Last weekend 10 Scouts and 5 Leaders held their Winter Survival Camp. With snow still on the ground and the temperature around freezing a few mad Leaders setup camp and stayed Friday night before the Scouts arrived on Saturday morning. They arrived to the sound of sizzling sausages and were disappointed to find that this was the Leaders breakfast still been cooked. The first task of the day was putting up their tents, they cleared some snow and managed to pitch all 3 (amazing what a difference all the right bits in the bag makes to a tent).
They were given a firesteel and plenty of advice before they attempted to build and start a fire. With everything either damp or covered in snow it was very difficult to find any dry fuel but eventually everyone managed to get sparks from their firesteel and flames from a fire even it was only for a short time. No 14th Broadstairs Winter Scout Camp would be right without a Robin (All started with Abbie having seen a Robin fly out of her tent a few years ago!) and sure enough one soon appeared and would sit a few feet away watching the Scouts light fires and prepare their dinner. It was Super Noodles for lunch prepared on Trangia’s, we wasn’t relying on the fires!
The afternoon was spent making shelters and had the weather been a bit kinder they would have slept in them but once the sun went down the temperature began to plummet again so tents it was. We then built a large fire ready to cook a dinner of baked potatoes, pork chops and beans followed by baked apples and banana’s stuffed with chocolate.
Whilst dinner was in the fire Point 5 and NATO set about the survival camp ritual of trying to start a fire with a bow, I haven’t seen any of the others but I’m led to believe that this was the most successful as they managed to get an ember they just could not get it to take and start a fire. We have some video of the attempted fire lighting, didn’t want to miss it in case it worked, we will upload it later, needs some editing and it was dark by the time they gave up. Soon we were tucking into dinner before we lost a few of the Scouts to Gang Show rehearsals. Whilst they were away for a couple of hours everyone huddled in the kitchen tent and started making survival bracelets, it’s amazing how much paracord you can fit into one small bracelet. When the others returned they set about making theirs and it was soon hot drinks and bed. The temperature over night went down to -6.
Sunday morning we were greeted to below freezing temperatures again and a blizzard! The Scouts got the fire going again and cooked a breakfast of bacon and eggs before splitting into 2 small groups. We have a lot of young Scouts that have moved up from Cubs so this weekend gave them the chance to do some Knife, Saw and Axe skills which they all managed without any problems. The others tried some survival tasks and were amazed to find that filling two pots with snow then putting them on the fire only produced enough water for a cup of tea! Dinner was rice and big shop before they had some free time that they used to either play games or practicing their fire lighting skills.
Soon it was time to strike camp, didn’t even have to ask for volunteers to empty the loo’s, amazing, before everyone headed off home to a warm bath or shower.
Well done to Cameron, Aidan, Rhys, Tom, Geena, Charlotte, Lauren, Ryan, Reece and George for surviving the extreme temperatures Saturday night, we had no moaning about the conditions and everyone had a good go at everything always with a smile on their face (unless it was frozen on?) well done again and roll on the next camp!
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