Scout Camp....

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Great Plum
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Re: Scout Camp....

Post by Great Plum »

Eruresto wrote:Being an instructor's brilliant wherever you go, you get tea made for you. Unless you're bugling every year in which case you're normally up before the Duty patrol is!

Ever picolloed Reveille, Matt?
No, but I played it on an ocarina once when I couldn't find anything else...
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Re: Scout Camp....

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Never on a kazoo?
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Re: Scout Camp....

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When I was a child I received a toy saxophone one Christmas, and my father taught me to play Reveille on it - a decision he soon regretted!
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Re: Scout Camp....

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Eruresto wrote:Being an instructor's brilliant wherever you go, you get tea made for you.
One scout camp I was leading I sent a 23 year-old would-be assistant leader back to camp to make tea for the other leaders.
Yeuch. What a mistake! Turned out he had put the tea leaves in a dixie, filled it with cold water and then put it on the fire. Apparently mummy always made tea for him and he didn't know how to cook water!
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Re: Scout Camp....

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Agh. Reveile. My darling husband has that as his wake up alarm on his phone. Every ****ing morning - dah da dah da da-da-da-dah-da Even the cats are trained to respond to it now, and will only enter the bedroom on hearing it to demand where their breakfast is. Sadly they haven't learnt to make the tea yet.

Have to admit (and I don't know whether ashamedly or not) that our camping holidays now do resemble some sort of mini scout camp expeditionary force; even our routine seems to follow the classic packed lunch, activity, afternoon tea, evensong, dinner, cocoa, sitting up round the fire for hours putting the world to rights. It's got to the point I'm even thinking of calling our tent the Wolery.
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Re: Scout Camp....

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Do you put sisal (is that how you spell it?) around your patrol site (I mean tent!)??
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Re: Scout Camp....

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I remember a statewide Guide camp in West Australia where we had to dig a trench around each tent in rock-hard ground. It is not safe to camp in summer because of the risk of bushfires, so this camp was in the Autumn, when it had not yet started to rain, but we knew that it soon would, with a vengeance (warm wet westerly winds in winter and hot dry sunny summers - for those of you who remember Miss Wilson's definition of a Mediterranean climate!). When the first rains came the ground would be too hard to absorb it all, hence the trenches; otherwise the rain would just flow in a sheet through the tents. The camp in 1966 was called Camp Mirambeena (aboriginal for Welcome) and was made up of four sub-camps of Guides, named in aboriginal after the four main points of the compass (I do still remember them but haven't a clue how to spell them), plus a Guiders' training camp - the Guiders of course were supposed to set a good example to the girls, but I was just a greenhorn Pommy unfamiliar with the ways of the Aussie outback. Happy days!
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Re: Scout Camp....

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Great Plum wrote:Do you put sisal (is that how you spell it?) around your patrol site (I mean tent!)??
Umm... we're quite territorial but tend to go for the more passive agressive approach utilising a washing line, wind breaks and parked cars. We find that this is also less likely to garot any children running blindly/wildly around the campsite. But to compensate for that, we try to find campsites that allow fires; you can't quite beat sitting around in the evening, gazing into the embers, poking a fire with a stick. Oh, and we don't make dressers by lashing together sticks - we have metal camping kitchen units. However, I would still like a patrol box type thingie; perhaps when we get a bigger car. And I think it's only a matter of time before we get a trailer for bikes / canoes. Luckily my husband has similar camping experiences to those I had in CH Scouts and we're both are quite hot on geeky details such as making sure tent pegs are at 45 degrees and that guys are all the same length.

Scouts certainly taught me how to cook (sorry mother, it wasn't you). I loved the Cordon Blergh competition at the end of camp and the challenge of cooking a full roast for Fr Dobbie on the Sunday of scout camp. Roast potatoes in the dixies and marmalade marinated leg of lamb on the fire. Now as grown ups, all through the summer we roast our meat outside; leg of lamb or whole piggie legs (we've rigged up a special arrangement on the BBQ - and it saves having to clean the oven!!) But I still haven't managed to do that insane bake an egg in an orange though.

