Kyle Valley’s Trip to Howstean: Group Camp Adventure
The leaders have been overwhelmed by how fabulous (in so many ways!) all the young people have been during our group trip to How Stean Gorge near Pateley Bridge. This was our third group camp and I am absolutely sure that following this very successful camp that there will be many more in the future. The problem I have now is coming up with something even more exciting than this one for next years adventure! Watch this space. I am on it!
This weekend we have had Beavers on their first trip away from home at only 7 and 8 years old that got completely stuck in to the activities available to them and set to work on the minibus over there building new friendships. Well done to Jasper, Sienna and Isobella, our three Beavers raring to go! You were amazing and a huge warm welcome to 1st Kyle Valley Scouts.
The Leaders weekend started on Friday morning, when we got to work on moving all the kit we needed onto site and getting the mess tent and kitchen built ready for all the young people arriving on Saturday.
So, very, very early on Saturday morning the first bus transfer left 1st KV HQ ahead of time (thanks for arriving on time, I know it was a big ask on a Saturday morning) We had a great drive over to How Stean Gorge with lots of excited young people on board looking forward to the weekend ahead. I dropped the first group off with our Leaders all ready on site. They of course, were put straight to work building the tents for everyone whilst I returned to HQ with Akela to collect the rest of the Cubs, Beavers and scouts.
Once we were all on site and had eaten our packed lunches we invested out newest Cubs and then heading out for an afternoon hike. We split into two groups with the younger party tacking a 6 mile walk and the older party with a few hardy cubs heading out on a 10 mile walk.
Everyone completed their respective hike. the younger cohort saw many spring lambs and meadows of vibrant wild flowers alongside the sparkling gorge.
The older cohort visited the dam at Scar house reservoir before heading back toward camp. I think everyone was suitably worn out following their adventures. We settled down to dinner in the mess tent followed by hot chocolate and s’mores.
On Sunday the adventurous activities got under way. Apart from the Beavers everyone attending had the opportunity to try Via Ferrata (traversing the gorge horizontally on metal ropes) and gorge walking which involved abseiling off a bridge into the gorge and then scrambling up the stream on a limestone bedrock.
There were many squeals of excitement heard! Whilst all this was underway the beavers did a spot of caving where they saw cave spiders, stalactites and ancient fossils along with some gemstones and fools gold.
Our last night on camp was filled with guitar playing, (thank you to Sam, Henry and Hunter) a KV mess tent disco and singalong, some stick whittling and card games around a much needed camp fire. It was a little chilly last night!
All these camps do take a lot of planning and organising, but it is all so worthwhile when, as leaders, we watch all the young people throwing themselves into the activities, building new friendships and embracing all that is scouting.
This camp was no exception. Each and every young person on this camp played a part in helping, supporting and teaching others, whether they were older or younger, new to scouting or a bit of a veteran.
So thank you to all of you. You have made my weekend.
Leaders – as always you have been outstanding and unwavering in your commitment. A massive thank you to Akela Becky for being my right hand in putting together this camp and to Kevin, Jo, Tom, Nigel and Lee for all the supervising, cooking, tent building and all the many other tasks, (too many to mention!) that you were involved with. Thank you!
Nicola Morris
Team Leader, 1st Kyle Valley Scouts