Camp 2

Camp 2: Bexon Lane Sittingbourne

Day 1:

On arrival I was wondering if this camp is going to be as good as the first one. We signed in and got our Kent Contingent T-shirts and Kent County Neckers / scarves. When I got to the designated Blue area I was amazed at the little space we had to put up our tents in. There was an area marked out by tape. Again I shared a tent with Laura which I was glad because I had no idea where to put my tent. Oops. The objective of today was to get all the tents up and set up camp. So once everyone had arrived and put up the tents they were sleeping in we started on the dining shelter and the mess tent. This proved harder than anticipated because all the covers and the poles had gotten mixed up, so we had to sort them out before we could start putting them together. Once we had finished this we had to go break flag and help put the rest of the marquees up. While we were doing that all our cooking things were put in the right tents.

After that we all got our camp chairs out, sat in a circle and just talked, until we had to go to the big marquee for a presentation, and film if we wanted to watch it… ‘How to lose a guy in 10 days’ I didn’t watch it because I’d seen it before. I went back with some others and had some hot drinks and talked the night away. We went to bed when the film watchers came back.

Day 2:

Woke up and waited for breakfast (not hot dogs this time). After breakfast we got into groups for this camp. Luckily this time I was in a group with another girl! Stacy, she’s really cool. Again we had to go through different circuits but there were less of them this time!

After lunch we went for a hike trying to find clips to mark off on our sheet and answer the questions that took us a good couple of hours and back home to start dinner. The other groups had a different timetable to us. There were three main activities for this camp, visiting the Kent County Show to promote the Jamboree, Hiking and the Circuit. Pasta bolognaise for dinner yum. After cleaning up we had a little time to think and practise a skit for the campfire. We did the Important Papers Sketch. It goes like this: you’re in the army and your officer comes over so you all line up and he asks each of you a question ‘Do you have the important papers?’ you say ‘No Sir’ ‘Bang’ you get shot (you fall to the floor like you really have been shot) this keeps happening until they ask the last person and they say ‘Yes Sir here they are’ and from a bag he pulls out a roll of toilet paper, officer then says ‘Thank you’ and walks off. After lots of laughs, songs and skits we made our way down to the big marquee for a disco which went on for a couple of hours, then we sat in our marquee and talked.

There was one problem though; we couldn’t find the matches to light the heater to make drinks. We found a gas lighter and lit the Tilly lamp but then we couldn’t get the gas lighter to light again. Every time we tried to light the candle from the Tilly lamp all it did was melt the wax. I thought why not stick it in the top? So I did and it lit. We lit the gas stove so we didn’t have that palaver again. We kept trying to light the water heater but it wasn’t working, then we realised it would be helpful it we turned the gas on. D’oh! After some nice and refreshing hot chocolate we all hit the hay ready for an early morning up to the County Show.

Day 3:

Help! The morning hurts after dancing half the night away! I think I buttered about four whole loaves of bread this morning for lunch. I’m surprised I didn’t get repetitive strain disorder! After a rushed breakfast and the hunt for T-shirts we were on our way to the show. Singing all the way, because we were on the ‘happy’ bus, so we were told. Most of the songs were from Disney films like ‘The Lion King, The Jungle Book and The Little Mermaid’ but we did slip in some classics like ‘Don’t stop me now by Queen’ (it rocks!). We (Blue B my little group) had half an hour look around then we were put to work for half an hour enlightening people about the Jamboree, just like I’m trying to do here. Then we had and hour and a half looking round collecting all the freebees we could get our hands on. Back again for another half an hour shift, then another hour to look around before back to camp. When we got back we had to pack our things away before meeting our parents down at the big marquee for another presentation. Afterwards it was back up the top to get everything down and then go home.

If this was great I wonder what the Jamboree is going to be like?

The First Camp Of The Kent Contingent

Camp 1: Hope Hill Meopham

Day one:

This was the first camp the Kent Contingent had been on. There are 108 scouts and 12 leaders. That’s quite a few tents! We signed in at the reception and were assigned a group. Red Yellow or Blue. I was put into Blue. We took our kit and our tents to the site and started to set up, after kicking our parents out! We had to share tents, can you imagine 108 kids in their own tents? There would be no space left! I shared with a nice girl called Laura.

After all the tents were set up we sat down for a spot of lunch or went to the other groups to mingle. After lunch we had to get into smaller groups; these would be the groups we stay in just for this camp. Just my luck… I got put in a group full of boys, eight boys and one girl isn’t fair! But it was fun.

Once we were in our little groups we had to go round a circuit of activities which included, leaky pipe, bomb deactivation, bridge building and general camp rules / code of conduct. In the middle of the circuit the weather changed from nice to tipping it down with rain. How helpful when you’re trying to orienteer! (Looking for little numbers around the site, you have a map but it's still hard!)

After all the bases had been completed by every group we were allowed dinner, but it is almost impossible to feed over 100 people at once with little resources. So we had to take turns. Guess what, Blue had to go last for dinner. Once we had eaten our dinner the fun began.

The Hullabaloo Road Show had been setting up while we were eating. The rumours where flying around now, that we would have to do our own Kent Contingent X Factor! After waiting with the anticipation rising, the rumours where confirmed. I dreaded to think what song we would have to sing. To my horror it turned out to be Will Young ‘Switch it on.’ In my group it turned out I was the only one that could sing. The rest of them had to work out a dance routine. Lord help us. It was scary. We had to wait for our song to be called out. We were being filmed as well which is always reassuring… NOT. You mess up then everyone knows about it! It was a laugh.

Once the groups had done their songs it was the leaders turn… they sung… wait for it… BARBIE GIRL! It was hilarious!!!! We were rolled up. After that we had a mini disco in the hall then one outside! It was great fun! We were shattered by the next day.

Day two:

Hot dogs for breakfast… lovely. We were all shattered from last nights antics but we still had to do adverts about an object we’d been given. We had a rain stick. Now we, The Rambo Sheep, as that was our little group name, had a fixation with human pyramids. So we just had to have one in our advert. Luckily I got out of it. I had to hold up my design for our logo, and say things like ‘terms and conditions apply, see in store for details.’ It was funny but again we got filmed and I think I mucked up what I said but never mind.

Time to pack! Once we had packed away we moved all our kit and tents to the building and played tug-o-war. After that we had Scout Own. This is a time for reflection and prayer. We were dismissed with information about the next camp. Back home we go. That was FUN! When can we do it again? July 14th, 15th and 16th that’s when!