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WINTER CAMP 2004 The Fear Factor January 2004 Underwater, underground and oversubscribed Our first camp of 2004 generated a huge amount of sign-ups. Unfortunately we could not take them all due to party sizes, so a lucky band of 13 joined Ed and James for some quite interesting adventures on a remarkable January weekend. Pool house hotel After a longish journey down via motorways and country lanes, we arrived at our county sub-aqua instructor's dive centre. It's a great place and Phil was generous enough to let us stay in his pool house. We had planned to camp, but as it was quite late, Phil thought we might appreciate the roof! Scouts sleeping all over the place - on benches, the floor, even in the sauna! Scuba Scouts The scouts enjoyed a three hour sub-aqua session. We spent some time learning how to enter the water, use fins, a snorkel and mask. Then practised some skills for an hour - having a great time and trying to back flip into the pool (with varying levels of success). Then it was time to don the oxygen tanks and in pairs be taken to the deep end during an introductory scuba diving experience. Grass sledging We headed for Broadstone Warren's very own grass sledging run. Jump on a kind of tea tray thing and fly down the hillside - trying to stop at the bottom. Just don't take the sledge Adam S did - which was so rubbish it stops half-way down a steep hill! Tunnels complex We spent an hour exploring the man-made tunnel complex at the site. It's good fun and the perfect way to introduce caving to scouts - which is useful 'cos that's what we were doing later. Air rifle shooting We have our own qualified shooting instructors, which is useful as it means we can go air rifle shooting whenever we want. Which is exactly what we did. Best marksmen were Alex H and Rupert H, so it's obviously in the blood - though everybody achieved creditable scores. Hitting the Hut Because we wanted to enjoy Saturday night, we headed to Crawley's incredibly busy Pizza Hut, where they laid on a massive table and served us all the pizza and ice cream we could eat. Most felt a bit ill after ice-cream factorying it up a bit too much. Mine exploration Peter from the Surrey Scout Caving Club joined us to take us for a tour of Merstham Mines - a local disused firestone mine. It's got loads of chambers, passageways, tunnels and narrow squeezes to check out, so we got a really good insight to the world underground. Strangely the most popular bit was watching leader ames just about squeeze through 'The Letterbox'. Sleep in a cave After our caving experience we got ready for bed and spent the night in the mine system itself! Nothing like a bit of total darkness to set you off for a good night's sleep - even if we did get a bit of clay on our sleeping bags! Abseiling Our final activity of the weekend was some abseiling at Blacklands Farm. Practising our commando jumps and freefall was the perfect way to end the week, before arriving home in plenty of time to scrape mud off the groundsheets! A splendid weekend of activities, that should have got people over any phobias they might have had. Aquaphobic, claustrophobic or afraid of heights - not any more. The Fear Factor? We're gonna have to try harder.