members community service and perhaps a touch of discoverer hikes. I think term 2 will be a term to better our attendance (whoops) and makes some more moves in overall patrol advancement and bonding.

Well done eagles!

– Holly Raine

Eagles Patrol Camp

From the 17 to the 18 of February Eagles patrol went on a patrol camp ran by Laura at Hawequas. Before we left we realised that the cubs had used all of the tents for the cub camp that was happening that same weekend. Luckily my family had an 8 man tent that we could use on a short notice. The camp was really fun and helped me make bonds with my patrol. I’m sure that Laura, Alex, Holly and I have all got fond memories of our camp. This camp I had the task of leading an activity, I think I had a very unique activity.

The aim was to build a tripod then tie a doughnut that you had to eat onto it. Extra points were given if you could tie your hands behind your back by yourself and only use knots learnt at scouts. If your doughnut fell to the ground you had to start with a new one. (And you weren’t supposed to eat the ones that fell to the ground afterwards, Alex!) And obviously Holly took feet pics. With just the four of us on the terraces, Hawequas was really empty and quiet. One of our spare time games was Taco, Cat, Goat, Cheese, Pizza. A very interesting card game. I also cannot forget to say that we saw Mambo! And didn’t see any baboons. Although in the mornings it got quite windy, (we thought our tent was going to blow over so we quickly packed it away, as soon as we finished the wind stopped) I had an excellent camp!

– Saskia Berry

Permanent link to this article: https://1stclaremont.org.za/smoke-signals/the-eagles-nest-2/

Apr 04 2024

Susan Gammon Farewell

  • 04/04/2024

ATS and Wood Badge Holder

Susan has been an integral part of 1st Claremont since she became an Assistant Troop Scouter just over 9 years ago in 2015 when her children Matthew and Emily were Scouts in the Troop and David Knight was Troop Scouter.

She has contributed widely and deeply, within and beyond the Troop. She has always shown an interest in encouraging and teaching the Scouts, particularly the younger ones or those who may be struggling socially or needing assistance with their Scout advancement. Susan participates as a trainer on Scout training courses and has judged at many Scout competitions. She also loves hiking, camping and kloofing and does as many hikes as she can, both with Scouts and socially.

One of Susan’s training specialities is First Aid, where she is part of the training team, focusing especially on moulage, which means simulating injuries with makeup, moulds, silicone etc.

Susan loves nature and became interested in the City Nature Challenge, where she is now the most prolific contributor among the Scouts South Africa community, with 3773 observations (in fact, 7 of the top 20 contributors are from 1st Claremont, 5 of them adults and 2 scouts).

Susan earned her Wood Badge in 2019, the final step in adult leader training, four years after joining as an ATS. She is the only female Scout Wood Badge holder in our group’s history as all other female Wood Badge holders have held the Cub Wood Badge. She has also been recognised with the Regional Commissioner’s Commendation in 2019 and the Certificate of Merit in 2022.

Susan has decided to step down from her role as Assistant Troop Scouter. I am sad to see her leave her ATS role and we are already talking to try to find her another role in Scouting, beyond the Troop, as she still has a passion for Scouting and her ATS role was incredibly rewarding to her. I know her dedication and experience with a gentle touch will be hard to replace in the Troop and we are extremely grateful for her years of service as an ATS at 1st Claremont.

– Ian Webb
Scout Group Leader

Permanent link to this article: https://1stclaremont.org.za/smoke-signals/susan-gammon-farewell/

Apr 04 2024

Fun with 1st Claremont Flags – Scouts

  • 04/04/2024

In this series we started by featuring our very first flag (the oldest Scout flag in South Africa), then at two historic flags from nearly 100 years ago, then at our collection of Cub flag. In this final instalment we look at the two flags that are currently in use by the Scout Troop.

At meetings, the Troop flies a green flag with the red and gold fleur de lis with a springbok head. The Troop name doesn’t appear on the flag although other Troops have similar flags with their name. We have actually had two of these flags, almost identical. The first one was blown to shreds at a windy Kon-Tiki (is there any other kind?) and its logo is now framed in the Scouters Den. The current flag is the replacement, but essentially the same flag has been flown at 1st Claremont for about the past 40 years.

The red and gold logo with the springbok was introduced by the Boy Scouts of South Africa (BSSA) in the 1980s, although the green background for Scouts dates back to Baden-Powell’s time. BSSA later became the South African Scout Association and then Scouts South Africa in 2008, at which point the red fleur de lis with the springbok head was replaced. Some day we will probably replace the 1980s flag with a new purple and green 1st Claremont flag with the Scouts South Africa logo. Apart from the flag flown at meetings, we also use a much older flag on a staff for special occasions such as Founder’s Day and similar flag parades. Most importantly, when each new 1st Claremont Scout is invested, they recite the Scout Promise with their left hand on this flag.

The flag has the gold fleur de lis with the “Be Prepared” scroll described by Baden-Powell in “Scouting for Boys”. This flag also has our Star Troop awards sewn onto it. The 2021 star is currently lost but we hope to track it down (blame lockdown!) and the 2023 star will be sewn on soon.

