JOTT 2011: JAMBOREE ON THE TRAIL

 Saturday 14th May marked Sittingbourne & Milton Districts hike as part of the Jamboree on the Trail 2011.

1st Sittingbourne scouts took part, along with other local scout groups to walk the almost 13 Km between Canterbury East and Whitstable railway stations, mainly along the famous “Crab and Winkle Way”.  En route we visited the Norman leper church of St Nicholas, where we received a very hospitable welcome and learnt about its fascinating history.

Our thanks go to Ron Glister of 10th Sittingbourne for all his hard work in planning the route and visit to St Nicholas’ and to everyone that took part and made it such an enjoyable day.

Please click on the above  photo collage to enlarge.

Power Kiting

On Saturday the 26th March the Scouts were invited to transform from complete novices at power kiting, to competent pilots. The event was held by the Kent Scouts Air Activities team at Capstone Country Park in Gillingham Kent.

After a safety briefing and “how to fly” instruction it was straight on to the “smaller” 2.5M kites. The lack of wind proved a challenge to us novices to get these up, but with the excellent guidance from the instructors we were soon having a great time.

As the wind picked up, we moved on to the more powerful kites, these were a lot harder on the muscles, and even in the still fairly light winds, capable of dragging you along the ground. (Yes I did go over more than once!)

Some of us had the opportunity to try using the kites to pull us along in a buggy, and one of our Scouts was given the honour of flying the teams brand new sport kite which he described as “Epic”.

Having only ever flown” traditional” kites in the past I for one was truly impressed by pulling power of these wind powered beasties, and I’ll certainly be back for more!

If you’d like to know more about the Kent Scouts Air Activities team, look them up on their website at  http://www.kentscouts.org.uk/pageview.php?menu_id=503 Paul Phillips. Scout Leader.

The Survivors!

"Bugs" introduces himself to the group.

Here are some comments from the Scouts that took part in our 24 hour survival camp last weekend.

“It was a great experience and I learnt lots of new skills like knife and axe work”

“….we cooked our own food and pudding, it was really nice…”

“When we made a shelter it was really stressful, but fun. We had to tie string between trees and put a sheet over it, but it’s not as easy as it seems!”

“I loved sleeping in the shelter”

“It was muddy, but the food was nice and I loved the hot chocolate!”

“It was cold, wet and muddy, but that actually made it a better, more realistic experience………..it was great having an experienced survival expert (“Bugs”) and he showed us great ways of using natural resources for almost everything”

“It was very cold, very wet and the mud was like goo!”

“”Bugs” taught us knife and axe work, and how to make a lantern out of an old drinks can”

And finally, a comment from our Scout Leader

“This wasn’t just a learning experience for the Scouts, us adults came away a lot wiser as well, but for me the lasting memory will be that of the Scouts attitude. The wind and rain soon turned the camp site in to a mud bath and it really wasn’t an hospitable place to be. There was no natural shelter, but they all pulled together, listened to the instructor (Our thanks again for everything you did “Bugs”) and did what was needed. There were no complaints, even when things did not go exactly to plan. It was an absolute pleasure to be there with them and they should all be very proud of their achievements”

"I'm a Scout, get me out of here!"

"Mud, Mud, Glorious mud"

WINTER SURVIVAL CAMP

MUD GLORIOUS MUD

 

Six members of the troop, along with 2 leaders and a qualified instructor, took part in a 24 hours survival skills camp.

The participants met at Sittingbourne & Milton district campsite at 10.00am on Saturday 26th. February in the poring rain. With kit unloaded from cars the scouts walked across the site to the specially designated area for this type of camping.

 

First task was to build their shelters under instruction and be shown various methods and styles of shelters. Once this was done the warmth was required, thus fire lighting skills was instructed and it was not long before a good fire was blazing away. Though the rain kept coming spirits were not dampened with the scouts and leaders learning other survival skills such as knife handling, use of axes and some gadgets which can be made.

 

Cooking was done on trangia stoves and single army burners with a selection of bacon & beans, vegetable curry, chicken tika and corned beef up for tasting plus chocolate pudding for afters. With stomachs full and things washed up further skills were learned including the making of lanterns and woggle making.

 

As bedtime arrived some scouts selected to sleep indoors, but 2 opted to face the elements and survived the night as the temperature dropped to 3 degrees.

 

Breakfast was served in the warmth and comfort of the building before the break of camp.

THE BEDROOM

 

 At the end of the 24 hours the scouts thanked the instructor and commented on how enjoyable the experiance had been and next time do this in the summer

WEDNESDAY NIGHT HIKE

If only they knew

The scout troop spent the normal meeting night outdoors on a local hike.

The scouts, along with 2 leaders, were dropped off at a mystery location and told to find their way to the District camp site. Once they had got the grid reference the scouts were on their way up the first footpath, which led them in to an orchard. Temptation was high to try a few apples but they resisted and managed to get lost in the orchard instead. Good skills in directional navigation came in to effect and they headed for the street lights, upon in more light regained their composure and redirected themselves on to the required route. The rain came down in a fine drizzle, but th scouts spirits were not dampened and on they marched/strolled/crawled to the meeting point.

"are we there yet"

A great time was had by all and some vital lessons learnt on the way.