Summer Camp 2008 - Isle of Wight

We have finished Isle of Wight 2008 on a high from what was a very successful, if very challenging, summer camp. Even the admin has been easier this year with an (almost) stress free return to Heyford Park this afternoon J Which was nice considering the journey down took us almost 5 hours just to get from Heyford to Portsmouth. Fantastic.

The obligatory kit check occupied Friday night and finished with all of the kit packed onto the vehicles and ready to go for the next day. Following the “Journey to Hell” the next day we all arrived at Corf Scout Camp in one piece and quickly got the campsite up and running. We then remembered we’d actually forgotten to do the fresh food shopping for the next day. D’oh. As a result of this a new camp tradition was created and known to normal people as “Brunch” – early enough to be classed as breakfast but late enough for Tesco’s to be open on a Sunday to actually buy the food!!

You’d have thought they’d had enough of climbing stuff but instead we were straight onto the climbing wall on Tuesday morning for three hours of climbing and abseiling. This was a good time for me as I ran the session and definitely beats having to sit around watching the scouts have all the fun ALL the time! :op Black Gang Chine (the Isle of Wight’s theme park) for the scouts (food shopping for the leaders) occupied the afternoon.

We hit the Medina Leisure Centre on Wednesday for the mid-week clean down. Most of us got told off for something by the lifeguards but Jordan took the biscuit by being told off by a life guard for getting him wet. He ignored us when asked what happens when you jump into the pool to save people. He obviously was never a scout. We took the scouts to the cinema on Wednesday night and this turned into a late one with the last scouts rolling out at midnight :oO but I’m told the new Batman film was worth it.

A nice brisk 4 mile hike kicked off Thursday morning. Then it was off to the West Wight Leisure Centre for a wee spot of underwater swimming or SCUBA diving as some call it. Unlike swimming you know if this activity is going well when all the scouts actually stay underwater.

Following brunch on Sunday we then sped off to CarisbrookeCastle for a look round. We always feel it is important to include some form of cultural/historical/educational visit in addition to cleaning out the campsite toilets…!

Monday took us onto the beach for swimming and mud fights and then onto one of the best activities of the week – tree climbing! This basically involved the scouts pulling themselves up a couple of giant trees in climbing gear (using some modified crevasse rescue technique) and it looks easy but is actually quite hard work if you’re over 20. The scouts all found it easy except for Vicky who needed a revision lesson on which way was UP..!

After a morning of breaking camp, Friday saw us off to the NeedlesPleasurePark for lots of sweet eating, general messing around and tomfoolery. And we have the video evidence that Sam did dance on top of Laura’s car.

We all awoke on Saturday to rain and a big grey sky which was in stark contrast to the previous week. A sure sign that camp was indeed nearly over for this year at least. Because it went so well we’ve decided to extend the next years campto10 days. And go to Scotland as well.

Yours in Scouting,

Nigel Heinrich

Scout Leader