This flag has a special history, mentioned in our 75th anniversary Smoke Signals in 1983: it was brought from England in 1951 by Richard Knight who was then a 16 year old Scout. He went on to be a Scoutmaster at 1st Claremont, became one of the founders of the Cederberg Adventure, and held many national roles. His son David Knight was also a Scout at 1st Claremont and is now our DC, and two of his grandsons were Scouts at 1st Claremont, one of them a Springbok Scout.

This 1951 flag is a piece of history worth preserving as long as we can. Every Scout at 1st Claremont has placed their left hand on this flag for the past 73 years – many hundreds of Scouts in total. Even when I was invested as a 1st Claremont Scout 40 years ago in March 1984, this flag had already been in use for more than 30 years. I hope 1st Claremont will continue to use this flag to invest new Scouts long into the future.

SGL Ian Webb

Permanent link to this article: https://1stclaremont.org.za/smoke-signals/fun-with-1st-claremont-flags-scouts/

Apr 04 2024

Rayner Trophy 2024

  • 04/04/2024

Day 1

For me and a few other scouts from 1st Claremont this was going to be the first Rayner that we had ever been on or experienced. From what people were saying it was a very difficult location to get legal hiking access to so we should be very happy to be doing this Rayner. From the first day one might think it was going to be a fairly easy and basic hike, but the very end of the second day might just disagree. Now for what actually happened.

Since it was the very beginning of the competition, and for some of us our first Rayner, we weren’t exactly in competition mode and my patrol nearly flunked what was technically the first actual base. The worst part is that the base was on the 10 scout laws and my entire patrol consisted of some of the highest advanced scouts in the troop. Thankfully the base instructor was fairly lenient and after a few flounders we got the correct answers and received full marks. Anyways most of the next few bases were fairly basic and along the way we saw amazing views of the surrounding area as well as of steenbras dam.

The only thing that wasn’t so pleasant was the wind. I swear if you lifted a towel above your head like a paraglider you would become one and even though it’d be much cheaper to use a towel than the actual kit I wouldn’t advise it. The one base that we absolutely flunked was a height estimation base. Since none of my patrol members remembered how to do height estimation we kinda just used James as a unit and guessed how many James’ would fit up the pole. Needless to say, I don’t think the judges bought our explanation that we had to give. From this point on the bases kinda just became routine and along the way we stopped a bit to do some of the STA’s. When we eventually reached our destination, we set up what equipment we had and started on dinner. I think the entire competition had to make bunny chow and it seemed like most patrols ended up actually doing fairly well.

Night Bases

Now for the night bases. As if we weren’t already tired and a bit bruised from our rucksacks, we now had to do these night bases. Thankfully we didn’t need our bags and the bases weren’t too far apart. The first base we did was identifying direction from the stars, at least I think that was the first one, but it doesn’t really matter. After a bit of debating, we handed in our final answer and getting full marks for that base as well. The next base we had to jump over an ‘electrified fence’ (it was literally just a rope going across a path) and we had to do so without touching said ‘fence’. I think we did fairly well on that base. For the next base we had to make a scout transporter, at least I think that’s what it was, and make it over a ‘ravine’ without falling in.

Somehow, we had a person fall in not once, but twice. Once because we didn’t quite know how we were meant to use it and the transporter swung around sending Tim into the ravine and twice because James transferred all his power into his legs as he tried jumping across from the transporter which, once again, sent Tim flying into the ‘ravine’. The next base was a bomb disposal base and we had to try to lift a bucket of water up with only staves and rope and move it onto a table. The last base was morse code which none of my patrol knew off by heart and so we also kinda failed that base too.

Day 2

This day we were hoping would be as easy as the previous day, but by the end we realised it was most certainly not. It started out pretty well actually and carried on being pretty good until about ¾ of the way through. By about ½ way through it was already getting pretty hot. Quite a few people had already been burnt pretty bad from the previous day, (cough cough) Peter, and this day did not make it any better. What made it worse was that there were only about 2 or 3 spots to fill up with water, and for those who drink about 2 or 3 litres a day on average, some of them started to run out fairly quickly. By the end there was a patrol who had completely run out of water, and we had to decant some of our water for them to actually drink something. A few of the bases today were just time wasters for judges to get around to their next bases because they also had to walk due to the completely eroded state of the road or drive all the way around to get to the end point of the hike.

Thankfully there weren’t any STA’s today, unless you hadn’t completed them all the previous day, so we could just focus on hiking and getting the bases finished. Even so we missed the last 3 bases as did 80% of the rest of the competition. The one point in the hike when you had both a pretty good feeling and quite an exhausted feeling was virtually right at the end. It was at the top of a 500m+ descent down looking down to the parking lot at the bottom where we would be ending. It was great because we could finally see where we were ending, but it also kinda sucked because we saw that we had to go down a 500m+ descent, which we were kinda expecting, but seeing it you realised that it was in fact quite the descent.

