Surrey
February 2005

Every now and then we run a survival weekend for the hardest bunch in the troop. Only we do it our way - we make it a tough, hard-working weekend that the scouts find very challenging. Fortunately it seems that this fitted the bill for the scouts who participated, and it's gone down as one of the best camps for a while. Which is saying something.

Theme
The camp had a theme for the duration, with scouts getting information, equipment and supplies at various points of the weekend. To be fair, they weren't given a lot of anything and had to work out everything for themselves as they went along.

Get Fired
First thing's first. Any survival weekend needs a big fire. I don't think the warden knew that we planned to keep the fire going the whole weekend, as we demolished the wood pile along with a set of doors. Kept us warm though.

Garner's Field
This superb site in Farnham was ours for the weekend. Surrounded by woodland, very tranquil and with a stream down one side, it was an excellent setting. The warden was particularly helpful. Stay there, if you can find it.

Hammocks
One of the scouts first tasks was to find something to sleep in. Fortunately some hammocks had been air-dropped in during the evening - not that the scouts were told that they were hammocks. They eventually worked it out and combined well to ensure everybody had a comfortable bed for the night. In fact, this proved such a success that hammocks may now well be regarded as the height of luxury on Troop B trips.

Past the Guards
Easily the best received wide game we've ever devised, the scouts had to infiltrate a building to get their supplies. We had meant this to be about an hour long, but ended up playing it for 6 hours, eventually stopping to much scout protest at 3am! Want the details? You'll have to book onto our next camp to find out.

Fetch the food
The days were sunny and the scouts were up early. Very early. They navigated through the local woodland to find their food parcel that had been dropped nearby. It contained most of what they needed for that morning's meal, and they got to grips with cooking it pretty swiftly.

Shelter
The hammocks went down on Saturday morning, so the scouts had to construct their own shelters to stay in for the remaining night. Using, wood, poles, sisal, cardboard and anything else they could forage, they created 5 penthouse shelters - one for each patrol.

No utensils
We didn't provide the scouts with any utensils, which confused them. It was almost as though cooking would be impossible. Still, they learned a few lessons and managed to cater sans-fish slices, in fact eating rather well.

Polar bear swim
When it's going to snow that day, there's nothing better than running into a freezing cold stream to collect some food floating down it. Amusing and a good way to refresh yourself! Actually easier without flip flops than with.

President
The game, which is much better than Splat, returned.

Nice birds
James led the scouts in a pheasant and pigeon plucking and gutting exercise. Then we cooked them on the fire to take home for tea. Tip - plucking birds in the wind is a distinctly messy experience.

Congratulations to all the scouts who took part - it wasn't easy, but you did exceptionally well.