Day 1
This was the first day of the joint camp between Hout bay and 1st Claremont. For some they weren’t sure what it would be like having this camp as, for many, it was their first troop camp altogether or at least, their first joint troop camp. We were told to leave the hall at 09:00 and arrive around 13:00. Even though we were arriving at lunchtime the scouters still didn’t think that maybe they should try and organise some items for a lunch meal for the scouts that day.
This meant we got a bunch of random items that somehow actually ended up working out, for the most part at least. We didn’t do too much on this day apart from setting up tents and maybe a few pioneering structures as well as some icebreaker activities to get both troops to get to know each other a bit more. In the evening we played a well known scout game called Priest of the Parish; which I think everyone enjoyed as people were making references to it for the ntirety of the rest of the camp.
Day 2
Day 2 was a pretty good day. Not too hot and not too cold, although it did seem to be warming up considerably compared to the previous day. We did some casual stretches and water aerobics led by Daniel, with his “immense” knowledge in water aerobics, to start the day off. After this we did a few other activities in and out of our patrol campsites and this time we actually got properly planned lunch items:) On this day we also begun to build additions to a pre-existing obstacle course.
Day 3
Today, we did some base-type activities and finished off our obstacle course additions and then the actual running of the obstacle course. Those activities ran from morning to early afternoon. Later in the afternoon a couple of interest and scoutcraft badges could be completed by the scouts if they wanted the badges that were being run. Some examples were ornithology, sharpshooter observation SC and veldcraft.
In the evening of this day, we ran the obstacle course that we had added to, as a patrol. The patrols were then given points on various criteria most of which I can’t remember. From this obstacle course came a few minor injuries as the scouters had expected would happen, but thankfully nothing major.
Day 4
By this day even the mornings were baking hot. This led to a few minor cases of heat exhaustion, me being one of them, although nothing severe. Today was very similar ro the day before although in the evening we were going to do a night hike which the scouters literally gave us scouts no information on other than to bring a towel, a change of clothes and a day pack as well as a few sleeping items.
These items made some people a bit nervous. Like why would we need a towel and a change of clothes on a night hike unless we had to cross a river. In the end though it wasn’t too bad and we just had to follow a trail until we reached our destination where some of the scouters had driven up to and started a fire for us.
Day 5
This was the last full day of troop camp and it was just as hot as the previous days if not hotter. Thankfully we were allowed to spend much needed time in the river to help us stay cool. There was once again not much difference between today and the previous day although since it was the last night of troop camp we organised a banquet and after the banquet we would have the campfire. For the banquet each patrol was given a dish to make and then all the food was added together and the banquet began. Of course it could be no ordinary banquet.
Daniel and Jo, the 2 people running the camp, ame up with a few rules for the banquet that all except them had to follow. If you failed to follow these rules you had to do a forfeit of some kind and these would be completely random or, in some cases not so random…
A few of the PL’s carried a blazing fire in a metal trommel from one patrol at one end of the campsites to a patrol who were located on the other end of the campsite. Those same PL’s then had to reenact that scene, but without props. After the banquet we had the final campfire of the camp. This campfire worked out pretty well. Everyone had fun and there were also pretty good skits and songs displayed by both the scouts and scouters.
Day 6
This was the final day of camp. The day we had to deconstruct everything and pack it all in trailers to bring back to Cape Town. For some reason this day seemed the hottest of the lot and as usual we were still a bit behind schedule. Although this time difference was nothing compared to the length of time it took for the trailers to get back to Cape town as I am sure most of you know about.
If you don’t then all I will say is the trailers were supposed to arrive at the scout hall , after many delays, around 19:30 yet they still hadn’t arrived at the hall by 21:00. In the end we all came back to the hall at 10:00 the next day and fully unpacked everything.
Even with these complications at the end; I can confidently say that virtually everyone had great fun, whether it was their first troop camp or if they had already been on previous troop camps.
Joel Foord
