Yes, it's true. In the summer of '99 1st Hersham Scout Troop B embarked upon their best summer camp ever! Troop B Down Under was the culmination of the past Scouting year, and for many Scouts in the Troop it was their first Summer Camp - and it's going to take some beating!

The whole camp was themed around Australia (hence the name) and the three patrols were named appropriately - Dingo's, Wombat's and Roo's!

Troop B's Summer Camp - consisting of 15 Scouts, 1 Senior PL, 1 Venture Scout and 5 Leaders - set up for a weeks camp at the end of August 1999 at Broadstone Warren campsite - an absolutely massive site near East Grinstead in West Sussex. The on-site facilities were superb, but our site was secluded enough for us to be able to operate our own activities in addition to the many offered by the site.

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The first main activity to kick off the week was grass-sledging on Broadstone Warren's very own purpose-build course. Superb fun - especially when some of the scouts challenged ASL Colin to a race - and lost!

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Obviously, no Troop B summer camp would be complete without an awesome aerial runway - and in true style, ours was definitely higher than that of our neighbours. The picture shows just how much fun the Scouts found it!

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Next up was the inter-patrol volleyball competition, run throughout the week. Our troop also put forward two teams to the Broadstone Warren Pushball challenge - both teams did excellently, winning all but one of their games.

That night, the whole Troop (including leaders) spent the night in bivouacs (man-made shelters) made earlier in the day - 'absolutely wicked', to quote our newest recruit.

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One of the on-site facilities we decided to make use of just after a night of rain (much to the Scout's delight) was Potholing. This involved navigating a man-made potholing complex consisting of a system of underground tunnels. Very good fun .... and very muddy!

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As part of the effort to theme the camp towards Australia, Friday was designated Christmas Day - because, of course, Australians celebrate Christmas in the summer! The day started during breakfast with a rousing chorus of "Do they know it's Christmas" and other festive hits, and then everyone collected the stockings they had put out the previous night. Following the main activity (see below), we even had turkey for dinner. Turkey curry, that is!

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For many of the Scouts, the main highlight of the week was Friday's visit to the Leisure Pursuits off-road driving centre about a mile down the road from the campsite. A fantastic afternoon was had by all - everyone in the troop raced time-trials on the 200cc junior rallykarts and took the challenge of completing the quad-bike course in record time. The younger members of the troop then spun themselves silly on the "Dizzymobile", whilst those lucky enough to be in the older section got a go at driving a proper 4x4 vehicle around an off-road course consisting of steep hills, sharp turns and plenty of mud!

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Keeping the adrenaline pumping, our final full day of the week was spend at Deer's Leap country park, a specially-adapted mountain biking centre.

Challenging turns, high-speed routes and death-defying downhill drops were the order of the day as Troop B enjoyed five hours of beautiful weather at the centre. Mid-way through we had a barbecue lunch, and then it was back to the bikes for a final afternoon cross-country burn!

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The week was rounded off by our version of a "Laserquest"/"Quasar" - Wet Quest 99. This consisted of everyone being equipped with a huge "Super-Soaker" filled with either red, blue or green liquid. Everyone started with a white T-shirt - and the whitest T-shirt at the end won!

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Unfortunately, we simply do not have room here to show everything we did on the camp, so here's a quick resumé of what you might have missed...

All the Scouts can say now is 'what are we doing in Summer 2000'? There has been talk of the Black Mountains, but that's strictly unofficial ;-) Still, there's no doubt that Summer Camp 1999 was definitely one of the best yet.

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