By the time we reached the bottom we were all hot and exhausted and to top it off there were literally 100’s of ants that would try to swarm and bite you the moment you stopped walking or the moment you sat down. There was also no running or drinkable water in the parking lot so we had to wait for one of the scouters who had a bunch of water containers in the back of their bakkie to arrive. Anyways it was a pretty good competition overall and I strongly suggest going on it when you are old enough.

Lastly I would like to congratulate my patrol for coming 7th, the other patrol we put in for coming 17th and lastly for Peter’s patrol, even though he was the only 1st Claremont scout in it, for coming 10th. These are wonderful results especially considering it was some of the Scout’s 1st Rayner ever.

– Joel Foord

Permanent link to this article: https://1stclaremont.org.za/smoke-signals/rayner-trophy-2024/

Apr 04 2024

Quiz Night 2024

  • 04/04/2024

The Epic Night of quickness started with us being given brappels ( food and drink tokens). We then entered the spectacular scout hall lined with grand tables and chairs all assigned to the different competitors teams. Eg the meddlesome group, THE KLOMP, and the ancient Dinosaurs. The food/kos served was amazing and quite delicious, I emptied their entire stock of fresh fries.

The night stared with the first crazy quiz made up of 10 quizzes (you could choose a round to double your points). Dinosaurs instantly took the lead but then fell behind in the next few rounds, THE KLOMP had “very high” expectations and got a very  “high” amount of points ( similar to my Afrikaans’s marks). There were various quizzes which all were tough challenges. The quizzes included history, science, fish, birds, etc.

The winners of the night was a team made up of the TS’s of first Pinelands and Rosebank.

– Oliver Van Zyl Smit

Permanent link to this article: https://1stclaremont.org.za/smoke-signals/quiz-night-2024/

Apr 04 2024

James’ Springbok Camp at Delheim

  • 04/04/2024

In the recent January holidays, a group of us went on Jame’s Springbok camp at Delheim Estate, Stellenbosch. The two patrols were originally called The Lizards and The Snakes; and we then changed them to “Pronutro” and “LWeetworths” (with a silent ‘L’ : ). After arriving at Delheim and unpacking, we ate our packed lunch and then set up camp on the beautiful farm, followed by some pioneering.

We enjoyed a swim in the refreshing dam in the afternoon. We played many fun games over the 4 days including triple jump. Some of the best bases of the Wide Game were using a magnifying glass to burn our team logo onto leaves, a quiz about Baden Powell, a scavenger hunt, knot-tying and loads of STAs. We all worked on our Water Biologist Scoutcraft badge; we learnt about the water cycle and other elements of marine life, and then went down to the dam where we caught small fish and other water creatures in our nets, to identify them. A highlight was hiking up to a point where we stargazed; the juniors navigated with a map (for advancement).

On the way up, Peter taught the Prontutros a new fun song. That night, most Scouts slept either under the stars, or under a tarpaulin (for another advancement). On the last night, we had a camp fire with entertaining songs and skits (led by juniors for advancement). That night, everyone slept on a tarp down at the Scouters camp area which was awesome.

 Zip-lining into the dam was super fun; the line went over the land to start before going over the water. “One of the most impressive accidents” award went to Bridget for slipping off the zip-line (after being convinced not to dry the handles!) and landing on the land instead of the water. Other awards included “Most Lost Property Lost” which went to Peter, and “Best Twin Telepathy” awarded to William and Seth Lunn. A very big thank you to James for all the planning, preparation and leading this incredible camp.

– Seth and William Lunn

Permanent link to this article: https://1stclaremont.org.za/smoke-signals/james-springbok-camp-at-delheim/

Apr 04 2024

Pioneering Scoutcraft

  • 04/04/2024

This year’s first Pioneering Scoutcraft course of the year was run at the 1st Claremont scout hall base with about 40 scouts from various different troops in the region. This is a fairly large turn out for a course, but it’s great to see that there are so many scouts trying to pass off a few activities for their advancement. It started off with the scouts being divided into their patrols during the sign in process and then everyone went outside to fall in. There they received their instructions for what to do and then began said instructions.

The first day is just for teaching purposes while the second day is to pass off the requirements that you learnt the day before. The requirements involve a variety of different things; such as lashings, knots, hitches and basic whippings. I think everyone managed to get through all these different requirements in the different bases where the requirements were being taught.

At the end of the day 4 or 5 of the scouters also made a massive friction bridge, using our pioneering poles, as a model for the attendees to understand how a friction bridge actually works. On the second day the scouts started off similarly to the first day with signing in and with flag break. The difference was that this day is now to pass the requirements off that they had learnt the day before. Again I think everyone ended up passing everything off with a few people taking a bit longer.

On this second day the same group of scouters also decided that we wanted to make a small hourglass tower. This somehow took about 4 or so hours for us to build. Even though all of us had pioneer interest and we were making a small scale version using the patrol staves. Nonetheless the scouts seemed to think it was moderately good and it could hold about 2 of us scouters on top at one time… until it collapsed.

– Joel Foord

Permanent link to this article: https://1stclaremont.org.za/smoke-signals/pioneering-scoutcraft/