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