The other thing that Scouts gave me was a passion for sensible game shows following competing in the Scout District Quiz. Thus, Universally Challenged and Mastermind get quite competative in our house.
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Re: Scout Camp....

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Deb GP wrote: Luckily my husband has similar camping experiences to those I had in CH Scouts and we're both are quite hot on geeky details such as making sure tent pegs are at 45 degrees and that guys are all the same length.
Wow..umm, that's very..... :shock: :shock:

Oh. Gosh.. sorry, you meant tentropes :oops: :oops:
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Re: Scout Camp....

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Jo wrote:
Deb GP wrote: Luckily my husband has similar camping experiences to those I had in CH Scouts and we're both are quite hot on geeky details such as making sure tent pegs are at 45 degrees and that guys are all the same length.
Wow..umm, that's very..... :shock: :shock:

Oh. Gosh.. sorry, you meant tentropes :oops: :oops:
When did you get your new avatar JR? :wink:
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Re: Scout Camp....

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I just thought I'd beat him to it for once :mrgreen:
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Re: Scout Camp....

Post by sejintenej »

Fjgrogan wrote:I remember a statewide Guide camp in West Australia where we had to dig a trench around each tent in rock-hard ground. It is not safe to camp in summer because of the risk of bushfires, so this camp was in the Autumn, when it had not yet started to rain, but we knew that it soon would, with a vengeance (warm wet westerly winds in winter !
CH Senior Scouts camping (and climbing) in Great Langdale about 1960; weather forecast was good. In a public campsite we found a part which was raised above the general level (no use digging ditches there - the river ran alongside!). Bit of noise 2nd night and next morning we found we were marooned on high ground and everyone else flooded out!
They say the devil looks after his own :x
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Re: Scout Camp....

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We also used to have family camps, when a group of families involved together in local Scouting used to camp together in a field in Sussex, at least three generations of most families - we have old cine film of it. Two particularly spring to mind. the first was an Easter weekend when my father had warned us to take warm clothes because it would be very cold at night - we left the washing up overnight in the bowl and it was a block of ice next morning - but next day was extremely hot, the children's Easter eggs all melted, and they were running around naked, which wasn't an option for the adults! One of the girls, presumably Kirri, was potty training at the time! The other occasion was a summer camp when the children (with supervision) cooked a Sunday roast in a mud-covered oil drum and it was delicious - roast lamb with all the relevant veg, plus apple pie - it helped if you had not previously seen the colour of the pastry when it went into the oil drum! The best cook in our family was always my brother who had learned in the Scouts. Years later Maria misguidedly asked my advice on how long to cook roast lamb. I referred her to my brother whose reply was 'Put it in the oven and go down to the pub; when you get back it will be done!' It worked!
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Re: Scout Camp....

Post by NEILL THE NOTORIOUS »

TBA and I, are still camping, at the ages of 81 and, (whisper it) 70---- a "Child Bride" .

But over the years, we have managed to collect "Comfort" in the way of 1. a tent, large enough for me (6 ft) to stand in, with a mosquito- proof inner bed section. 2. A table and 4 chairs . 3. A gas cooker, with grill. 4.A double Lilo with square sides, to prevent rolling off ! 5. Double sleeping bag to match ! 6. An electric inflating pump.(From the car)
We also bought, when heading for Czechoslovakia (When it was Communist) a "Portaloo" -- because we doubted the quality of the Loos.

It remains in our back attic in a virgin state ---- the Loos were ok !! (But toilet paper was testricted to 3 sheets per visit !) :oops:

This Summer, was South of Bordeaux --- different ! -- :lol:
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Re: Scout Camp....

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Mid A 15 wrote:
Jo wrote:
Deb GP wrote: Luckily my husband has similar camping experiences to those I had in CH Scouts and we're both are quite hot on geeky details such as making sure tent pegs are at 45 degrees and that guys are all the same length.
Wow..umm, that's very..... :shock: :shock:

Oh. Gosh.. sorry, you meant tentropes :oops: :oops:
When did you get your new avatar JR? :wink:

PARDON ?
Am I missing something ????
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